(Above: Tammy Ballantyne. Pic Suzy Bernstein)
The Sustaining Theatre and Dance (STAND) Foundation has announced that Tammy Ballantyne has been appointed as the Coordinator of STAND Foundation with effect from August 1, 2022.
She will replace Mike van Graan, one of the Foundation’s founding directors, and its initial Coordinator, who will leave for a four-month fellowship in Berlin in early September.
Since 2002, Ballantyne has worked as an independent contractor, researcher, teacher, arts activist and freelance dance writer and editor. From 2019, she has been a Research Associate at The Ar(t)chive, currently based at the Wits School of Arts. The Ar(t)chive is the first and only comprehensive contemporary dance archive of its kind in South Africa and on the continent. It was established in 2012 by Jessica Denyschen and Adrienne Sichel.
With strong family links to Durban, Ballantyne holds an MA (Drama) from Rhodes University (1998) with a specialist focus on dance and choreography. After a few years of teaching in the UK, she landed up in Cape Town where she worked as a publicist at ARTSCAPE. She was the National Coordinator for the country’s leading activist group, the Performing Arts Network of SA (PANSA) for five years (from 2001 – 2006).
Her areas of expertise lie in research, writing, editing and teaching. She is an experienced public speaker, having spent many years in theatre and performance, and has worked with the likes of Adrienne Sichel (veteran theatre and dance journalist), Mike van Graan (writer and arts activist) and Sylvia ‘Magogo’ Glasser (founder of Moving Into Dance), among others, on notable book projects, writing and training programmes and festivals. She has been involved with Moving Into Dance for many years and has written for and mentored young writers for the JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Festival as well as Forgotten Angle Theatre Collaborative’s My Body My Space Public Arts Festival and the Arts and Culture Trust’s inaugural Warrior Wall project in 2021.
She has been involved with the Jomba! Contemporary Dance Festival for many years, delivering workshops on dance writing and mentoring young writers in South Africa as well as reviewing work every year for the Jomba! Khuluma and blog.
“We are delighted to welcome someone of the calibre and experience of Tammy Ballantyne as the new Coordinator of STAND Foundation,” said the chairperson of the Foundation, Gregory Maqoma. “We look forward to her helping to consolidate STAND and to take it in new and exciting directions.”
Maqoma also took the opportunity to thank Mike van Graan for his contribution in helping to establish STAND Foundation and for the impact that it has had on the sector since its establishment in September 2020.
“As we move towards celebrating our second anniversary, on behalf of the Board of STAND Foundation, I would like to thank Mike for his vision and work. We wish him well and hope that he is refreshed and energized by his forthcoming fellowship,” said Maqoma.
Van Graan will remain a member of STAND’s Board.
STAND Foundation also announced that Uvile Ximba has been appointed to coordinate STAND’s social media activities and profile. Ximba is an alumnus of STAND’s 2022 leadership course. Among other things, she is a writer, whose first novel – Dreaming in Colour - has been longlisted for the Sunday Times fiction award along with the works of luminaries such as Zakes Mda, Damon Galgut, Sindiwe Magoma and Mandla Langa.
For more information visit www.standfoundation.org.za / FB: standfoundationsa / Twitter: #standfsa or contact Tammy Ballantyne at tammy@standfoundation.org.za
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