Month: June 2015

Africa in All her Glory at Iziko

/ stelsinkins / Leave a comment

The winners of the Nature’s Best Photography (NBP) Africa competition will be announced at a gala awards ceremony at the Iziko South African Museum (ISAM) in Cape Town on June 23.

The winning entries will then be showcased as part of an exhibition entitled: Nature’s Best Photography Africa, on public display from June 24 until September 16. There will be 70 photographs on show in the exhibition which captures the splendour of Africa with a single shutter of the camera lens. Nature and photographic enthusiasts should not to miss this spectacular showcase.

Organised by NBP Africa, in partnership with Iziko Museums of South Africa, NBP USA, and Nikon South Africa, the competition was launched on April 2 and ran until May 2. Photographers from all over the world were invited to enter the competition by submitting photographs taken on their travels in Africa.

“Showcasing the majesty and splendour of Africa through these (art) works, evokes a sense of enthralment, respect and concern – not only for our continent, but for our planet,” said Hamish Robertson, Director of Natural History, Iziko Museums of South Africa. “The preservation of our natural resources is not an activity we can or should leave for future generations. Museums have an important role in educating, creating awareness, and providing solutions-based platforms of public engagement. It is acutely apt, on the eve of its 190th year of existence, to host this phenomenal photographic exhibition at the oldest Natural History Museum in Southern Africa.”

The 12 winning categories are: African Landscapes, African Culture, Wild Cats of Africa, Birds of Africa, Mammals of Africa, Reptiles of Africa, Africa Underwater, Africa Up Close, Africa Wildlife Story, Youth Award Under 13 Years, Youth Award 13 – 18 years, and Video.

“The judging panel was very impressed by the quality of many of the entries and it was not easy to select the winners to represent the 12 categories,” said Lou Coetzer, the head adjudicator.

Adult category winners will be awarded prizes in the form of specialist photographic safaris to the combined value of R1 million. The awards, sponsored by Coetzer Nature Photography Safaris and the &Beyond Group, will take the winners to the Masai Mara in Kenya or to the Serengeti in Tanzania for an unforgettable experience in Africa’s finest wildlife environs. Winners in the youth categories will receive world-class accommodation at the luxurious Thulani Lodge in Hoedspruit, sponsored by A Spring of Hope and Coetzer Nature Photography.

Iziko Museums of South Africa has partnered with Natures Best Photography Africa and will host the annual competition, gala awards and exhibition. The winning photographs from NBP Africa will be showcased as part of the African category in the Natures Best Photography USA exhibition, hosted annually at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

“Our core objectives are to encourage photographic excellence amongst existing photographers, to attract new audiences to photography, to foster an appreciation for and conservation of our natural resources and to promote the continent of Africa to a massive global audience,” says Craig Mark, director of NBPAfrica.

Lou Coetzer will be conducting a walkabout on June 24 at 10 am and will share his insight on the judging criteria, and the reasons for the selection of these particular images. The walkabout is free-of-charge and open to the public.

To find out more about Natures Best Photography Africa, or to order the catalogue visit the website http://www.naturesbestphotographyafrica.com or email info@naturesbestphotographyafrica.com

Flemish productions to be staged in Africa

/ stelsinkins / Leave a comment

The Dog Days are Over and Another Great Year For Fishing are to be staged at the National Arts Festival.

Two celebrated Flemish productions will have their African premiere at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown. This showcase of Flemish culture and talent is brought to South African audiences thanks to the Government of Flanders and the Flemish-Dutch House deBuren.

“We are proud to bring two incredibly talented artists to South Africa’s premier celebration of creative and artistic talent,” says Dr Geraldine Reymenants, General Representative of the Government of Flanders in South Africa.

Acclaimed choreographer Jan Martens is bringing his production The Dog Days are Over to the festival and producer Tom Struyf will be staging Another Great Year for Fishing.

Jan Martens, born in Belgium in 1984, studied at the Fontys dance academy in Tilburg (Netherlands) and graduated at the Artesis Conservatory for Dance in Antwerp (Belgium) in 2006. In 2009 he began developing his own choreographic works and quickly received critical and popular acclaim. The high energy dance productions grew in popularity and were initially performed mainly in the Netherlands and Belgium before spreading quickly around Europe.

He debuted formally as a choreographer in 2010 with the highly praised i can ride a horse whilst juggling so marry me, a work focusing on a group of women living in a world dominated by social networks.

In 2011 he created two ‘love duets’, both investigating the clichéd portrayal of a male-female relationship: a small guide on how to treat your lifetime companion and sweat baby sweat. The first one was selected for Aerowaves, a European network supporting young choreographers. The work has been performed more than 80 times

The Dog Days Are Over, to be performed at the National Arts Festival on 9 and 10 July, centres on the idea that when a person is asked to jump, they lose focus on the façade they project and the real person behind the mask is exposed.

In the performance Martens forces his audience to reflect on contemporary dance, culture policy, the difference between art and entertainment, as well as why they would want to witness an intensity that is not revealed in daily life.

“The show attempts to put its audience in a trance, yet simultaneously create the aesthetic distance necessary to question why they are in the theatre right at that moment,” says Martens.

All Martens’ works explore the possibility of a perfect balance and symbiosis between story-telling and conceptualism. He does not try to create a new movement language, but instead moulds and recycles existing idioms and places them in a different setting, so a new idea emerges. He maintains that, in his work, the beauty of the incomplete human being is revealed over complex choreography or physical virtuosity.

Tom Struyf was born in 1983, and graduated in 2007 as an actor at the Maastricht Theatre Academy (Netherlands).

His work has won him acclaim and seen him perform at many of the great theatres in Belgium and the Netherlands. His performances The Tatiana Aarons Experience and Act to forget were selected by the jury of the Flemish-Dutch Theatre Festival for Circuit X.

