(Phakama Dance Theatre in performance)
Phakama Dance
Theatre has emerged as the newest dance company on the block, promising great
things to come for lovers of dance in South Africa!
The new company has
emerged as the successor to the Playhouse Dance Residency (PDR), which was
started by The Playhouse Company in 2012. Initially brought together in
response to the scarcity of funding, training and facilities for theatre
practitioners, the aim of the PDR was to assist developing artists from
different dance cultures to eventually form their own company. The dancers have
received weekly training in ballet, contemporary dance, Zulu, tap dance,
kathak, flamenco, training for core strength, business skills such as proposal
writing, company management, budgeting, how to register and manage a company,
and so forth, as well as stage and in technical skills such as sound, lighting
and production/stage management, and in arts administration, including
budgeting, artistic contracts and business administration.
As a result, The
Playhouse Company has assisted the dancers to form their own company, Phakama
(which means ‘rising’ in English) Dance Theatre, and become entrepreneurs.
“The Playhouse
Company is very proud to be able to give Phakama Dance Theatre wings to fly, so
to speak, but also to provide the roots that will provide stability and support
for this young company,” said Playhouse Company CEO and Artistic Director,
Linda Bukhosini.
“There is much for
this fledgling company to accomplish, and we are extremely excited about the
possibilities and projects that are being developed by these young dancers. The
Playhouse Company is affording these talented, extremely well-trained dancers
the opportunity to perform in our annual seasons such as our New Stages season
in May, our South African Women’s Arts Festival (SAWAF) in August, and our
festive season productions. Apart from these professional performance
opportunities, The Playhouse Company is also providing them with venues in
which to teach and rehearse, as well as marketing assistance, technical backing
and various other forms of support,” she continued.
Phakama Dance Theatre,
a multi-cultural, non-profit company based at The Playhouse Company, has been
established by the dancers in line with the hopes and dreams of the late Zinhle
Gumede, a founding member of the company. The three new Directors of Phakama
Dance Theatre are Leagan Peffer (CEO), Sandile Mkhize (Artistic Director), and
Nkanyiso Kunene (Communications Director).
Since Phakama Dance
Theatre’s inception, it has already won the Standard Bank Ovation Award and the
Encore Award at the 2015/6 National Arts Festival in Grahamstown for its piece If the World Was Listening.
With advice and
assistance from The Playhouse Company, Phakama Dance Theatre is currently
running various development programmes which include an after-school dance
programme where professional dancers go into impoverished communities to teach
dance to learners at disadvantaged schools. Their I Care To Dream programme is
a project designed to use dance to assist in the rehabilitation of street
children and their new Just Dance project that teaches dance to physically
disabled children will grow and expand in 2016. The Saturday morning dance
academy takes place at the Playhouse complex and teaches dance for people from
the age of three upwards.
Several other
projects are on the cards for the company, including a dance-related
skills-development programme for young South African women from disadvantaged
communities.
The company
recently performed I AM, a
professional environmental education production for primary schools
choreographed by Sandile Mkhize which toured to schools around KwaZulu-Natal
and at the Playhouse Loft Theatre.
Anyone interested
in attending dance classes at the Playhouse or in having Phakama Dance Theatre
visit their disadvantaged school, is asked to contact e-mail info@kzndanceproductions.com or phone 060 838 1991.
For further
information phone call Leagan on 079 876 5667 or Nkanyiso on 079 191 0301.
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