Dance theatre: Locked Doors, Behind Doors – the stage version

Dance theatre: Locked Doors, Behind Doors – the stage version – is premièring at Artscape- Cape Town Feb 2022

Locked Doors, Behind Doors– the stage version– is premièring – on stage – at Artscape in Cape Town. There are only four performances of this piece which began as a site responsive work at the Hostel 33 at the Lwandle Migrant Labour Museum on May 1, 2021, Workers Day. The performance marked the 21st year of the opening of the museum. The work “explores the pandemic lockdown in relation to South Africa’s silenced, almost forgotten, history of slave and migrant labour”. Direction is by Indoni’s artistic director,award winning choreographer, Sbonakaliso Ndaba. The February 2022 season at Artscape, marks its first incarnation, on stage, in a theatre. The May 1, 2021 site responsive performance, was hosted outside the museum, for the community in Lwandle. I watched the performance, streamed online and found it poignant and tender, threaded with rage, with an urgency to tell the story of the past as it intersects with our present in lockdown, in the Covid pandemic. Review link, follows. In tandem with the site responsive performance, a documentary was made, providing insights into the genesis of the piece; research and process. The documentary premièred online, streaming, as part of The Artscape Women’s Humanity Arts 2021 [August] and as part of the Woordfees on DSTV Channel 150 [October 2021]. Watch this captivating documentary on YouTube: https://youtu.be/yKzO8A7qll8 Review link to documentary follows.  Info about the staging at Artscape and history of Locked Doors, Behind Doors, as supplied.

The genesis of Locked Doors, Behind Doors

In the pandemic, Indoni’s artistic director, Sbonakaliso Ndaba, together with the company, researched “our history of lockdowns and forged a work that remembers, with respect and compassion, the thousands of South Africans who lived and worked under conditions even more appalling and restricted.” In a world “upended by a pandemic, locked down levels and restricted freedoms became the norm. Fear, anger, anxiety and hopelessness became overriding emotions. Present generations of South Africans lived isolated in their homes, many in cramped and crowded conditions in the townships, the hotspots of infections. They delved deeper into histories of the generations of slaves who were stripped of their own identities, home and family, then transported and sold to provide labour to the colony whilst being housed in overcrowded, disease – ridden lodges.  They then turned their spotlight on generations of migrant labourers, who were housed in cramped single sex hostels, controlled by curfews and the infamous pass book.”

Development and funding of Locked Doors, Behind Doors

The creation and performance of Locked Doors, Behind Doors, was developed in partnership with the Goethe-Institut of South Africa as part of the Goethe-Institut Project Space (GPS) together with additional funding from PESP funding through National Arts Council, and DSAC (National Department of Sports Arts and Culture) and DCAS (Provincial Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport), Business and Arts South Africa and TEMO. After the site responsive performance on May 1, 2021, Indoni streamed its documentary about the process of creating the piece at The Artscape Women’s Humanity Arts 2021 [August] and as part of the Woordfees on DSTV Channel 150 [October 2021]. Indoni invites people to watch: “ In case you missed it, we now invite all our supporters to view the documentary that shares insights into the creative processes of award winning choreographer, Sbonakaliso Ndaba, and her dancers when developing a new production on YouTube:https://youtu.be/yKzO8A7qll8.”

Locked Doors, Behind Doors– the stage version

The stage version of Locked Doors, Behind Doors, will be a different incarnation of the site responsive performance on May 1, 2021, which was presented outside a museum which is a remnant and repository of the migrant labour system in Apartheid, South Africa. The space of a theatre, at Artscape, presents an opportunity for Sbonakaliso Ndaba and the company to revive this important dance piece in a new context and in a time when the pandemic has eased considerably and it is possible to gather indoors, albeit with socially distanced seats and a masked audience. Covid protocols will be in place at Artscape.

✳ Sponsored content. Featured image- a still from the site responsive performance of Locked Doors, Behind Doors, at the Hostel 33 at the Lwandle Migrant Labour Museum on May 1, 2021, Workers Day.

✳ Related coverage of Town’s Indoni Dance, Arts and Leadership Academy on TheCapeRobyn:

https://thecaperobyn.co.za/dance-review-locked-doors-behind-doors-by-indoni-on-youtube/https://thecaperobyn.co.za/dance-film-review-an-enthralling-day-of-communal-celebration-in-locked-doors-behind-doors/