Another Great Year for Fishing, staged at the National Arts Festival on 11 and 12 July, is a performance about the power of stories and images, mass communication and indoctrination. “It’s a play about the question of how to lead a normal life in an ever-changing society and thus constantly requiring a great deal of adoption power. But the show must go on,” says Struyf.

During the show Struyf and dancer Nelle Hens are looking for the fire exit. With the help of a wide range of spin doctors, psychiatrists, journalists, and philosophers they try to unravel what happens in the backrooms of the rat race.

Both Jan Martens and Tom Struyf have recently been acknowledged for their major contribution to the arts. On 2 July, Martens will be awarded the 2015 Charlotte Köhler Prize – a prize that aims to encourage and develop young talent – by the Netherlands’ Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds. In May, Stuyf’s Another Great Year for Fishing was also selected for the Berlin 2015 Theatertreffen Stückemarkt – a festival of discovery for young European theatre makers who develop a new theatrical language.

“We are delighted to bring something new to festival goers, and we invite them to explore all forms of art while they are at the festival, such as this mini-Flemish season when it debuts in Africa,” says Ismail Mahomed, Artistic Director of the National Arts Festival. “We are really very proud to bring this standard of performing arts to South Africa.”

Flanders is the Dutch-speaking autonomous region in the north of Belgium, with Brussels as it is capital. The General Representation of the Government of Flanders in Southern Africa is committed to showcasing the diversity and innovative creativity of Flemish arts and culture.

View video clips of the productions here: www.tomstruyf.be and www.janmartens.com

Fantastic family theatre at National Arts Festival

/ stelsinkins / Leave a comment

The ASSITEJ Family Fare Platform returns to the National Arts Festival for a 4th consecutive year to promote rich and diverse theatre for young audiences and their families.

Since its inception, ASSITEJ Family Fare has provided a unique platform dedicated entirely to the needs of families experiencing the festival. The venues provide theatre which caters to the whole family, while Oatlands Prep, where the ASSITEJ Family Fare Platform has its base, specifically provides interactive, creative and stimulating Family Fare activities run by artists and ASSITEJ staff. ASSITEJ has built relationships within the Grahamstown family community, with local families returning each year. Denese Palm, a local mom and entrepreneur, has for the last three years provided wholesome and nutritious catering for audiences visiting the Oatlands venue.

The Family Fare Platform has successfully gained recognition within the framework of the National Arts Festival. Of the handful of prestigious Silver Ovation Awards issued at National Arts Festival since 2012, the ASSITEJ Family Fare programme has already been awarded two: the first for Jori Snell’s critically acclaimed “Kitchen Fables in a Cookie Jar” in 2012 and the second to international ASSITEJ theatre company, Batida from Denmark, whose production “A Man Called Rolex” heralded in a new category of award for Family Fare in 2014. Many other productions on the platform have been awarded Ovation awards in recognition of their quality.

The ASSITEJ Family Fare Platform has now extended across the festival, with performances at Oatlands Prep, Memory Hall, Glennie and Centenary Halls. 2015 presents a rich diversity of 14 productions – entertaining, thought provoking and engaging – giving families the opportunity of “growing up and growing together through theatre”.

On the Main Programme, two international collaborations are featured – “Red Earth Revisited” and “True Confusion”:

  • ‘Red Earth Revisited’ by Speelteater Holland and ASSITEJ SA is a re-imagining of the events around the Xhosa prophetess Nongqawuse, seen through the eyes of a migrant stork, and will follow its appearance on the National Arts Festival Main Programme with a tour of the Eastern Cape. The production stars local actors Macebo Mavuso, Thami Mbongo and Roshina Ratnam as well as a chorus of South African and Netherlands-based artists, and uses puppetry, movement and song in vibrant and interesting ways.
  • True Confusion’ by ZeBu (Denmark), aimed at ages 8 to 13, is a physical interpretation of the situation where children find themselves paradoxically accepting their reality while bombarding it with hundreds of questions. It is playful, challenging and interactive. This dance production has toured extensively internationally and is now on South African soil for the first time.

The theme of Dance for Young Audiences is continued with an exciting local productions

  • ‘Once upon a Fire’ by Briony Horwitz, co-directed by Nkosinathi Gaar and choreographed by David Matamela (South African “So You Think You Can Dance” Judge), is aimed at audiences aged 5 – 11. ‘Once Upon a Fire’ revives the ancient art of story-telling, celebrated in dance and punctuated by enchanting shadow puppetry. This production is the very first dance for young audiences production created under ASSITEJ South Africa mentorship, through the director’s involvement in the Inspiring a Generation programme, which gives emerging South African artists opportunities for international collaboration and exchange in order to develop their craft.

There are also a number of performances which address issues like social injustice, crimes against humanity, disability and inclusivity in exciting and challenging ways, providing the opportunity for starting conversations with young people around important issues:

  • ‘The Orphan of Gaza’ by Eliot Moleba performed by Nidaa Hussein and Megan van Wyk, tells the story of a young girl in Gaza. After a rocket attack, she is told that her parents have gone to a better place. Armed with a makeshift aircraft, helmet, GPS and a cockpit full of courage, she and her pet, plot a journey to search for them.
  • ‘Warrior on Wheels’ presented by the Chaeli Campaign, directed by Jayne Batzofin. The Chaeli Campaign is one of the few local Non-Profit Organisation’s which has been founded by children who are active members of the Management Committee. “Warrior on Wheels”, based on Deidre Gower’s book, aims to engage and enliven the imagination and encourage a more accepting society, especially for those with disabilities. This production was specifically created for children aged 7 – 15.
  • ‘Mirrored Flaws’ by Thando Baliso, tells the story of three teenagers embroiled in social ills. This production aimed at teenagers is told through movement, spoken word and dance.
  • ‘The Rise and Fall’ presented by Sisonke Art Productions, directed by Herbert Mokoena, (Winner of the 2014 SANCTA Awards, nominated for 8 SANCTA Awards) was developed through the ASSITEJ South Africa’s mentorship programme. ‘At age 13 Sarah is kidnapped by Ugandan rebels and forced to become a soldier in the Lord’s Resistance Army. Four years later, with General on the run, Sarah attempts to returning to her childhood village, nervous about the reception she will receive after her role in terrorizing her own people’.

