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Beverley Brommert
When Joburg Ballet makes its Cape Town début at the end of this month, the Mother City's ballet-lovers will be able to experience at first hand a refreshing quartet of new works collectively titled SCARCITY. Among them is Salomé, choreographed by the highly respected Dada Masilo.
This remarkable young woman, recently honoured in Italy with a Premio Positano Léonide Massine Lifetime Achievement Award for innovative artistry in dance, has an enviable gift for the unexpected. It is immediately apparent in her breezy remark, "I choreograph by default. I much prefer to dance, but if there is no work for me to perform, I have to create one!"
A matter-of-fact honesty laced with humour characterises her comments on herself, her art, and her achievements, with ne'er a hint of self-congratulation, however justified.
Her distinguished career began when, still in her pre-teens, Johannesburg-born and bred Masilo became aware of her natural affinity with dance; encouraged by an aunt, she enrolled at the Dance Factory. Shortly thereafter, she auditioned for further training in Brussels (the only successful candidate from Africa) and pursued her chosen path overseas.
"I just wanted to learn more", she says, adding that for her, training is all-important. An openness to inclusive cultural absorption accounts in large measure for the recognition she is now enjoying.
Her success is based on the artful integration of European and African traditions in ballet, and she explains that, far from coercing two different cultures into an uneasy amalgam, she uses her considerable training to establish parallels between the two.
"One is the product of one's culture; when dealing with the great transcendentals of life, such as lust, revenge, passion, jealousy, there is no European-based or African-based approach, there is simply honest depiction. One must tell it like it is, unapologetically."
She has reworked great classics of the ballet repertoire (such as Swan Lake, Giselle, Carmen), adding her own interpretation in both choreography and content. In the case of Carmen, for instance, she blends contemporary dance and flamenco, with the theme of gender-based violence as a thread in the narrative. In all her work, she prides herself on authenticity.
In Salomé, her latest creation, she takes the biblical story of obsession and aberration and gives it a contemporary twist:
"I have kept the religious aspect in the background, to focus rather on the toxic relationships depicted in the piece. It is very dark: evil is omnipresent and scary, not just in Salomé's fixation with the object of her desire, but also in the games Herod plays; it makes one's flesh crawl."
The new ballet lasts approximately 30 minutes, and the costumes, though simple, are suggestively coloured: purple for Salomé (passion), yellow for Herod's wife (jealousy), and the men are in formal suits. Masilo remarks that she is more concerned with personae than with what they wear, which is in keeping with her philosophy of dealing with reality at the core of existence.
Choreographically, she favours the "snake technique", which liberates the dancer from the tight "box" of ballet to find every spiral and crease in the body, leading from the often-neglected back space: "it releases the body and enables it to connect freely," she explains.
Her work will no doubt unsettle and challenge its viewers, but in a constructive way that is ultimately enriching, a breath of fresh air wafting through the hallowed halls of classical ballet.
Joburg Ballet’s SCARCITY is an exhilarating quartet of dance works. Along with Dada Masilo’s first work for Joburg Ballet, Salomé (inspired by the play by Oscar Wilde), SCARCITY also includes The Void (by German-based choreographer, Hannah Ma), Ukukhanya Kwenyanga: A Moonlight Waltz (by Craig Pedro), Azul (by Dutch-based, Spanish choreographer Jorge Pérez Martínez). SCARCITY will run at the Baxter Theatre from 24 to 26 October 2024. Tickets can be booked online through Webtickets.