Dance Umbrella 2018 schedule

DANCE UMBRELLA 2018: NEW WORKS FROM LOCAL AND INTERNATIONAL CHOREOGRAPHERS

Expect exciting collaborations in this year’s programme.

There are few events as inspiring as the annual Dance Umbrella at which creatives do things that are bold, unusual and worthy of celebration.

Turning 30 this year, Dance Umbrella 2018 is presenting 18 programmes of new contemporary dance works from both local and international choreographers.

The festival opens on March 6 and 7 at the UJ Centre for the Arts in Joburg with two works, Gula

Matari by Vincent Sekwati Mantsoe, and Mayhem by Gregory Vuyani Maqoma. Gula Matari, which premiered at Dance Umbrella 1992, is a reflection on the past.

Mayhem reflects on our changed state of mind, our country’s state of confusion and the chaos we are in.

The programme is presented in collaboration with the French Institute of South Africa, which has been a long-standing supporter of the South African artscape.

Here’s your guide to some of the work to be presented during the festival. – Citizen reporter

Sometimes I have to Lean in ...

Gerard Bester, who was in the inaugural Dance Umbrella in 1989, collaborates with Alan Parker, who presented his first work at Dance Umbrella 10 years ago

It’s at the Wits Amphitheatre on March 8 and 9.

The artists will create a conversation between their bodies with- in a common space.

Coloured Swans 1: Khoiswan

South African-born Moya Michael will premiere a new work

Coloured Swans 1: Khoiswan in collaboration with South African artist Tracey Rose at the Wits Downstairs Theatre on March 8 and 9 at 8pm.

Created at the Ebhudlweni Arts Centre in Mpumalanga, the artists investigate why the world is restricted to black and white: what about the shades of grey?

There is a wide range of colours reflected by the skins of the global majority.

The work is presented in collaboration with the government of Flanders, BoZar, CoKot and KVS Creations. Put your heart under your feet Steven Cohen, who first presented a work at Dance Umbrella 20 years ago, will present a new piece that premiered at Montpellier Danse 2017 in France, Put your heart under your feet … and walk! It’s a tribute to his late partner Elu and will be in the Wits Theatre on March 8 and 9 at 9pm. Shaken to the core by the death of Elu, as well as his beloved childhood caregiver, Nomsa, in 2016, Cohen created this work as a message of love to his soulmate.

It speaks to anyone who has felt immeasurable loss and the necessity to keep moving in the face of petrifying grief.

(This work is not open to persons under 18).

Hillbrowfication

Created by German choreographers Constanza Macras and Lizi Estaras, this show will premiere at the Hillbrow Theatre on March 9 at 6pm and March 10 at 2.30pm.

Twenty-one children and youths from the Hillbrow Theatre Project and three professional dancers will explore the Hillbrow of the future, reimagining the neighbourhood and looking at their perceptions and experiences of xenophobia and violence.

It’s a co-production between Constanza Macras and the Hillbrow Theatre Project with Maxim

Gula Matari, which premiered in 1992, is a reflection on the past.