Clowning for Young Audiences:

  • ‘Double the Fun’ – with decades of experience, veteran Durban clown Adi Paxton returns with ‘Double The Fun’, a production made up of magic, clowning and puppetry for ages 3 and up.

Visual Theatre for Young Audiences:

  • ‘Making Mandela’ – written by Nick Warren and Jenine Collocott, directed by Jenine Collocott “Soars with clean narrative lines, superb physical theatre, humour and pathos … it will wow not only festival goers, but the world.” – Robyn Sassen, The Arts at Large. An imaginative journey through the childhood of Nelson Mandela featuring colourful characters, vividly portrayed in beautiful masks, with physical performances supported by emotive sound design and theatrical styling. This is the story of what influenced the rural boy to become the global legend.
  • ‘Florence and Watson’ written and directed by Rob van Vuuren and Dani Bischoff (married): Says Rob van Vuuren ‘We wanted to put together a show that our own daughter would love. So we’ve created a magical mountain full of fairies, dragons, giants and talking animals and found the best most versatile actors and musicians we could with Fleur du Cap Award Winner Dean Balie (Kat and the Kings, Blood Brothers, Orpheus in Africa) and Fleur Du Cap and Standard Bank Ovation Award Winner Sne Dladla (Fergus of Galloway, Betty and the Yeti, Orpheus in Africa) to infuse it with great comedy, awesome music and beautiful performances’.
  • One of Mail and Guardian’s Top 200 Young South Africans in 2013, Rhodes graduate Richard Antrobus of Oddbody Theatre returns to the Festival with his highly successful mime comedy solo: ‘Being Norm’ ideal for anyone 10 and over.
  • ‘Lake’ directed by Daniel Buckland, performed by Ryan Dittman and Jaques de Silva –returning to Festival of the second time; ‘Lake’ is a delight for the whole family, and addresses issues human issues friendship and societal issues around water conservation through warm, funny physical theatre, clowning and puppetry.
  • ‘The Incredible Journey’ directed by Tara Notcutt performed by Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, Stefan Erasmus and Luke Brown. ‘The Incredible Journey’ was invited to and premiered at the Perth International Fringe Festival in 2015. ‘Once upon a time, a boy named Tommy who lived an unadventurous life was presented by a challenge from the new kid at school – join us on an adventure of the imagination and magic: Come see Tommy’s journey to becoming a hero.’

Music for Young Audiences:

  • The Keiskamma Academy presents “Indalo” directed by Mojalefa Mokanya, which is performed by a 22 piece orchestra band and 10 storytellers. The story is set in the Eastern Cape unpacking the deep and magical relationship between animals and the amaXhosa, and weaves together different strands of artistic expression: music, storytelling, physical performance and visual art.

For more information visit www.assitej.org.za or visit www.nationalartsfestival.co.za for bookings.

African Artists unite at National Arts Festival

/ stelsinkins / Leave a comment

Questions around African identity and belonging are woven into this year’s programme for the National Arts Festival, with continental representation from countries such as Botswana, Malawi and Zimbabwe.

This year’s celebration of Africa Day takes on special significance in South Africa, where a recent upsurge in xenophobic violence has affected the country’s relationship with its neighbours and friends across the continent.

As South African struggle veteran Ahmed Kathrada said at Nelson Mandela’s funeral in Qunu in the Transkei, ‘Xenophobia, racism and sexism must be fought with tenacity, wisdom and enlightenment. Anything that defines someone else as “the other” has to go. Tolerance and understanding must flourish and grow.’

And it is these bridge-building questions of identity, belonging and what it means to be African that artists from around the continent will bring to the stage during this year’s National Arts Festival, which runs from 2 to 12 July in Grahamstown.

Issues of reconciliation and forgiveness are at the heart of the remarkable one-women show, ‘Miracle in Rwanda’. Co-created and acted by Leslie Lewis Sword, it tells the story of Rwandan genocide survivor Immaculé Ilibagiza, a 22-year-old Tutsi who hid with seven other women in the bathroom of a local Hutu pastor’s home.

Despite the tragedy and horror, Ilibagiza’s life remains one of personal empowerment and of finding peace of mind despite unbelievable hardship. “It’s completely revolutionary to go through a genocide and forgive the people who massacred your family,” Lewis has said of Ilibagiza, who now lives in New York City. “It’s a quiet revolution.”

Zimbabwean identity will be explored through dance, movement and space by Tumbuka, who will present ‘Portrait of Myself as my Father’, an interrogation into masculinity, performance and the ‘Zimbabwean self.

But it is in music where Africans seem to most easily find common ground. Madagascar’s Eusèbe Jaojoby brings his country’s unique salegy sound to the Grahamstown stage. The singer – dubbed the King of Salegy – is known for his willingness to experiment, blending the Malagasy genre with soul, rock, funk and other Western musical styles.

Watch Eusèbe Jaojoby on tour in New York in 2012: https://youtu.be/02lXAjnhkk8

Also mixing it up will be Botswana’s Chasing Jaykb. Trans vocalist Kat Kai Kol-Kes heads up this funky post-folk African pop group, who will be performing in South Africa for the first time.

