It was a treat to attend Dance Intersect 2025 in Cape Town – exceptional and beautiful dance across diverse genres and approaches. The 2025 Dance Intersect platform was produced by Elvis Sibeko Studios and presented by Anderson Carvalho Dance & Choreography (ACDC). The programme featured ACDC’s Fragmented Landscape, choreographed by Anderson Carvalho, with an ensemble of South African and international dancers; Speak the Hidden, presented by New World Dance Theatre in Cape Town, choreographed by Marlin Zoutman; Discord, by guest choreographers Chesney Stanfield and Emile Petersen of Cape Town’s Gain Collective and Les Nuits d’été, by the Greek National Opera Ballet, choreographed by Konstantinos Rigos.
I attended the 2nd last performance of Dance Intersect 2025. The season was on at Artscape for four performances- Oct 2-4. I was not able to be at the opening and 2nd night because it was Yom Kippur – Jewish Day of Atonement.
This was the 3rd iteration in Cape Town of the platform which presents a thrilling intersection of approaches and genres. The first iteration of Dance Intersect was at the Joseph Stone Auditorium in Athlone. The 2024 season was at the Baxter and now the 2025 season was at Artscape.
Dance Intersect was established by Brazilian Dutch choreographer Anderson Carvalho of ACDC (Anderson Carvalho Dance & Choreography). ACDC is a based in the Netherlands. It works as a seasonal company on a project to project basis. Core to the approach by Anderson Carvalho is to co-create work with dancers, musicians and designers. For each Dance Intersect, he has gathered a company of dancers from South Africa and abroad to co-create a new dance piece. Fragmented Landscape was ACDC’s featured piece this year at Dance Intersect. The work premiered in Utrecht and then toured to Kigali. The Fragmented Landscape that we saw in Cape Town, was an extended version of previous incarnations.
Three intersecting frames, provide a physical armature and frame for Fragmented Landscape. The frames dissect the space and unify it. The frames are like a rib cage, lacing the space, visually containing the dance narratives. In an interview, Anderson Carvalho explained that the “Blueprint section” in Fragmented Landscape “re-creates the architecture of their [dancer’s] childhood homes, with recorded voices woven into the score.” Architecture is for me emblematic of this piece. It riffs off physical and emotional responses by the dancers to their memories. The spaces on the stage, evokes a sense of rooms, and pings for me in relation to ACDC’s previous work, When I Left The Room [2022] – with a visceral pulling and pushing between the individual and partner duos and groups; together and apart.
Fragmented Landscape is a vigorous expression of contemporary ballet – athletic, urgent at times, poignant and tender. I loved the fluidity of gender in the costumes – with females lifting females, male lifting males. The geometry of the frames acts as a foil, against the softness and sensuality of bodies. The soundscape – with water, crunching of plastics, words by the dancers heightened the tension between bodies in the fragmented landscape, seeking connections and togetherness, within discord. The set and concept reminded me of a De Chirico painting, with light and shadows, concealing, revealing, wrapping and shrouding the figures. In the interview, Carvalho said “the result is both intimate and expansive” and that is certainly is evidenced in the piece.
I loved the graphic linearity on the costumes (design by Carvalho). The lines echo the ribbing of the set. The figures become fragments in the landscape – there and not there. This liminality heightens the tension and once again is testament to Carvalho’s evocation of theatrical dance. Interview: https://thecaperobyn.co.za/interview-anderson-carvalho-talks-about-acdc-dance-intersect-2025-at-artscape/
Ballet as a major presence was bookended in two works at Dance Intersect – Fragmented Landscape and in the closing piece of the programme by the Greek National Opera Ballet. The GNOP presented Les Nuits d’été, choreographed by Konstantinos based on the song cycle by Hector Berlioz of the same name. In the interview, Anderson Carvahlo noted that the work is a work is “about love, loneliness, the quest, the journey.” There is a lot to dwell on in this epic work, which is a lament I would say to highs and lows with breath taking ballet – charged with an athleticism and power. The dancers, were clad in shiny fabric. The costumes reminded me of disco era lamé fabric. They were metallic bodies grappling and coupling through time and space. It is not a comfortable work but therein lies the journey in love, life and loneliness.
The other two pieces on the programme were: Speak the Hidden – presented by New World Dance Theatre in Cape Town, choreographed by Marlin Zoutman and Discord, by guest choreographers Chesney Stanfield and Emile Petersen of the Gain Collective.
I was intrigued by the use of the stage space in Speak the Hidden. The piece starts, front of stage, lit up as a kind of airport runway, flanked by a strip of lights and peels deep, to the edge of the backstage. The use of live music accompaniment, with drummers provides a wonderful layer to this interesting piece of dance theatre.
Guest choreographers Cheney Stanfield and Emile Petersen impressed with their explosive Discord. A table anchors the piece – as set and prop. The dancers, with a bit of clown in their variegated suits, slap each other around, dispersing from the table and then finding some kind of accord. Striking saturated lighting heightened the tensions in the piece.
Dance Intersect – the show – in Cape Town – is one aspect of the Dance Intersect initiative which includes performances in Europe and Rwanda, community outreach and interventions. The dance participants in ACDC’s Fragmented Landscape shared their thoughts in a promotional video which was screened before the show at Artscape. They spoke about the joy of participating in community Dance Intersect led outreach programmes. They enthused about the innovative approach of Anderson Carvalho, inviting collaboration and how liberating that is – the agency to create and find one’s own voice – within a cohort of like-minded creatives.
There was a lot to process in Dance Intersect 2025. I would have liked to attend again in order to take a deeper dive into the dance pieces but unfortunately this was not possible. Bravo to Anderson Carvalho, funders and partners for making Dance Intersect a reality. It is an incredible platform – awe inspiring – to see a diverse range and intersection of dance on one stage. We don’t have many opportunities in Cape Town to see a multinational dance showcase. I look forward to Dance Intersect 2026.
✳ Fragmented Landscape by Anderson Carvalho Dance & Choreography (ACDC), Dance Intersect 2025, Artscape Cape Town. Pic: Marko de Beer. Supplied.
