Creating under the influence

By DEBBIE HATHWAY
Psychological workshops formed part of director Lara Foot Newton’s preparation for PARTLY GOD. Tony Hamburger, a Johannesburg clinical psychologist, ran a workshop with the cast in which they had to sculpt a family. The outcome? Most of them share an uncomfortable relationship with their fathers … so absent fathers became one of the main themes of this production.
Jazzart’s Dance Joint director and teacher, John Linden, is a prime example. John’s father died in 2006, having never seen him dance because “dancing was not for men; only for sissies.”
At 53, John makes his performance comeback in PARTLY GOD as father to company member Douglas Griffiths in the role of his son. They perform three extremely powerful duets developed to text that was entirely inspired by alcohol! “Lara was talking to John and I one night … we were both pissed … she wrote down everything we said!” says artistic director Alfred Hinkel.
John is the kind of man that in the words of author Marian Keyes bristles “… with an invisible force field that warned me not to try and touch him under any circumstances.” It’s perfect for his role as he stoically rejects every advance Douglas makes to regain his attention and affection.
John grew up in a family of nine children in Okiep, Namaqualand, and boasts a reputation as the best rugby player in Namaqualand and the Hantam area in the Karoo. “I was a rooker … in my gelapte jeans … I failed Afrikaans three times and eventually dropped out of school,” he says.
But a chance meeting with Alfred, who used to teach dance to John’s younger sister, was the start of an unexpected career as a dancer, teacher and choreographer. “Dance changed my lifestyle,” says John. “If I’d stayed at home I would have been a school teacher.”
Alfred’s need for a last minute replacement "to catch and lift" the female dancer in a performance pas de deux set the ball rolling. John worked as a freelancer in Namibia, Johannesburg, Sun City and the Wild Coast before joining Jazzart Dance Theatre in 1981. “I’d heard about this company of only coloured people and a few whites, so I came to Cape Town. Sun City was all ‘tits and ass’; I hated the shows but the money was there. All that mincing on stage … it wasn’t male enough for me.”