‘Colonial’ ballet company has to leave UCT

AFTER 82 years of partnership, Cape Town City Ballet (CTCB) has been thrown off the premises of UCT, allegedly because ballet is too “Eurocentric and colonial”.

Company members said they had to rush in to clear out their lockers and were advised it was “unsafe” for them to be at UCT.

With three productions opening, the company is looking for rehearsal space but has been temporarily offered a small studio with no change rooms at the back of the Artscape Theatre Centre.

Company executive director Professor Elizabeth Triegaardt no longer has an office and sits at a table in the foyer of Artscape.

“Artscape is also under major pressure for space because they have their own productions starting, so we take whatever space we can get,” she said.

For 82 years a mutually beneficial partnership existed.

But last year, Triegaardt was told a group of students had indicated to the dean it wasn’t “appropriate for a classical ballet company to be on the premises because it’s Eurocentric and colonial”. The lease expires at the end of December but company members had been “warned not to go to UCT” since mid September, Triegaardt said.

The company also had to suspend its Young Male Dancers Development Programme which has seen several black male dancers flourishing.

Pat Lucas, speaking on behalf of UCT, said demand for rehearsal space by UCT itself was the reason for the lease ending, and that discussions to cancel the lease began “before the most recent spate of protests”.