| What: Vivaldi in Dance Where: Baxter, Flipside, Cape Town When: October 28-31, 2026 Bookings: Webtickets Director: Grant Van Ster Choreography: Grant Van Ster and Shaun Oelf (FO8) in collaboration with cast Set and costume design: FO8 Lighting design: Nell van der Merwe Starring: Daniel Rowland and Shaun Oelf Performing artists/dancers: Damian Jacobs, Irshaad Essack, Jenna Wilkinson, Kirsten Messias, Liam Frantz, Lukhanyo Anta, Marang Gwatyu, Natasha Tsanwani, Sasha Nkonyana and Thalia Alberts Orchestra: SICMF Camerata Music: Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons recomposed by Max Richter Producer and production manager: Marie Vogts-Pretorius Producers: Figure of 8 Dance Theatre and SICMF SICMF co-founder and artistic director: Nina Schumann SICMF director: Peter Martens |
Vivaldi in Dance is an exquisitely beautiful piece of rousing dance theatre, directed by Grant Van Ster, starring violinist Daniel Rowland; Shaun Oelf and members of theFO8 Dance Theatre and the 17-piece SICMF Camerata. SICMF is the Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival which was the birth place of this piece. It is where the seeds germinated between FO8 and Rowland. It is on in the Baxter, Flipside, Cape Town, October 28-31, 2026. Six performances.
There was an ovation of awe last night at the opening. My plus one and I, were so stunned that we sat in the Flipside for about ten minutes, before venturing to the celebrations in the foyer.
This 60 minute dance-theatre gem is set to Max Richter’s re-composition of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. He stripped back about 75% of the Vivaldi original Four Seasons– but retained fragments of melodies which are distinctive leitmotifs of the score. It is like retaining the first and last letter of words – and changing what is in-between. It is a robust, often jittery and frenzied score as opposed to the romantic and soft flow of the original. The re-composition was created in 2011 and it was released on August 31, 2012. Richter’s recent compositions include the score for the film, Hamnet.
So here we are in Cape Town, with an interlacing, merging and coalescing of bodies – the musicians at their stands, Daniel on the move and the dancers. The musicians do not leave their places but they are not static. They are tuned in and cued in by Daniel, to the dance-narrative that unfolds – from above in the rafters, from behind and then on the floor.
Rowland pivots from the Camerata space on to the floor – weaving in and around the musicians and dancers and interacting with them. They are all in conversation with each other – looping around each other – music – space – motifs. There are dark edges and moments of sheer joy and play. The dancers become plants sprouting, animals, goggas. They root to rise – and to fall – and to grow. They wiggle and slither and slap, hoist, unfurl. Rowland is not only making music but is also part of the movement and the story. For example, he becomes the trunk of a tree, with the dancers; limbs splaying out as branches. See pic on this page.
There is resistance. There are moments of embrace and sheer wonder. As noted in the programme, the “work becomes a reflection on humanity’s relationship with the natural world – its beauty, its fragility, its destruction and its enduring hope.”
On a side note, if I may add a personal reflection. Last night, shortly before leaving for the theatre, I found a sealed plastic bag in my pantry, with pips from a lemon tree (the lemons were delish) on damp paper towel. I had left the baggie there in July, with a note to take it out in September. I forgot to retrieve it and last night, I opened the packet to find three lemon sprouts – with leaves – fragile and strong. A miracle of nature – in my kitchen. And then going to the theatre and it was a miracle of dance and music – looped live in front of us. Nature is also brutal, destructive, unrelenting but when it is about renewal and growth, that is transcendent in every way. Vivaldi in Dance is all of that – joyous, miraculous and edged by the fragility and wonder of existence, connection, togetherness. Use of a haze machine, dissolves boundaries between the dancers and musicians – they become one body – rooted in the Four Seasons.
Daniel Rowland is playing his gorgeous1796 Lorenzo Storioni violin, which has a haunting and stirring pitch. Sublime. Barefooted (his idea, he told me), he is very much a body, a figure in the production as he interacts with the extraordinary Shaun Oelf, the musicians and other dancers as they conjure up and shape Richter’s urgent and jittery Four Seasons.
This is a quickie review – Vivaldi in Dance is on for six performances only. It is absolutely magical and astounding. Beyond. Please do not miss.
✳ Vivaldi in Dance, starring violinist and Daniel Rowland, dancer Shaun Oelf, Figure of 8 Dance Theatre and 17 piece SICMF Camerata, Baxter, Flipside, Cape Town, October 28-31, 2026. Pic: Lindsey Appolis. Supplied.