Listen to Chasing Jaykb sing ‘My Body’ here: https://soundcloud.com/afropop-worldwide/kat-kai-kol-kes-and-chasing-jakyb-my-body

Malawi will be represented by Masauko Chipembere, whom South Africans will recall as a member of the 1990’s acoustic duo Blk Sonshine.

Watch Masauko Chipembere perform ‘Soul Smile’: youtu.be/MG-9zn6WRuU

More traditional African music will be celebrated when Rhodes University’s International Library of African Music (ILAM) marks its 60th anniversary with ‘Celebrating African Music’. Expect fascinating music performed on a wide range of traditional and contemporary instruments, accompanied by spectacular dance by local groups. Prof Emeritus Andrew Tracey, ILAM’s retired director, will make a special appearance.

The Standard Bank Jazz programme expertly creates the space for some of Africa’s top musicians to collaborate with their South African counterparts. Playing with Dave Reynolds and Pops Mohamed are Sylvain Baloubeta (bass – Congo), Frank Paco (drums – Mozambique). Also in the line-up are Zimbabwe’s Oliver Mtukudzi, Benin-native guitarist and vocalist Lionel Loueke, Botswanan-born Bokani Dyer and Nigerian guitarist Kunle Ayo.

Watch Lionel Loueke perform Nonvignon: youtu.be/vYeno9Y1G1Q

Challenging transnational collaborations are on the Festival’s Film programme too: ‘The Gods of Water (Los Dioses de Agua)’ is the first-ever Angolan-Argentinian co-production. Directed by Pablo César, the film tells the story of an Argentinian anthropologist who travels to Africa to understand the origins of the secrets held by the Dogon, a Malian tribe.

Watch the trailer for The Gods of Water: youtu.be/PtCV36u9qFg

And, as always with film, it’s just a small skip from there to murder and mayhem in a Nigerian jungle with ‘Bleeding Rose’. Director Chucks Mordi’s film about a group of botany students searching for a healing plant in an evil forest, offers South African audiences the chance to see the kind of film wildly popular in the West African country. It won Best Feature Film at the 2007 International Film Festival in Lagos.

‘Miracle in Rwanda’ is at the Hangar on 4 July at 4pm, 5 July at 10am and 7.30pm, 6 July at 5pm and 9.30pm. Book here: www.nationalartsfestival.co.za/events/miracle-in-rwanda/

Tumbuka performs ‘Portrait of Myself as My Father’ at Alec Mullins on 3 July at 12 noon and 4pm, and on 4 July at 12 noon and 8pm. Book here: www.nationalartsfestival.co.za/events/portrait-of-myself-as-my-father/

Eusèbe Jaojoby at the Transnet Great Hall on 7 July at 8pm and at Fingo Square on 8 July at 2pm. Book here: www.nationalartsfestival.co.za/events/jaojoby-king-of-salegy/

Chasing Jaykb at The Vic on 6 July at 10pm, 8 July at 8pm, 9 July at 9pm and 11 July at 6pm. Book here: www.nationalartsfestival.co.za/events/chasing-jaykb/

Masauko Chipembere of Blk Sonshine at The Vic on 3 July at 7pm, 5 July at 10pm, 6 July at 8pm and 7 July at 10pm. Book here: www.nationalartsfestival.co.za/events/masauko-chipembere-of-blk-sonshine/

‘Celebrating African Music – A 60th Anniversary Concert’ is at the Transnet Great Hall on 4 July at 8pm. Book here: www.nationalartsfestival.co.za/events/celebrating-african-music/

Dave Reynolds and Pops Mohamed (with Sylvain Baloubeta and Frank Paco) at the DSG Hall on 7 and 8 July at 5pm. Book here: www.nationalartsfestival.co.za/events/dave-reynolds-pops-mohamed/

Oliver Mtukudzi performs at the DSG Hall on 10 July at 5pm and 11 July at 9pm. Book here: www.nationalartsfestival.co.za/events/oliver-mtukudzi/

Lionel Loueke in Concert with Concord Nkabinde (bass) at the DSG Hall on 3 July at 7.30pm.Book here: www.nationalartsfestival.co.za/events/lionel-loueke-in-concert/

Lionel Loueke in collaboration with Siya Makuzeni (vocals), Marcus Wyatt (trumpet), Shane Cooper (bass), Ayanda Sikade (drums) at the DSG Hall on 4 July at 10pm. Book here: www.nationalartsfestival.co.za/events/lionel-loueke-in-collaboration/

Bokani Dyer Quintet at the DSG Hall on 2 July at 5pm and 4 July at 5pm. Book here: www.nationalartsfestival.co.za/events/bokani-dyer-quintet/

Kunle Ayo at the DSG Hall on 11 July at 5pm. Book here: www.nationalartsfestival.co.za/events/kunle-ayo/

‘The Gods of Water’ will be screened at Oliver Schreiner Hall on 8 July at 7.30pm and on 9 July at 7.30pm. Book here: www.nationalartsfestival.co.za/events/the-gods-of-water-los-dioses-de-agua/

‘Bleeding Rose’ will be screened at Oliver Schreiner Hall on 10 July at 5pm. Book here: www.nationalartsfestival.co.za/events/bleeding-rose/

Bookings are open and can be made via the website: www.nationalartsfestival.co.za. Ticketing call centre: 0860 002 004

Pick up a Festival programme and booking kit from selected Standard Bank and Exclusive Books branches. The full programme is online at www.nationalartsfestival.co.za

KEEP IN TOUCH

National Arts Festival

Website: www.nationalartsfestival.co.za and www.youthjazz.co.za

Facebook: www.facebook.com/nationalartsfestival

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/artsfestival

2015 Standard Bank Jazz Festival Burns With Spirit

/ stelsinkins / Leave a comment
2015 Standard Bank Young Artist for Jazz Nduduzo Makhathini.

