Dance REVIEW

Dance at the proscenium stage is rare in Namibia. Apart from the annual ballet performance, there are only of handful performances, which treat dance as an art. After the curtains were raised at the most recent dance performance at the National Theatre of Namibia, I heard a voice announce “ Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the College of the Arts Dance show, we are going to entertain you with a variety of dances – modern, Afro-fusion, contemporary and Hip Hop, please enjoy the show and don’t forget the applause”. I then recalled I was watching the winter show of the students and teachers of the dance program of the College of the Arts for the enjoyment of the students’ friends and family, without whose support there would be no dedicated dance students and no show. Hence, the challenge for teachers at the college of the arts is to create dances that express their artistic visions, as well creating dances that are entertaining.

The show was titled Reflections of Us and it did show part of what it means to be a dancer for the concert stage. While a group of unassuming women, of different shapes and sizes, some voluptuous others slim, moved sinuously on stage, swaying their hips and rolling their shoulders, a video of dancers rehearsing hip hop and stretching was projected on the background. The dancers in the video were kids and teenagers, while the women on stage appeared to be adults. This enchanting juxtaposition made a statement – we are dancers, we are men and women, of different ages and this is what we do. Indeed, I was also mesmerized by the most of the other pieces, where I saw the bodies of young people jet through space, as they leapt with one arm forward and legs spread in the air; the beating of a foot against the knee as a woman hops with her one leg bent in the shape resembling the number 7 against her other straight one, the scurry of young girls across the stage, with their arms free to wave. Enjoyment was manifested in the physicality, as the young boys and girls were dancing in group formations to music of popular songs. Amidst this commotion of many bodies, there were also gem solo moments, such as a girl shaking her omatako in rapid, punctuated movements, which roused roaring cries from the audience.
There was also a Michael Jackson impersonation, a solo performed by a teenage girl. She executed his legendary moves; the fast side steps with the knees bent just a tad and that bouncing of the shoulders and she did all this with such ease that she appeared indifferent to the crowd’s cheers. I would have loved to see her let loose and improvise a little as she reveled in her moment on stage.

Apart from the pieces that were meant to entertain, the choreographers Trixie Munyama and Angelica Schröder presented works that attempted to engage some aspects of being Namibian. Munyama showed a piece set on a group of teenage girls. The girls were initialy all asleep in a clump on stage and then one by one ,they awoke and performed a solo. One girl moved in drudging heavy steps and then sat down with her head over her head and rocked back and forth like a big, angry baby. Another spun around and opened her arms to the sides as if she wanted some type of freedom. For me, Munyama was touching on the tension between childhood and incipient womanhood. This was especially made clear by the backdrop, which was a collage of several newspaper headings about the youth. In addition, sounds of giggling girls that spoke about boys came and went during the piece. At one point, the girls came to dance together, and a song from the contemporary South African pop genre was played, complete with an unmistakably African female voice. As group of girls moved towards center stage, they expanded and contracted theirs chests and thumped their feet in a repeating rhythm. Group dancing dominated for the remained of the piece, with a lot of different movements from the standard modern dance reparatory, like the attitude kick. Unfortunately, the memorable solos from the start of the piece were not reintroduced for further development. Questions remained answered - Who are these girls or women? What is their story? At the end, the group came together, with one girl standing atop the shoulders of the others, with her fist raised in the air, like the SWAPO man. This seemed to be a victory, but because there was so much going earlier, I probably did catch what battle was won. Munyama would do well to hone in on that one element she is engaging, which for me had to do with coming of age. I saw the young girls running across the stage to throw handfuls of sparkly glitter to audience, Africanist dance, modern dance technique and even movements with political echoes. I would love to see one of these developed throughout the whole piece.

Angelica Schröder, however, focused on her Afro-fusion technique in her piece, which mesmerized me. The dancing was in the foreground of a projection of traditional Namibian dancers in grass skirts, from either Kavango or Caprivi. The feet of these men and women furiously struck sandy ground at the center of stadium, surrounded by spectators. Indeed, national celebrations at stadiums are the place and occasion that most of Windhoek’s residents encounter traditional dance. Now it was here, projected on stage, while a young woman also adorning grass skirt dances on the proscenium. But she did not mimic the professionals on the screen. Instead, she carries a basket in her arms and in swooping gestures appears to collecting food, sorting grain from the chaff or offering. Later, she leaves the basket and clicks her heels together in jumps across the stage, in an unmistakable Namastap, which to me resembled the cabriole of ballet. She is joined by a large group of women who dance with their arms, moving them in rippling waves. The contrast between the footwork of the screen and the articulation of arms was captivating. However, what are to make of this? We only fully grasp Schröder’s aim when she herself performs as a silhouette superimposed on the footage of the traditional dance. The shadow moves fluidly, the muscles of the whole arm gesticulating in wide caresses of the spaces above her. I remember how she bent backwards, with her breast to the sky, as if she was imploring the heavens with her arms. This fluidity was punctuated by sharp jumps with both legs, as if she was plucked from the floor by waist, and wide arcs of an extended leg through the space and bouncy steps of the feet in effervescent rhythms. This improvisation of Schröder, which employed West Africa styles, demonstrated with great ebullience what how one can expand and manipulate our local dance vocabulary, by mixing styles of ‘the West’, with that of West Africa and our own.

Reflections of Us was an eye opener into the creativity of Namibian choreographers who have ingeniously incorporated their art into a dance recital of the only conservatory in Namibia, the college of the Arts. Without being pretentious, they delivered entertainment and something more to think about.