Media Release: International Companies & Collaborations

MEDIA RELEASE: INTERNATIONAL COMPANIES

The FNB Dance Umbrella 2007 will celebrate its 19th year on the international map as a platform for works from both local and international companies.

This year the festival will host several foreign companies and collaborations which include:

CounterCircles will be presented in the Wits Downstairs Theatre on February 26 & 27 @ 20:15. This is a Germany/Kenya collaboration choreographed by Gerda Konig from DIN A 13 Dance Company who was assisted by Ondiege Matthew from Kenya as co-choreographer. CounterCircles reflects about life isolated in cages like tiny elements of an enormous clock. Men become chickens, poor become divas…. In unremitting, surreal and funny scenes, power plays with powerlessness, tradition meets modernity and mysticism merges with Kenyan reality. The DIN A 13 dance company developed the piece as part of the ‘Dance meets differences’ project in Kenya (Nairobi). The production CounterCircles has been assisted by the Goethe Institute of Johannesburg.

"emballe-moi" (wrap me up) choreographed by Katarzyna Gdaniec and Marco Cantalupo from Company Linga, Switzerland can be seen in the Wits Theatre on February 28 & March 1 @ 19:00

Advertising: this disproportionate social phenomenon reveals a cynical idea, which transforms the world into merchandise. The message, constantly repeated, is clear: consumption is the solution to all problems. Merchandise is the center and the meaning of life, the (super) market its temple.

With this new piece the choreographers and the five performers throw a light on the seducing techniques of this system – advertising - at the service of «the consumer society. “emballe-moi” (wrap me up) is presented with assistance from Pro-Helvetia: Swiss Arts Council

Impro-Vise_2 choreographed by Andreya Ouamba from Burkina Faso is at the UJ Arts Centre on March 3 & 4 @ 20:00 and belongs to an abstract presentation of the emotions and balance of power that street kids maintain in the streets (called ‘talibé’ in Dakar) with ‘the rest of the world’; there’s the passage of the always sad character who begs and that of the character who justifies the sad one’s existence. This work has been supported by the French Institute of South Africa and the French Embassy in South Africa.

Os is a new work by French Choreographer Pascal Montrouge, which recently premiered in France (Perpignan and Festival International de Monaco). It will be presented at the Wits Theatre on March 5 & 6 @ 19:00.

Montrouge is an artist who works in both France and Reunion Island. Os describes a journey, a path to be looked at from different viewpoints. The dancers move forward in skewed parallel, they do not engage in dialogue but constantly measure each other's presence. A woman lies on the ground with her eyes open. A dance, all twisting and balance, constantly defines the relationship between bones and the earth.

Os is presented with the support of CulturesFrance, the French Institute of South Africa and the French Embassy in South Africa.

Wola-Baba is a collaborative work created by Via Katlehong (South Africa) and Back to Hip Hop (France) that will be showcased by Via Katlehong at the UJ Theatre, March 9 & 10 @ 19:00.

Wola-Baba is the meeting of two different cultures with backgrounds in Africa verses Europe but which find similarities. A strong influence of the South African KOFIFI lifestyle which combines the mine scenes and gumboot dance meeting with European street life within their GHETTOS. Hip-hop articulates this fusion of a universal lingua. The production has received the support of the French Institute of South Africa and the French Embassy in South Africa.

Inside of Me Another Island “Dentro de mim outra ilha” choreographed by Panaibra Gabriel from Company CulturArte - Maputo – Mozambique can be seen at the U J Arts Centre on March 12 & 13 @ 20:00

This creation is a mutual challenge between the “I” and the other, between man and the actual being, between being an individual and being part of a whole. Within this lies a paradox, particularly at a time when the world walks towards a social globalization, where there is a lack and abundance, drought and rainfalls, poor and rich, under-developed and developed. It has been assisted by the Centre Culturel Franco-Mozambicain.

Muramba, a collaboration between South African artist Sifiso E. Kweyama and Gilbert Douglas from Zimbabwe, will be presented at the UJ Arts Centre on March 9 & 10 @ 20:30

It has been one year since the government of Zimbabwe embarked on the Murambatsvina (clean-up) campaign that left more than a million people homeless and/ or unemployed. The implications of the exercise were such that till this present day people have become vagrants in their own homes. Accommodation is a crucial part of human existence, it is in fact a basic human right. I believe that in all countries people do what they can to make sure they have a roof over their heads and more so in third world countries.

Other highlights for FNB Dance Umbrella 2007 are The Gauteng MEC Awards for Contemporary Choreography and Dance 2006, which will be presented on Saturday, March 17, at the Wits Amphitheatre before the final performances.

The FNB Dance Umbrella 2007 will also include a Young Choreographers Residency Programme which has been funded by the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund and the National Arts Council. This will take place from February 27 to March 11, 2007.

The FNB Dance Umbrella 2007 has been made possible with assistance from First National Bank; National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund; The French Institute of South Africa; The French Embassy in South Africa; Centre Culturel Franco-Mozambicain; CulturesFrance; Business and Arts South Africa; the National Arts Council; Pro-Helvetia: Swiss Arts Council; The Goethe Institute of Johannesburg and the Gauteng Department of Sport, Recreation, Arts & Culture.

Tickets for the FNB Dance Umbrella are available at the door or can be booked at Computicket and prices range from R20.00 to R80.00. Concessions/block bookings and subscription tickets are available.

For further information contact 011 482 4140 / 011 482 5615 or e-mail danceumbrella@artslink.co.za

The Dance Umbrella hot-line for up-dates and programmes is 072 703 9332 or visit www.artslink.co.za/arts

ENDS

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