Disabled dancers a big hit at station

TELLING stories through dance was among the reasons Nadine McKenzie became a dancer.

The 25-year-old from Cape Town followed her calling, regardless of the fact that she has been wheelchair-bound since the age of two.

McKenzie and her three male dance partners fascinated more than 150 spectators with a captivating performance in a piece titled Un-Mute yesterday.

Clad in a white dress, McKenzie started the show by dancing in her wheelchair and moving her arms around expressively. Male performers Andile Vellem, Themba Mbuli and Zama Sonjica joined her on a provisional stage amid the hustle at Cape Town station.

Together they presented 30 minutes of ballet combined with breakdance moves, acrobatic elements and fighting scenes – always including the two wheelchairs of the handicapped dancers.

Vellem, a deaf choreographer and dancer, came up with the idea of bringing together performers with different dance backgrounds and letting them “un-mute” feelings and expectations in their own perception of dance.

McKenzie said she was proud of being able to send out messages to people.

“Dancing is my passion, my way of telling stories,” she added.

Creating a more inclusive society by integrating people with disabilities is the show’s bottom line. At the end of the presentation, the dancers built a tower of wheelchairs and wheels – a demonstration of how strongly and independently disabled people can actually act.

Un-Mute was the third performance of Crossing over and round about, which was yesterday’s Infecting the City programme, curated by Mandla Mbothwe and Mandisi Sindo.

Ten different street art performances aimed to renegotiate the relationship between people and city spaces, since the latter tend to transform citizens into utilitarian and automatic inhabitants.

First stop of the programme was at Cape Town station, where Raewyn Thomas and John Clay turned into two huge “slinkies”.

“We are telling a love story, just like in real life. The woman is more in control and the man is desperately trying to make a move on her,” Thomas said.

The audience enjoyed the playful show of the two curling and twisting tubes. Slinkie Love by Bedlam Oz is an international street art classic.

Loud applause and “oohs” sounded in the square when the female gave birth to a minitube or “slinky”. “Okay, the baby part happens probably faster than in real life,” added Thomas.

On the route, art lovers and passers-by encountered The Lost Couple wandering along. Christelle van Graan, Chris van Rensburg, Roberto Pombo, Ilana Cilliers and Kyla Davis wore gigantic masks to simulate the couple Uma and Sebastian as well as their friends.

The pop-up performance encourages audience inter- action and improvisation.

The couple, loaded with bags and suitcases, tried to find their way in a foreign place, inspiring Capetonians to rethink their relation to the city.