Hailed as a ‘dance pioneer’ by the respected dance critic Adrienne Sichel, Van Tonder’s contribution to the festival will comprise the delivery of a paper, a film-screening in collaboration with videographer Joelle Chesselet, and a performance called The End. In considering the points of departure for her investigations, Van Tonder questions the reality of this day’s story, and of one’s own existence. “The significance of the collective existence creates its own logic. The true perception of every reality is to be grasped, and felt in the body, but in a new territory of earth changes, this is not easily digested by a group of people from different backgrounds,” she says, and will speak of how her body remains her primary and most elemental indicator for re-arrangement and re-imagination of her role as community member and as South African dancer, both in equal measures.
She will share some details of her move away from the city, and how the great movement of ecologically-minded people is not without its troubles, yet is loaded with potential for social and creative resilience. As dancer and soil-and-food-grower, she is moved by her enquiry into various facets of a life on the land, its demand for commitment and creativity, the social fabric of transparency for the sake of community, and the re-rise of the pagan charge; inspired by the volatility of our nature. She asserts that earth changes call for creativity and the most creative amongst us are in the same boat as those who are in denial of this profundity: one that offers us the bridge between fear and possibility.
“Every act has a dignity of the situation it reflects - dignity, neither over- or under-played, that comes from my interest in the particularities of, and gratitude for, life. Any activity can provide an opportunity to open our senses to the phenomenal world and therefore my work vacillates between the silent centre and the excessive response – every moment a condensed calamity,” Van Tonder explains. “Small is inevitable, local is desirable, simplicity rules, paying attention to internal and external patterns and overriding any binary becomes the pathway for the mind to follow. It demands a bustling philosophical engagement that asks of us what we make of The End.” The film of her work on the land brings justice to an imaginary life of meditational creativity - and pure labour - outside the ‘space of theatre’.”
For decades, Van Tonder has been performing her explorations into the death dances and rituals, facing our greatest fears in order to risk what it takes to be alive and express what we really are; and as such has positioned herself at the forefront of this country’s performance art investigations.
The performance forms part of the opening ceremony on Friday, 14 October which begins at 18:00. Her talk is at 14:00 on Saturday, 15 October.
GIPCA’s
Hot Water Festival will probe the relationship between the threat of climate change and it's representation in the creative and performing arts. The weekend brings together scientists and artists to look at what needs to be said and what are the most effective ways of saying this.
For more information on the full
Hot Water Festival programme, phone the GIPCA office on 021 480 7156 or e-mail
[email protected]. For tickets phone Adrienne on 021 480 7156 or Gilly 082 820 8584 or at the door. Tickets for the weekend are R60 or R20 for students and pensioners or R30 per day.