Dada Masilo’s CARMEN in JHB in September
WOW, sounds like the South African Dance scene finally got it’s groove on, thanks to the groundbreaking work of the edgy young choreographer/Director Dada Masilo that’s filling up theatre seats – Go Go Go and support this new wave of dance this month: Thanks to support from the City of Johannesburg, local audiences will get to see the latest dance/theatre work by 24 year-old trailblazer, Dada Masilo. Her CARMEN, which dazzled audiences at the recent National Arts Festival, will be staged at The Dance Factory from September 10th to 13th, as part of the Arts Alive International Festival. During the past few years, Masilo has made a name for herself both as a dancer and as a choreographer. Trained in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Brussels, Masilo is a Contemporary dancer, who has a deep love for the classics – from Shakespeare to Tchaikovsky, from Ballet to Flamenco. As a dancer, she has impressed with her `signature speed` – the ability to move like greased lightening; and also to imbue her roles with a precocious theatricality. As choreographer, she has been amazingly daring, tackling the `big’ stories and boldly fusing dance techniques; musically, mixing the original scores with twentieth century composers and performers. In 2008, Masilo was the recipient of the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Dance. For that National Arts Festival, she created a ROMEO AND JULIET, based closely on Shakespeare’s text – but reflecting the youth of the title characters in her use of Bach and Vivaldi, performed by Vanessa Mae and Nigel Kennedy. The work drew large critical and audience support and was restaged for the Arts Alive International Festival 2008, where it failed to disappoint. In October, it goes to the Baxter Theatre Centre in Cape Town. CARMEN posed an even bigger challenge. Masilo says: I began with the idea of unraveling Carmen the woman – to search beneath the surface presented in the ballets and operas – to find the vulnerability beneath the cold, heartless exterior. In the process of research, there was so much to unravel: I searched for Bizet and found Shchedrin, I discovered many existing narratives. Ultimately, I have created a narrative which allows me and the dancers to do what we love most – to dance. The first phase of CARMEN, was UNRAVELLING CARMEN a thirty-minute work commissioned by the FNB Dance Umbrella with additional support from the National Arts Council. This work, for seven dancers, premiered last March. Adrienne Sichel in The Star wrote: Not unexpectedly, Dada Masilo’s commissioned Unraveling Carmen…goes for the artistic jugular.The white floor transforms not into a bullring, but a red rose-spattered arena of sex,...
We will be back!
