Dance: Locked Doors, Behind Doors by Indoni, from May 1, 2021

Dance: Locked Doors, Behind Doors by Indoni, live stream performance, premieres on Labour Day South Africa, May 1, 2021 on YouTube – FREE

Indoni Dance Arts and Leadership Academy, Cape Town is premiering its new work, Locked Doors, Behind Doors, at 10.30am, on Saturday, May 1, 2021- Labour Day. The performance will take place, in front of Hostel 33, at the Lwandle Migrant Labour Museum, Lwandle, The Strand. The live performance, will be streamed on YouTube, in real time. Thereafter, a recording of the performance, will be archived on YouTube. There is no charge to watch but Indoni welcomes donations. As it is Covid and we are under lockdown, there is a limit on attendance, on site, in front of the museum. Strict safety regulations will apply. If you would like to attend, please contact Paula Kelly – paulakelly73@gmail.com or mobile 083 267 3029. There is no limit to the number of viewers on YouTube. It is not geo locked, so please share the link – worldwide.

Locked Doors, Behind Doors is an exploration of “the realities of South Africa’s silenced, almost forgotten, history of slave and migrant labour.” Choreography is by Indoni’s artistic director, Sbonakaliso Ndaba. It is fitting that the premiere of this important work is taking place on the site of the museum which is a potent memorial to the inequities of labour in South Africa. Working with Ndaba, the dancers have “reflected on the stark circumstances of their recent lives during the many months of the Covid 19 pandemic, when home no longer equalled a place of safety and comfort but induced feelings of powerlessness, frustration, anger, anxiety and despair.” Seeking to contextualise their experiences, the Indoni artists conducted extensive research into how generations of migrant labourers and slaves, “lived and worked under appalling and restricted conditions.” In Locked Doors, Behind Doors, the Indoni artists grappled with history and uncomfortable truths in this country. In this piece, they are “acknowledging these generations and their sacrifices” and how this chilling history has shaped South Africa. It is significant that the premiere of this new piece is taking place on the site of where labourers resided; stripped of their dignity and identity; cut off from their families and society. Lwandle becomes the lens, which we look through, watching as the artists ignite a dialogue between the present – lockdown – and the Apartheid past- in which labourers were locked down.

*The Lwandle Migrant Labour Museum opened on May, 1, Labour Day, 2000. It is a memorial to and documents the way migrant labour was controlled and ratified by the Apartheid regime ,with the network of single sex hostels. Black male workers lived in dormitories in these hostels and were kept on a leash via the Apartheid era Pass (identity document). With democracy in South Africa, the hostels were refurbished as family accommodation but the community in Lwandle wanted to preserve a hostel, to image the past and how people were enslaved.

Dancers of Indoni in rehearsal for Locked Doors, Behind Doors, choreographed by Indoni’s artistic director, Sbonakaliso Ndaba. May 1, 2021 is the premiere of the piece. It will be performed on site, Lwandle Migrant Labour Museum, Lwandle, The Strand at 10.30am and will be live streamed on YouTube. The recording will archived on YouTube.

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