(Thobile Maphanga, Sifiso
Khumalo & Jabu Siphika. Pic by Val
Adamson of a similar KZNSA season in 2017)
Durban’s Flatfoot Dance Company celebrates its 17th
anniversary this year as one of South Africa’s leading contemporary dance
companies with a new dance theatre work, Busy
Seeing Red at the KZNSA Gallery on February 21.
With an international touring reputation for excellence and
a host of national awards under its belt, Flatfoot’s arrival at this momentous
17th mark is a testament to a dedicated team of dancers and administrators
In keeping with its reputation of creating and performing
edgy, controversial, beautiful and intelligent dance, Flatfoot partners with the
KZNSA Gallery to offer a site-responsive dance work that asks the audience to
engage all the different space of the gallery. In a fluid display of exquisite technical
training, Flatfoot’s seven resident dancers dive heart first into the inner
politics of ‘seeing red’. Asking questions that are on all of our lips as South
Africans, Busy Seeing Red negotiates
the personal politics of anger. From exploring remembrances of colonial race
and current gender violence, this dance theatre work offers a surprisingly
gentle embodied encounter with dance that will leave audiences breathless.
Embracing a collaborative creative process of making this
performance, the three senior Flatfoot dancers (Sifiso Khumalo, Jabu Siphika
and Zinhle Nzama) have jointly collaborated in the choreography with Artistic
Director of Flatfoot, Lliane Loots.
“As a dance maker I am increasingly interested in the power
of multiple voices to tell stories and what better way than to encourage the
profound dance voices of the senior Flatfoot dancers to bring their vision to
this work. It is and has been a remarkable journey making this collaborative
dance work and seeing what we share and where we differ as South Africans – I
remain deeply humbled by the power of our dance/art to allow dialogue –
especially at a time in history when there is so much rage and anger”.
Also featured in Busy
Seeing Red is Flatfoot junior company dancer, Mthoko Mkhwanazi stepping
into his first professional choreographic role in the company. “Seeing this
young Flatfoot dancer in the role of choreographer in this work is a testament
to not only his own talent and drive, but to the nurturing role that Flatfoot
had played in offering this space to our up and coming practitioners”, says
Loots.
Dancing in Busy Seeing
Red are Sifiso Khumalo, Jabu Siphika, Zinhle Nzama, Sbonga Ndlovu, Ndumiso
Dube, Siseko Duba, and Mthoko Mkhwanazi. Lighting and sound design by Wesley
Maherry and Clare Craighead.
Busy Seeing Red will
be performed at the KZNSA Gallery on Friday February 21 at 18h30. Tickets R60
and seating is limited. Tickets can be pre-booked via flatfootdancecompany@gmail.com
or on a first-come first-served at the KZNSA Gallery on the night. Door sales
and Gallery open from 17h30. The KZNSA restaurant and coffee bar will be open
for pre/post show meal and drinks.
This dance work will travel onto the Hexagon Theatre in Pietermaritzburg in early May 2020.
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