On 8 April at 19:30 the Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts (GIPCA), in association with the UCT School of Dance, presents the premières of Place of Grace by Gerard Samuels, and Homebody by Nicola Visser.
Place Of Grace is an open-air performance installation, featuring Samuels’ new dance film by the same title to be projected on an outside wall at the UCT School of Dance buildings, accompanied by performances by dancers featured in the film. Samuels received a Donald Gordon Creative Arts Award for this project, and collaborated with filmmaker Shelley Barry on the film, delving into themes of forgiveness and reconciliation. The film was shot in the Overberg community of Genadendal.
“I am hoping that dance and film students, and the public in general, will re-look at post-modernist approaches to contemporary choreography,” said Samuels about what he wants to accomplish with this film and project.
“I was a delighted to work with high calibre artists like Jamila Rodrigues and Mduduzi Nyembe, who have both been directly exposed to the German dance theatre pioneer Pina Bauch’s tanzteater form,” said Samuels. “Ilona Frege, a guest lecturer of choreography and former founder member of First Physical theatre co. was also the perfect choice for me, given her open heart and nuanced performance,” he added.
The evening will also include Visser’s Homebody, an exhibition showcasing the process and outcomes of her two-year movement improvisation project with mothers and daughters. This is a culmination of Visser’s work as a Donald Gordon Creative Arts Fellow for 2010.
Homebody is a landscape and movement improvisation project involving a group of mothers and daughters, taking place in Kalk Bay, Western Cape and Smitsville, Klein Karoo. The exhibition will display artefacts – felt works and photographs – from the Cape Town stage of the project. The Smitsville arm of the project continues into 2012. “It is about shifting a local conversation in movement and dance away from a narrow focus on ethno-historical genre towards a far deeper set of engagements,” said Visser.
Start: 8 Apr ’11 7:30 am
End: 8 Apr ’11 5:00 pm
Cost: Free
Category: Dance, Performance
Organizer: GIPCA
Email: fin-gipca@uct.ac.za
Venue: UCT School of Dance
Address: Google Map Woolsack Avenue, Rondebosch, Cape Town, South Africa