FLATFOOT ACCESS FESTIVAL 2024

 

(Choreography by Jarryd Watson. Dancers Kyle Bowles & Cole Walljee 2024)

 FLATFOOT DANCE COMPANY in partnership with Stable Theatre presents its third annual edition of the FLATFOOT ACCESS FESTIVAL offering a week-long engagement of workshops, panel discussions, and performances from November 25 to 30 during South Africa’s National Disability Rights Awareness Month (November 3 - December 3).

The festival celebrates FLATFOOT’s 21-year history of encountering disability through dance education and development work, and more recently in their professional development work.

FLATFOOT’s Artistic Director Lliane Loots says: “The journey toward access and professional training for dancers living with both intellectual and physical disabilities lies at the heart of FLATFOOT, and this small ever-growing festival. It is a glorious moment of celebrating not just the incredible dancers, dance makers, and choreographers participating, but of the truly transformative power of dance to bind society together and empower a sense of community”.

(Above: Flatfoot Downie Dance Company. Choreography Lliane Loots)

New works from the 8 year-old integrated dance programme working with dancers with Down Syndrome who fondly call themselves the “FLATFOOT Downie Dance Company", will be performed. They perform alongside FLATFOOT in a new work called time spent … created by Lliane Loots in collaboration with all the dancers and is a dance journey into the intricacies of friendships and relationships, and the ever-changing nature of social circles.

In 2023, FLATFOOT following the success of the Downie Company, the “FLATFOOT ACCESS PANTHERS” was born to work with and train dancers with intellectual disabilities. This is their second public performance – and together with the FLATFOOT company, they will perform a work called Songs Of The Soul.

The FESTIVAL hosts three special guests: dancers from WACO’s DANCE MOVEMENT under the choreographic guidance of Jarryd Watson. DANCE MOVEMENT is a dance project that gives access to children and youth, artists, dancers, choreographers, and people living with disabilities to dance training and skills development based in the South Durban area of Wentworth. They perform two incredible works; coloured boy and Serendipity with choreography by Jarryd Watson.

The second guest is Johannesburg-based Gladys Agulhas, a multi-award winning South African dance-maker with a special focus on inclusivity in the contemporary dance sector. “Gladys is one of the pioneers of integrated dance in South Africa and we are delighted to be hosting her”, says Loots.

For this festival, Agulhas will workshop a collaboration called the dance in me made with four Durban dancers (two from FLATFOOT and two from DANCE MOVEMENT) which will premiere on November 29 and 30. She says that this work “is a journey of moving bodies gently excavating treasures of dance from within the archives of their own dancer's bodies, intertwining through conversations of dance, about dance, for dance”.

Agulhas will also offer a free open workshop on Thursday November 28 (from 14h00 to 16h00) called the dancer in me … what does it say?. In this inclusive workshop participants will be led on a journey that engages some important principles around self-care, the sense of touch, resistance and receptivity within both personal space and general spaces. Booking essential as places are limited – to book contact Lootsl@ukzn.ac.za

The FLATFOOT ACCESS FESTIVAL offers its first digital engagement in a collaboration with Ethiopian dancer Amanuel Solomon based in Addis Ababa. Understanding the costs (both financial and environmental) of artistic exchange across the African content, this festival has set out to connect and share practice via digital spaces.

Amanuel is a professional dancer and choreographer and founder of Katim Disability Dance, the first company in Ethiopia led by a disabled dancer. Katim is a mixed ability company who have often performed at the National Theatre in Ethiopia. They also run an integrated dance festival, and work on dance therapy projects in eight disabled schools, engaging intellectual disability, deaf, blind, and mobility-limited students.

In this free open online workshop, Amanuel and company will introduce the ground-breaking dance work he does in Ethiopia focusing on how dance links with monologues as a way of creating a sense of identity and belonging. There are two ways to participate: online or at the Stable Theatre with other Durban dancers in person. The workshop will be held on Wednesday November 27 between 14h00 to 15h30 (SAST). Contact Lootsl@ukzn.ac.za to get the ZOOM address, or to book a place to participate at Stable Theatre

The Festival has been made possible through the partnership with the eThekwini Municipality’s Stable Theatre, with support funding from PESP 5, the National Arts Council and the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture. The Festival acknowledges the URKI funded African Dance Disability Network (ADDN) and their support and encouragement of disability and access dance work in South Africa and on the African continent.

Performances and workshops take place at The Stable Theatre 115 Johannes Nkosi (formerly Alice Street) Durban and the two showcase performances take place on Friday and Saturday 29 and (repeat) November 30 at 18h30.

Tickets are R80. The Stable Theatre is wheelchair friendly and there is safe parking on site.

Bookings are through Computicket: https://computicket-boxoffice.com/e/flatfoot-access-festival-29-30-nov-2024-WudwgG