(Jabu
Siphika & Sifiso Khumalo)
In a remarkable feat of perseverance and
beauty, Durban’s inimitable Flatfoot Dance Company celebrates its 15th
anniversary in 2018 as one of South Africa leading contemporary dance
companies. With an international touring reputation for excellence and a host
of national awards under its belt, Flatfoot’s arrival at this momentous 15th
mark is a testament to a dedicated team of dancers and administrators.
Founder and Artistic Director, Lliane Loots
says; “it feels amazing to suddenly wake up and look at the calendar and see
that we have been doing this for 15 years. It has been the best 15 years of my
life where I have interacted with literally thousands of dancer in our
community dance development programmes in KZN, and in which I have had the
privilege of working with the professional dancers in the company who have journey
alongside me to give Flatfoot the reputation that is has”.
Celebrating this significant moment,
Flatfoot is offering Durban audiences a full-length season from March 21 to 25 at
the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre) of new dance theatre work that is sure to
solidify its longevity for another 15 years. With a reputation of edgy,
controversial, beautiful and intelligent dance, Flatfoot has titled its 15th
anniversary season things left unsaid.
Diving heart-first into the zeitgeist of contemporary South African identity,
this remarkable season offers two new dance works by Sifiso Khumalo and Lliane
Loots.
Khumalo has worked with Flatfoot for 12 of
the 15 years of its existence and steps up, for its 15th anniversary season, to
take on a magnificent choreographic role in his work Ndlelanhle (meaning ‘go well on your journey’). Over the past six
years Khumalo’s reputation as an innovative choreographer has been growing with
him recently having been awarded a prestigious ‘JOMBA! On the Edge’
choreographic grant for 2017. His insightful and heartfelt attention to
traditional Zulu cultural identity and how contemporary modern life has shifted
how we think about ourselves, is once again given air in this new work of his.
Talking about the impulse for creating Ndlelanhle, Khumalo says; “growing up in
Zulu culture when you leave home for a certain journey the elders would give
you a special prayer or blessing. I worry that these small things have been
forgotten. These words and blessing matter so much; they are a reminder that we,
as black urban Zulu men and women, still have ancestors guiding us. In Ndlelanhle I wanted to go back to these
small blessings spoken to us as young adults leaving home and to look at how
these words might affect who we become”.
Khumalo’s Ndlelanhle also launches the professional career of Flatfoot’s
newest crop of male dancers. Siseko Duba, Ndumiso Dube, Qhawe Ndimande, Sbonga
Ndlovu and Mthoko Mkhwanazi have all completed a five-year professional
development training programme run by Flatfoot (and funded by the National Arts
Council of South Africa) and step onto the stage with grace, skill and
dedication that will simply take your breath away. Flatfoot Dance Company felt
that this 15th anniversary was indeed the right moment to reveal and celebrate
the incredible journey of these Newlands and KwaMashu based dancers.
The second half of the evening presents Lliane
Loots’s newest offering things left
unsaid and is part of her on-going artistic dance journey into seeking
truth and honesty in her dance making. In a collaborative process, Loots has
worked with Jabu Siphika, Zinhle Nzama, Sifiso Khumalo and the five new dancers
to painfully interrogate the ‘things we leave unsaid’ – be these words and
feelings of love or moments of social injustice and terror. Loots’ reputation
for politically edge work that wraps an iron fist in a velvet glove, is once
again sedimented in this dance theatre work that will make you weep for the
sheer delicate beauty of it, and then will have you spinning for what it
reveals.
Loots says, “like many of my recent works, things left unsaid returns to what
fascinates me right now and this is quite basically an earnest plea for
intimacy in spite of the violence of our world. I journey with the dancers into
some pretty horrifying personal and political territory and am reminded that we
are all still standing – and still dancing. In the end this is a triumph of the
heart; the bigness of the South African heart”.
Loots has worked alongside long time collaborators,
Wesley Maherry (lighting), Karen Logan for video installations, and spoken word
poet Iain ‘ewok’ Robinson who has added insightful text to things left unsaid.
Catch Flatfoot Dance Company’s 15th
anniversary season things left unsaid
at the Sneddon Theatre from March 21 to 25, 2018. Tickets R85 (R65 students,
scholars, pensioners and block booking of 10 or more) available through
Computicket.
Performances from March 21 to 24 at 19h30,
on March 23 at 11h00 for schools with a final public performance on March 25 at
14h30.
Opening night (March 21 at 19h30: Heritage
Day) is the special 15th anniversary celebration launch of things left unsaid and tickets will be sold for R100 as part of a
fundraising drive for the company. The evening will include a glass of
sparkling wine after the show.
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