2015 Standard Bank Young Artist for Jazz Nduduzo Makhathini.

This year’s Standard Bank Jazz Festival, Grahamstown as part of the National Arts Festival from Thursday, 2 July to Saturday, 11 July, will bring together the best of South African jazz today with some of the world’s most exhilarating contemporary jazz innovators.

The 2015 programme, which features more than 120 sought-after musicians, presents a solid mix of serious limit-shifting jazz as well as the freshest crossover sounds to appeal to music lovers across the spectrum.

Invited artists include the Stockholm Jazz Orchestra, Dutch saxophonist Yuri Honing, Austrian pianist David Helbock, US-based guitarist Lionel Loueke, Zimbabwe’s Oliver Mtukudzi, French drummer André Charlier, South Africans Kesivan Naidoo, Thandiswa Mazwai, Carlo Mombelli and Pops Mohammed, as well as Cape Town pop band Beatenburg and Joburg house band MiCasa. Ray Phiri will be in town for a one-night only solo gig.

“The Standard Bank Jazz Festival acts as a barometer of the South African jazz scene, reflecting our heritage as well as international trends, and opening up opportunities for networking and collaboration,” says Festival Director Alan Webster. “The festival is about acknowledging our roots as South Africans and inviting the world in. We’re not asking how to do it – but sharing experiences with musicians from all over the world to create something new.”

Webster, who has been responsible for putting the programme together since he took over as director in 2001, says the world’s musicians relish the opportunity to visit Grahamstown because of the festival’s high artistic credibility and aesthetic integrity. “It offers musicians 10 days to network, collaborate and learn from each other,” he says.

This collective improvisational energy will perhaps be best experienced this year in The Bjaerv Encounters and Kesivan & The Lights, which will see jazz superstar Kesivan Naidoo mixing it up with the Swedish musicians he met when he played the festival 10 years ago. “There’s no doubt that that experience was a key influence on what Kesivan has become,” says Webster. “It is Grahamstown that allowed that to happen – it’s the essence of what jazz is supposed to be.”

This year, Bokani Dyer, another former Standard Bank Young Artist Award winner, will share the stage with four Swiss musicians he met during his residency in Basel. The Bokani Dyer Quintet will merge the vitality of contemporary South African Jazz with Swiss precision and musicianship.

In Listening to the Ground, this year’s Standard Bank Young Artist award winner pianist and composer Nduduzo Makhathini will perform with fellow South Africans Feya Faku, Ayanda Sikade and Nomagugu Makhathini as well as Swedish saxophone player Karl-Martin Almqvist and bassist Martin Sjöstedt to pay homage to the musical legends who have built the great legacy of South African jazz.

The festival also incorporates the Standard Bank National Youth Jazz Festival, which exposes 350 of South Africa’s best young musicians to the best of jazz over six burning days spent with 50 teachers and 90 professional jazz musicians and educators in rehearsals, workshops, lectures and performances. The top jazz students in South Africa audition for places in the Standard Bank National Schools Big Band and the Standard Bank National Youth Jazz Band.

Need to know

Bookings can be made via the website: www.nationalartsfestival.co.za. Ticketing call centre: 0860 002 004

Pick up a Festival programme and booking kit from selected Standard Bank and Exclusive Books branches from the end of April. The full programme will be online from 30 April at www.nationalartsfestival.co.za.

KEEP IN TOUCH

Standard Bank Jazz Festival

Website: www.youthjazz.co.za

Facebook: www.facebook.com/youthjazz

National Arts Festival

Website: www.nationalartsfestival.co.za and www.youthjazz.co.za

Facebook: www.facebook.com/nationalartsfestival

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/artsfestival

Women take centre stage with strong female presence at this year’s National Arts Festival

/ stelsinkins / Leave a comment

This year’s National Arts Festival programme features more women in an effort to amplify female voices in the theatrical, performing and visual arts.

The Festival – which runs from 2 to 12 July – not only features a number of strong and visible women in most genres, but also numerous productions and exhibitions that interrogate and question fixed thinking in relation to gender more broadly.

At the closing of the recent PEN World Voices Festival in New York, Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie spoke out against the ‘codes of silence’ that govern American life. “The fear of causing offence, the fear of ruffling the careful layers of comfort, becomes a fetish,” Adichie said.

Practising what she preaches, the award-winning writer recently spoke out against the criminalisation of homosexuality in her home country. But, she told The Guardian: “I have often been told that I cannot speak on certain issues because I am young, and female, or, to use the disparaging Nigerian speak, because I am a “small girl” … I have also been told that I should not speak because I am a fiction writer … But I am as much a citizen as I am a writer.”

Adichie’s critique could equally be levelled at South Africa’s slow burning culture of consent in relation to everyday gender inequities and the often unspoken violence that plagues the lives of many South African women. This year, the National Arts Festival tackles this seam of gender inequality head on.

This focus forms part of the overall thrust of this year’s Festival to bring urgent social matters to light and present material that explores the limits of expressive liberty, provoking audiences and taking them beyond their comfort zones.

“The arts need to challenge and provoke,” says the Festival’s Artistic Director, Ismail Mahomed – and that includes provocation in relation to the most intimate questions of gender identity, sexuality and power relations.

