Cape Dance Company celebrates its 21st anniversary with a new repertory piece at Artscape from March 18 to 20. DEBBIE HATHWAY finds out more.
FROM homebase in The Hague, Cape Academy of Performing Arts graduate and former Cape Dance Company member Alice Godfrey is refining her craft with Nederland Dans Theater 2, a feeder company for the main NDT1. She’s also the choreographer of this year’s winning performance by Neline Theron of the SA International Ballet Competition j unior contemporary girls’ category.
In London, Mthuthuzeli November, a contemporary with the same grounding for his dance career, is wooing critics with his performances for Ballet Black and finding the time and inspiration to choreograph new work. And in Israel, this week, another CAPA graduate and CDC member Londiwe Khoza is pitting her skills against three other contenders for the 2016-2017 Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, hoping that she can convince dance mentor Ohad Naharin to take her on for a sponsored year of creative exchange and collaboration.
This is what dreams are made of and CDC artistic director Debbie Turner has made it her life’s work to make them happen. Seeing her company celebrate its 21th birthday is recognition of her consistent effort, backed by equally passionate supporters, to produce well-trained, budding professionals who can hold their own on the global stage.
There are other CDC success stories too; the above just some of the most recent made all the more exciting with Khoza’s preparation for the Rolex project assessment in the midst of rehearsals for the company’s upcoming 21st-anniversary season, A Thousand Shepherds, at Artscape from March 18 to 20.
Khoza was nominated anonymously for the prized Rolex mentorship by an independent panel of influential artists and arts professionals, making it to the final round after a rigorous global search.
“They called me the day after my birthday,” says Khoza, still processing the reality of the opportunity that could be hers by April when the successful candidate is announced. “The chance to benefit from the experience of one of the world’s greatest exponents in their discipline is an unparalleled opportunity for these young artists,” said Rebecca Irvin, Head of Philanthropy at Rolex. “As in past cycles, mentors will find selecting a protégé challenging due to the calibre of the outstanding talents provided by the selection process.”
Since graduating from CDC Khoza has fulfilled a short contract with Joburg Ballet. She also co-wrote and performed in the recent production of Ballet Must Fall in Cape Town earlier this year.
Meanwhile, work continues on A Thousand Shepherds. Khoza performs alongside featured dancers Louisa Talbot, James Bradley, Elzanne Crause, Ipeleng Merafe, Mbulelo Jonas and Marlin Zoutman, together with a superb supporting cast.
Fans can expect nothing less than the best and, true to form, the CDC season headlines with a new repertory work, the African première of Spanish/UK choreographer José Agudo’s creation of the same name. Agudo is the artistic director of his own project-based dance company and rehearsal director for world-renowned British choreographer Akram Khan. Described as a “searing exploration of humanity”, Agudo created A Thousand Shepherds originally for Ace Dance & Music in Birmingham, UK.
CDC is well used to working under tough taskmasters, but Agudo has taken the young dancers to another level. “José’s movement style is very particular. Everything has to be so clearly articulated and so down into the floor that you discover muscles you didn’t know existed,” says Khoza. “You need so much strength because you don’t rest for an instant. There are no shortcuts and there is so much to think about in such a limited time.”
Agudo says he’s good at creating material with a different mix of qualities so dancers need to be able to channel his particular blend of classical, flamenco, kathak and contemporary. “I mainly take movement created on my own body and see how it translates on that of the dancers. I don’t want to see choreography,” he adds. Inspired by the concept of pilgrimage, audiences are in for something special. Listen out for Agudo’s spellbinding vocals in the soundtrack. The season includes a re-staging of Christopher Huggins’ Enemy Behind the Gates, with the largest cast to date (45 dancers). The second half features the pas de deux from Bradley Shelver’s Scenes danced to accompaniment by Czechoslovakian concert pianist Michaela Mala-Simpson as well as Huggins’ neo-classical quartet, In the Mirror of her Mind.
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