“Exile”: Infecting the City Festival, 2009, Cape Town.
Collaborative site-specific performance in Cape Town, South Africa: February 2009
Working in Cape Town; collaborators developing new works for Performing Arts Festival, Sponsored by Spier Wine Co. www.infectingthecity.com
In February 2009, Jazzart Dance Theatre’s Artistic Director Alfred Hinkel began a collaborative process with 1 local and 2 international artists for the Spier Performing Arts Festival Infecting the City. The resulting site-specific work Exile, which was performed in the fountains in Cape Town’s Adderley Street, was described by the press as ‘simply riveting’ (Die Burger) and as a ‘deeply moving’ and ‘breathtaking performance’ (Cape Argus).
The theme for this site-specific theatre piece, the raw emotional subject of xenophobia; relating specifically to a spate of racial violence and murder that erupted in May of 2008 in South Africa. Violence in which people were hurled out of upper storey windows, and thrown from moving trains, and in a number of other horrific incidents. 63 refugees were murdered, many more injured. To be given the opportunity to tackle such a difficult and demanding subject, and create work that was commenting directly on the immediate social and political situation has been – challenging, daunting, and exhausting, and ultimately rewarding.
Collaborators included:
Mike Lister; Director, Avanti Display
Alfred Hinkel; Artistic Director of Jazz Art Dance Theatre: www.jazzart.co.za
Mary Manzole; performer/dancer from Zambia
Penelope Youngleson; performer/singer from Cape Town
Brett Bailey is the Artistic Curator of Infecting The City Festival: www.thirdworldbunfight.co.za