More female artists have been consciously featured in the 2015 programme in an effort to amplify female voices in the theatrical, performing and visual arts. Among the many female writers, directors, performers, curators and trailblazing artists across all genres appearing at this year’s National Arts Festival, some of the leading lights include:

  • Tara Louise Notcutt is involved in seven productions at NAF2015, not least ‘Three Blind Mice’ (Rhodes Box, Monday, July 6, Tuesday, July 7 and Wednesday, July 8 July at 3pm and 8pm daily). Notcutt directs James Cairns, Albert Pretorius and Rob van Vuuren in this unforgiving journey into the dark heart of South African justice, which looks to the horrific and barely believable narratives (Pistorius, Dewani) that have dominated our media recently.
  • Thoko Ntshinga directs the Baxter Theatre Centre’s revival of legendary South African theatre-maker Barney Simon’s hard-hitting 1985 docudrama ‘Born in the RSA’ (Graeme College, Thursday, 2 July at 6pm, Friday, 3 July at 2pm and 6pm and Saturday, 4 July at 2pm and 6pm). Having performed the role of Thenjiwe in the original production, Ntshinga is the lifeline connecting the 1985 staging to this current revival.
  • Patricia Boyer: ‘Miss Margarida’s Way’ (The Hangar, Friday, 10 July at 6.30pm, Saturday, 11 July at 10am and 3.30pm and Sunday, 12 July at 12.30pm and 6pm) Audiences and critics in over 50 countries have cheered this allegory about totalitarianism, which uses as its central metaphor a classroom. Also ‘Florence: A Script Reading’ (Eden Grove, Seminar Room 1 on Tuesday, 7 July at 4pm – as part of Think!Fest 2015) exploring the life of Lady Florence Phillips and the circumstances that led to the creation of the Johannesburg Art Gallery.
  • Nelisiwe Xaba and Mamela Nyamza: ‘The Last Attitude’ (Rhodes Box Theatre, Thursday, 2 July at 2pm, Friday, 3 July at 2pm and 6pm, Saturday, 4 July at 2 and 6pm) After years of not dancing together, two female choreographers/dancers meet up on stage again to do a ballet. The piece will interrogate the politics of this ancient art form: including the male posture and the relationship between the male principal dancer and the ballerina.
  • Jolynn Minaar: ‘Unearthed’ (Olive Schreiner, 7 July 12pm and 8 July 2.30pm): A young South African filmmaker swallows her optimism on the potential shale gas could bring to her people after traveling to ground zero and uncovering the dirty secrets of the fracking industry.
  • Jodi Bieber: ‘Between Darkness and Light’ (Grahamstown Gallery, Albany History Museum, 9am to 5pm daily) is this internationally acclaimed photographer’s first major mid-career retrospective and includes a selection of her work from 1993 to the present. The show has been exhibited at Stadhaus Ulm and Museum Goch in Germany as well as the Wits Art Museum.
  • Monique Pelser: ‘Conversations with My Father’ (Alumni Gallery, Albany Museum, 9am to 5pm daily) is a continuous dialogue (2011 – to date) between the artist and the objects, images, sound recordings and documents she inherited after her father died of a rare motor neuron disease which rendered him unable to speak for the last year and a half of his life. Her father was ‘a good man, a good father’. As a member of the South African Police force, he was also a product of his environment.
  • Thandiswa Mazwai (Guy Butler Theatre, Monument, Saturday, 11 July at 7pm): The Guardian recently called her ‘South Africa’s finest female contemporary singer’. One of South Africa’s most influential musicians, her music defies categorisation, but reflects elements of African traditional, jazz, Afro-soul and house.
  • Thandi Ntuli (DSG Auditorium, Friday, 3 July 11.30pm) Captivating young pianist Thandi Ntuli is making waves in the contemporary South African jazz scene and rapidly earning the admiration of the industry’s most respected musos. She has performed on various local and international stages including the Calabar International Jazz Festival, and recently returned from a national tour promoting her solo album, ‘The Offering’, which has received high accolades.
  • Also catch pianist Kai-ya Chang and gifted vocalists Nomfundo Xaluva, Lindiwe Maxolo, Auriol Hays and Siya Makuzeni (vocals/trombone) at the Standard Bank Jazz Festival.

Lerato Bereng is this year’s Featured Young Curator. Having graduated with a Masters in Fine Art (with distinction) from Rhodes University, she will be returning to her stomping ground. Bereng, who is a curator at Stevenson gallery in Johannesburg, has curated ‘Nine O’Clock’ (Fort Selwyn, 9am to 7pm daily), an exhibition featuring a selection of works by Simon Gush, including elements from his project, Red (2014), and administrator for Standard Bank Young Artist Kemang wa Lehulere’s exhibition ‘History Will Break Your Heart’ (Monument Gallery, 9am to 6pm daily).

For gripping theatre based on harrowing true stories about women rising up against the odds, see:

  • ‘I Have Life: Alison’s Story’ Based on the true story of a woman who, twenty years ago, was raped, stabbed multiple times and then had her throat cut, SAFTA Lifetime Achievement award winning theatre director Maralin Vanrenen’s adaptation of Marianne Thamm’s book, is a tribute to one woman’s remarkable journey from her ordeal, through her recovery and on to becoming an inspiration around the globe. Featuring Suanne Braun as Alison Botha. (Victoria Theatre, Thursday, 2 July at 4pm, Friday, 3 July at 2pm and 6pm, and Saturday, 4 July at 2pm and 6pm)
  • ‘Woman Alone’, Christo Davids’ adaptation of Dannelene Noach’s autobiographical novel ‘Arabian Nightmare’ tells the story of a woman working as nursing co-ordinator in one of the large, modern hospitals in Riyadh who ends up being abducted and incarcerated in a Saudi Arabian jail. A Muslim woman comes her rescue in a poignant tale about personal courage in the context of current-day religious conflicts. (The Hangar, Friday, 10 July at 12:30pm, Saturday, 11 July at 1pm and 9pm, and Sunday, 12 July at 10am and 3.30pm)
    Singer sensation Auriol Hays will be performing as part of the Standard Bank Jazz Festival in Grahamstown in July.

    Singer sensation Auriol Hays will be performing as part of the Standard Bank Jazz Festival in Grahamstown in July.

