Dance queen is on her toes
DANCERS respectfully refer to acclaimed choreographer, dance connoisseur and businesswoman Debbie Rakusin as their “first lady of dance”.
After almost four decades in the dance industry, she remains ahead of the game in producing top-notch dance entertainment. Over the years, Rakusin has provided thousands of dancers with work, and she has done so in style. Known for demanding thorough technical prowess, her creative ingenuity and extraordinary industriousness, Rakusin has consistently produced theatre of the highest quality and impeccable taste.
She is best known for her choreography in Richard Loring’s hugely successful African Footprints, a show-stopping dance production created by Rakusin and David Matamela that ran nationally and internationally for 18 years.
Early on in her career, she found a niche in the corporate entertainment industry.
Corporate dance productions are performances commissioned by corporates to suit specific clients that are pertinent to their industry, target market and audience. Within the corporate dance industry, Rakusin’s work has become unmissable.
She ascribes her success to staying on the cutting edge of dance innovation, while maintaining old school professionalism. She believes it is vital to remain current on developments, trends and new inventions in the dance world, but equally important to uphold standards of professional conduct, which she says are frequently lacking in the industry today.
Rakusin says that she has been fortunate to draw dancers who emulate her work ethic. She believes that one attracts that which one projects. But she is concerned that very few dancers today engage in improving their skills. They bounce from one contract to the next, without investing time and effort to refine their craft, she says, stressing that they should do classes daily.
Most dance students have a preferred genre that they aspire to make careers in, but in reality most professional dancers earn their living from commercial dance work in the entertainment industry and corporate productions.
Rakusin urges dancers to train thoroughly in dance technique, specifically referring to classical ballet as a technical foundation for any genre. She also stresses the importance of becoming as versatile as possible.
Working within the South African dance milieu with its eclectic assortment of forms and styles has been thrilling for her and Rakusin is very optimistic about the future of dance here. Becoming more involved in mentoring dancers and developing the youth by, for example, serving on the judging panels of dance competitions such as World of Dance, she has seen an immense excitement and renewed dedication to dance.
She recently completed her written international judging examination at the International Dance Organisation with distinction and will complete her practical examination in June in Prague.
Dance audiences have been deprived since Rakusin’s successful venture into the corporate dance world, so is she likely to return to public theatres?
It’s not in the pipeline at present, she says, but it’s not completely off the cards. Time will tell.