Riveting moves in rehearsal

By DEBBIE HATHWAY
It’s just over a month before Jazzart Dance Theatre’s partly god premieres in Cape Town. The boys are workshopping contact work in one studio while the girls piece together choreography in another.
Neo Muyanga of blk sonshine has composed the music and pops in to see what’s changed since he last saw a rehearsal. The girls are using his deeply impressive, melodic soundtrack − it will sound different when he plays it live on stage with a band.
Prominent classical ballet choreographer Veronica Paeper is also there watching the boys’ rehearsal. After a while, I ask her what she thinks. “It’s stunning… absolutely stunning,” she says, only averting her eyes long enough to phone her husband and tell him she’s staying for another half an hour.
We’re watching the wheelbarrow scene. “It’s got to look vicious and ugly,” says artistic director Alfred Hinkel. “At the moment they look like puftas.”
Company member Douglas Griffiths is lying on his back with his lower legs strapped to the arms of the wheelbarrow. One by one, the dancers take a flying leap into the barrow with a force that makes Douglas’ lower body arch into the air before contracting as he thrusts the barrow down again to eject them. It’s hurting his ankles and heels and they struggle to find a way of strapping that will get him through 10 performances without severe injury.
Somebody has a brainwave and Douglas declares “Dis fine.”
"Want jy’s a ghetto kind!" Alfred beams, as Douglas prepares for the next onslaught.
"We’ve got to get the image right; then she (director Lara Foot-Newton) wants me to turn this into a bigger dance number,” says Alfred.
They tackle the garbage can scene next, leaving the xenophobia and gang scenes for later. Company member Grant van Ster demonstrates, deftly taking Douglas out at the knees in a ferocious move that challenges the other dancers, particularly if they heights are incompatible.
There’s action on every beat and it’s hectic. The dancers have to be super-fit to cope. One gets knocked in the face by a stray kick; another rolls on the floor grimacing in pain as they work through another combination.
Alfred is unsympathetic. “Dis nie lekker nie. I told you when you came to the audition, go get a decent job. You wanted to be a dancer!” He says that to everyone...
Co-choreographer Sbonakalsio Ndaba advises quietly from the side: “Your body needs to relax so it goes out of control…” It’s a fight scene and it’s got to be realistic.
In the other room, co-choreographers Ina Wichterich-Mogane and Ananda Fuchs are combing steps to break the tension and give the piece a different atmosphere. It’s lighter; more rhythmical. “Why can’t the women do contact work?” asks Ina of nobody in particular. “Why is it always the men?” Ananda works in a gentle push action that satisfies them for the moment. Maybe Ina will think again when she sees how the men are punishing their bodies…