    Taiwanese pianist Kai-Ya Chang features on the scintillating programme at this year's Standard Bank Jazz Festival, to be held from 2 to 12 July in Grahamstown (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

    Taiwanese pianist Kai-Ya Chang features on the scintillating programme at this year’s Standard Bank Jazz Festival, to be held from 2 to 12 July in Grahamstown (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

    The Stevenson Gallery's Lerato Bereng is the featured curator at this year's National Arts Festival. She is pictured here at the Zeitz MOCCAA Gala held in Cape Town in March. (Image: Twitter.com/@ZeitzMOCAA)

    The Stevenson Gallery’s Lerato Bereng is the featured curator at this year’s National Arts Festival. She is pictured here at the Zeitz MOCCAA Gala held in Cape Town in March. (Image: Twitter.com/@ZeitzMOCAA)

    Actress and director Maralin Vanrenen has adapted Alison Botha's story about her brutal rape 20 years ago into a theatre production, 'I Have Life – Alison's Journey', which will be staged at this year's National Arts Festival.

    Actress and director Maralin Vanrenen has adapted Alison Botha’s story about her brutal rape 20 years ago into a theatre production, ‘I Have Life – Alison’s Journey’, which will be staged at this year’s National Arts Festival.

NEED TO KNOW

bookings are open and can be made via the website: http://www.nationalartsfestival.co.za. Ticketing call centre: 0860 002 004

Pick up a Festival programme and booking kit from selected Standard Bank and Exclusive Books. The full programme is online at http://www.nationalartsfestival.co.zA

ABOUT THE FESTIVAL

The National Arts Festival is an important event on the South African cultural calendar, and the biggest annual celebration of the arts on the African continent. This year it runs from 2 to 12 July 2015 in the small university town of Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape. The programme comprises drama, dance, physical theatre, comedy, opera, music, jazz, visual art exhibitions, film, student theatre, street theatre, lectures, craft fair, workshops, tours (of the city and surrounding historic places) as well as a children’s arts festival. As no censorship or artistic restraint has ever been imposed on works presented in Grahamstown, the Festival served as an important forum for political and protest theatre during the height of the apartheid era, and it continues to offer an opportunity for experimentation across the arts spectrum. Its significance as a forum for new ideas and an indicator of future trends in the arts cannot be underestimated.

KEEP IN TOUCH

National Arts Festival

Website: http://www.nationalartsfestival.co.za and http://www.youthjazz.co.za

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/nationalartsfestival

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/artsfestival

The Imperial Ice Stars return to SA

/ stelsinkins / Leave a comment

THE world’s premier theatrical ice skating company, The Imperial Ice Stars, returns to South Africa with a dynamic new interpretation of its award-winning masterpiece Swan Lake on Ice.

Opening in December for a limited season at Johannesburg’s Teatro at Montecasino before moving to Cape Town for a season at Artscape Opera House, the acclaimed production is part of a world tour celebrating the company’s 10th Anniversary.

Performed in the intimate setting of a frozen theatre stage, to Tchaikovsky’s famous and well-loved score, this production of Swan Lake on Ice introduces a new prologue to the classic tale, humanising the legend of a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer. The show features exhilarating new choreography and some of the world’s most stylish dancing on ice from Artistic Director Tony Mercer, widely regarded as the world’s leading creator of theatre on ice.

“Inspired by my research into Tchaikovsky’s original score and intentions for the story, I wanted to create a more realistic interpretation of this much-loved tale, with an ending that was more plausible and left no unanswered questions. I also wanted to transpose the story onto ice, creating a new art form in the process – ice dance in a full theatrical setting,” explains Tony Mercer. “I always felt it was a natural fit, to have swans gliding on ice.”

“I created our original Swan Lake on Ice in 2006 in a classical style with elements of contemporary ice dance. With this production I’ve significantly re-worked the choreography to incorporate even more contemporary skating manoeuvres, including elements that have never been seen in the world of figure skating before, and challenged our skaters to reach for new heights!”

The 24 Olympic, World, European and National Championship level skaters, who between them hold more than 250 competition medals, tell the timeless tale through mind-blowing high-speed leaps and throws – and daring manoeuvres so complex they haven’t yet been named – coupled with graceful and sublime ice dancing.

In addition awe-inspiring acrobatics, aerial gymnastics and spectacular new pyrotechnic effects add drama and mystery to the theatrical experience.

The costuming has also been refined for this new production, with some dazzling and sophisticated designs from renowned costumier Albina Gabueva of Moscow’s Stanislavsky Theatre, and made by the famous Bolshoi Ballet’s costume cutters.

The Imperial Ice Stars last performed in South Africa from December 2013 to February 2014 with The Sleeping Beauty on Ice, garnering outstanding reviews and raves from local audiences.

Whether you’ve seen The Imperial Ice Stars’ Swan Lake on Ice before or have yet to experience the thrill of world-class ice skating in the intimacy of the theatre, this dramatic new ice interpretation of one of the most popular ballets will have you on the very edge of your seat.

