(Above: Jabu Siphika & Mthoko Mkhwanazi. Photo by Val Adamson)
FLATFOOT Dance Company in association with the Durban Botanic
Gardens Trust, presents The Cleansing
with Iain ewok Robinson at the Botanic Gardens from April 20 to 24 at 18h00
each evening.
In The Cleansing, FLATFOOT Dance Company journeys into the heartland of Earth issues using this performance moment to negotiate the true meaning of ecology – the connectedness of human existence to all existence. What better site than Durban’s Botanic Gardens to open up this exploration of self to our natural world? In this moving dance work, the Botanic Gardens – itself bearing the scars of a colonial heritage - are transformed to a site of continued natural beauty and potential transformations.
“The Cleansing is a ritual for us humans, and for the Earth – a cultural enactment of the sacred bond between the dancers and the ground they move on as they ‘cleanse’ themselves ready for a deeper connection to one another and to the Earth,” says Artistic Director, Dr Lliane Loots.
Believing that environment justice is social justice, FLATFOOT joins with long-time collaborator and wordsmith extraordinaire, poet Iain ewok Robinson. His poetic words flow with the dancers in an evocation that shouts out “surely the Earth can be saved for me”, “surely the earth can be saved for you”.
“Very loosely based on the impulses of Stravinsky’s 1913 music Rite of Spring, this site-responsive dance work asks of all of us what we will sacrifice for Spring to finally come,” continues Loots. “In this instance, and after a two-year lock down, ‘spring’ is (perhaps) an imagined hope for different and intimate relationships with each other and our world around us.”
This is moving and powerful choreo-poetry that aims to subtly carry its audience to places of deep knowing and awareness. Created in the evolving collaborative creative process, this site-responsive dance work is jointly created by Lliane Loots, Sifiso Khumalo, Jabu Siphika, Mthoko Mkhwanazi, Sbonga Ndlovu, Siseko Duba and Ndumiso Dube.
Join FLATFOOT DANCE COMPANY and Iain ewok Robinson in the lush surroundings of Durban’s iconic Botanic Gardens that allows you to safely watch this unique dance company. Bring your own picnic, glass of wine, and a blanket to sit on. Doors open at 17h30 - come and get settled, enjoy a picnic or a stroll around the gardens, show starts at 18h00. The show is one hour.
Tickets are R100 per person. To book contact flafootdancecompany@gmail.com
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