When I began my journey in this world of the arts industry I started out as a young and very impressionable ballerina. And whenever I 'flashback' to my early years, ballet inevitably forms a big part of where I first found my foundation, my foothold and my future career.
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| Les Sylphides for Roodepoort Youth Ballet |
To begin at the beginning, it all began when I became a proud and incredibly dedicated student at the
National School of The Arts in Braamfontein, Johannesburg where I eventually matriculated as a Dance specialty major. We had wonderful dance teachers when I attended NSA,
Vyvyan Lorrayne Nieminen, Joyce Myroff, Bernice Lloyd and
Nigel Hannah for ballet,
Rhoda Rivkind for Spanish and
Robyn Orlin for Contemporary dance.
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| Pas de Deux in Suite in the Morning by Boyzie Cekwana |
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| Solo for Suite in the Morning by Boyzie Cekwana |
I was 16 when our Gr 10 year group was choreographed on by the extremely talented and inspired
Boyzie Cekwana, commissioned by the
National Arts Council to create a work on us for
Dance Spectrum 1998. I was truly privileged to be selected to dance as a lead in the piece entitled
Suite in the Morning (Version 1). This was where my love for contemporary and working with sound and rhythm really began.
The highly respected arts critic
Adrienne Sichel wrote...
'A duet and a solo (no detailed casting in programme), to the first of several Bobby McFerrin songs, introduces a vocabulary that revels in the dislocation and juxtaposition of torso limbs and psyches. The mood intensifies to realistic blood and bone rage and grief. Not too tall an order for the NSA dancers who stamp Cekwana's complex process with total ownership.' I was very proud of that performance and achievement.
In Matric we performed an avante garde and exhilarating piece
'Lambs dressed as mutton' by the prestigious
Robyn Orlin and I just loved working with her.
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| In Lambs Dressed as Mutton by Robyn Orlin |
Rhoda Rivkind revived an older spanish work where I got to wear a tail dress for the first time. Eeek! We also danced the final act from the ballet
Paquita and I remember working so incredibly hard on my solo. We were trained for this performance specifically by the renowned
Nicola Middlemist, the former senior ballet mistress from Pact Ballet. Such an honour!
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| Soloists in Paquita |
At the Matric Dance Awards where all the students with over 75% average competed, I was thrilled to be awarded the contemporary award and also shared the spanish award with my talented friend
Sarah King, later we became colleagues together at the
South African Ballet Theatre.
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| Top Award for Spanish with Sarah King and for Contemporary Dance |
During my school years I joined
Dirk Badenhorst's Roodepoort Youth Ballet. We worked on great classics like
Coppelia and
Les Sylphides, that taught me the discipline for longer ballet and company work.
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| Coppelia for Roodepoort Yout Ballet |
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| In a dressing room in Welkom or was it PE? |
Soon after completing my school years at NSA, I joined the newly founded
South African Ballet Theatre in 2001 on a tour of
Giselle all over South Africa. It was some of the most fun I have ever had on tour. We traveled in a large Greyhound bus which quickly became home and the driver a great friend. I think we may have left our names on a couple of pub walls (or floors) in Welkom, PE, Kimberley and a few others. (There's nothing quite like making it through your first forward bend in ballet class the morning after! Oi wey!)
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| Our Tour Bus |
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| As a Wili at Giselle's grave |
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| The peasant girls |
We performed many of the wonderful white classics duing my time with the company, Giselle, Carmen, Swan Lake, Coppelia (which celebrated the company's 1st anniversary), La Syphide, Sleeping Beauty and the Nutcracker. We also performed a Gala performance of Ballet Highlights including the Indian piece Awakening the Spirit by Jayesperi Moopen, The Glow Worm Idyll by Fiona Budd and one of my favourites, the brilliant contemporary work The Time it Takes to Do This by Timothy le Roux.
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| Coppelia's Friends |
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| The Spanish Doll |
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| Awakening The Spirit |
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| The Time It Takes To Do This |
My favourite production with SABT was undoubtedly Veronica Paeper's
Carmen. It was heated, sensual and exciting. It was fabulously free and a very rewarding ballet to perform.
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| I'm the one on the floor reaching towards Ian MacDonald |
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| The Cigarette Ladies - Left Middle |
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| The Cigarette Ladies - Middle |
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| Angela Malan as Odette |
I remember getting the worst blisters on both my feet's big toes during our season of
Swan Lake, they became so infected and festered that I was surviving each 3 act performance on two myprodol as well as a cataflam. I would stand in the
corps de ballet line in my swan arm position trying to wipe away sweat mixed with tears from the pain. But it was undoubtedly one of the most beautiful ballets to dance. I loved when the female company would sit behind the stage curtain in a swan circle, the stage crew would fill the space with clouds of smoke until we couldn't see each other. Then as the curtains were raised and the music began all the swan 'wings' emerged from the clouds in unison.
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| Scene where Aurora is cursed |
For our run of the classic
Sleeping Beauty, I was excited to be cast to dance the
pas de quatre in this ballet. During the run however, I became injured and had to take some time off. During my time of healing I was informed that my contract was sadly not going to be renewed the following year because the company needed to add more male performers to the company. I was gutted.
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| Pas De Quatre |
I danced in another season of my favourite
Carmen and finally
the Nutcracker before completing my time with SABT and entering into the big unknown. It was such n emotional time for me. I had had big plans to become the next character principle, to follow in the footsteps of my idol
Nigel Hannah and to build a long career within the company.
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| Nutcracker Snowflakes - State Theatre |
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| Nutcracker Snowflakes - Joburg Theatre |
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| This Snowflake also doubled as the vicious Rat Queen |
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| Waltz of the Flowers |
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| Spanish Duet |
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| As the wonderfully drunk Aunt in Nutcracker Act 1 |
But my true career journey had only just begun. I returned short years later to those same stages in the Pretoria
State Theatre, Cape Town's
Artscape, Durban's
Playhouse Drama Theatre and the
Nelson Mandela Theatre (then titled the Joburg Civic) performing in major musicals and productions which I never thought I would one day become a part of.
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| The SABT Company |
I certainly learned my love for the stage and for creating characters in my season of being a ballerina. The discipline of it, the commitment and perseverance, it's vast history and the passion of its dedicated disciples will always be part of who I am.
''The feet may learn the steps, but only the soul can dance"
Chat soon,
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