NEED TO KNOW

JOHANNESBURG: The Teatro at Montecasino – 3 December to 10 January

Tickets: R400, R350, R325, R275, R250, R200, R150 and R100

Performances: Tue – Fri at 7:30pm, Sat at 2:30pm and 7:30pm, Sun at 2pm and 6pm

CAPE TOWN: Artscape Opera – 14 January to 31 January

Tickets: R400, R350, R325, R275, R250, R200, R175, R150, R125 and R100

Performances: Tue – Fri at 7:30pm, Sat at 2:30pm and 7:30pm, Sun at 2pm and 6pm

Review: Shrek The Musical

/ stelsinkins / Leave a comment

//

Gorgeous in every way: great sets, costumes and performances make it a must-see show
Review: Shrek The Musical
Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre,
UKZN, Durban
KICKSTART Theatre Company’s Shrek The Musical is big, green and fabulous.
Artistic director Steven Stead says it’s the most expensive show the award-winning Durban company has produced and, having seen it, I can believe it.
Designer Greg King has pulled out all the stops to create a myriad gorgeous sets, puppets and a gigantic love-sick dragon (voiced by Shelley McLean and manipulated by Peter Court).
The Broadway musical is based on the DreamWorks animation filmShrek, and tells the story of a solitary ogre (played by Lyle Buxton) who is forced to leave his comfy swamp when it’s invaded by a host of fairy-tale characters including Pinocchio, the Three Bears, the Three Little Pigs, a Wicked Witch, the Big Bad Wolf, Peter Pan, the Ugly Duckling, the Fairy Godmother, the Sugar Plum Fairy and the Shoemaker’s Elf.
They have been evicted from their homes in the Kingdom of Duloc by the controlling — and diminutive — Lord Farquaad, brought to life in a superb performance by Cobus van Heerden who spends almost every scene he is in on his knees. His song and dance number What’s Up Duloc? is a triumph.
Shrek decides to confront Farquaad and along the way (reluctantly) teams up with a talkative Donkey, played by Rory Booth, whose scene-stealing performance is a joy to watch.
I especially loved the number Make a Move, in which Donkey does a bit of a James Brown/Steve Wonder number while accompanied by the Three Blind Mice.
But I digress. When Shrek and Donkey arrive in Duloc, Farquaad decides to use the ogre to rescue Princess Fiona from her dragon-guarded tower so that he can marry her and become king. In return, he promises to give Shrek his swamp back.
This pair of unlikely heroes soon rescue the feisty princess, played by Jessica Sole, who has a great vocal range and wonderful comedic timing. But things get complicated when Shrek and Fiona fall for each other on the way back to Duloc.
Shrek The Musical is packed full of toe-tapping show tunes, hilarious references to other musicals, including Disney’s The Lion King, and moments which will live long in the memory — Shrek and Fiona’s farting and burping contest and Gingy the Gingerbread Man’s “torture” scene spring to mind.
Stead has drawn wonderful performances from his talented leads and ensemble. And together with King and his creative team of Tina le Roux (lighting), Stephanie Pais (sound) and Shanti Naidoo (the enormous array of colourful costumes), they have created the biggest, brightest musical comedy you’re likely to see this year.
Theatre goers simply cannot afford to miss Shrek The Musical, and if you don’t leave the theatre humming along to Neil Diamond’s I’m A Believer then I’m as big a liar as Pinocchio.
Estelle Sinkins
• Shrek The Musical is being staged at 7 pm, Tuesday to Saturday, and at 2.30 pm on Saturdays and Sundays, at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre on the Howard College campus of the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban. Booking is at Computicket. Please note: no children under six.
This review was first published in The Witness.
The fairytale characters in Shrek The Musical. Photo: Val Adamson

The fairytale characters in Shrek The Musical. Photo: Val Adamson

Shrek (Lyle Buxton) and Princess Fiona (Jessica Sole) in a scene from Shrek The Musical. Photo: Val Adamson

Shrek (Lyle Buxton) and Princess Fiona (Jessica Sole) in a scene from Shrek The Musical. Photo: Val Adamson

Shrek (Lyle Buxton) and Donkey (Rory) Booth prepare to set off on their adventure in Shrek The Musical. Photo: Val Adamson

Shrek (Lyle Buxton) and Donkey (Rory) Booth prepare to set off on their adventure in Shrek The Musical. Photo: Val Adamson

Twist Projects are looking for new theatre groups

/ stelsinkins / Leave a comment

Twist Projects is ready to start a new programme cycle, and are looking to meet with community theatre groups based in KZN.

They can only accept four groups into the project, and know that there are many more who would wish to be part of the programme.

“We will be visiting interested groups around KZN over the coming months, to find the groups we think will benefit most from being part of Twist. We will be selecting the four groups based on their artistic potential, community spirit, potential for sustained growth, and strength of leadership,” said a spokesman for Twist.

Criteria for selection of the groups include:

a) having been working together as a group for at least one year,

b) being based in one geographical area,

c) group members being out-of-school and not in permanent employment, and

d) be a theatre or drama group (not a dance or choir group).

Please email info@twistprojects.co.za with a short profile of your group, and your contact phone number if you are keen for them to come and visit you in your area.

David Salleras and Chris Duigan launch new album at the Tatham

/ stelsinkins / Leave a comment
THE Friends of Tatham Art Gallery (Fotag) and Music Revival will be hosting the launch of Indigo, an album featuring the talents of Spanish virtuoso David Salleras (saxophone) and Christopher Duigan (piano).
The launch will take place at the Tatham Art Gallery in Chief Albert Luthuli Street, Pietermaritzburg at
11 am on Sunday, June 21.
Since his first visit to South Africa in October 2012, Salleras has been collaborating on a project of concerts and recordings of original music with Duigan.
Regarded as one of the world leaders in contemporary classical saxophone, Salleras, based in Barcelona, Spain, has attracted international attention though his fluency in a variety of musical styles.
His partnership with Duigan is focused on the latter’s original music for saxophone and piano. Created over a number of years. Salleras has expressed an interest in this new music which he sees as a valuable contribution to the saxophone repertoire.
Tickets for the launch are R80. Booking is via e-mail at chris@fotag.co.za or by calling 033 342 3051 or SMSing 083 417 4473.

The concert will include selections from the album, world music from Spain and Argentina, film music and more. Cafe Tatham opens at 10 am and there is secure parking at the gallery. Indigo will be available for R100.

Chris Duigan and David Salleras. Photo: Val Adamson

Chris Duigan and David Salleras. Photo: Val Adamson