performance; and in this instance - dance forms - is un-critically accepted . CityScapes as it emerged from and found its performances within the 'New South Africa', provides one example of contemporary cultural production that may provide insight into the pit-falls of simunye. Pather's CityScapes, when viewed in conjunction with Schechner's ideas around the inadequacies of multiculturalism, draws focus to issues around historical privilege in South Africa.
This critique of multicultural performance practices lays bare the often un-equal power base between the cultural forms and cultural ownership in the 'New South Africa'.
Pather's Home provides further critique of multiculturalism as an aesthetic marker. Through Pather's choice to engage "global unease" (Appendix E), Home engages the notion of global cultural exchange and ownership, which the notions of multiculturalism and simunye can not adequately account for. In line with Schechner's (1991) conception of interculturalism Pather's Home dispels the myth of Simunye and actively pursues moments of tension and clash between cultures. This exploration provides potential to explore and engage the unequal power relations between cultures. This exploration too, provides awareness around dance theatre as a powerful mechanism for social, cultural and political critique.
Site-specific dance theatre in the 'New South Africa' provides insight into the impact of historical legislative processes around racial accesses to or lack thereof in this context. Pather (2004), in his acknowledgement that performance is political also engages critical modes of collaborative performance making in the South African context. In his pursuit to create and engage accessible (Appendix A/B/C) work Pather often also challenges standard aesthetic markers like multiculturalism (as with CityScapes and Home). Thus while it is arguable whether or not Pather successfully creates accessible products, it is undeniable that his work seeks to deconstruct the contemporary myth that markets South Africa as a simunye culture under the guise of a 'rainbow nation'. In this light, Pather's site-specific works can provide points of exploration of the spaces in- between, where the bands of the rainbow meet/clash/dialogue/disagree.
Much of the theorisation provided in this document has been layered onto CityScapes and Home in order to elevate dance practice within academic study.
And, while the readings of Pather's works provided herein, may not necessarily concur with his own intentions and processes; it is important to recognise Pather's own articulate recognition of his site-specific dance theatre as a mechanism for critical cultural production:
I think that the politics of [...] space are, or rather have to be quite... you know is very significant to me. I think there is a simple notion that we are a democratic society now... constantly, is something that I'm fascinated with and I keep trying to press against and try to push and see just how democratic we are. I find that actually spaces carry a history against which this kind of questioning and all of that can really happen... with, you know... with dexterity... with a fair amount of dexterity. (Pather, Appendix D)
Such racial ownership of dance forms can be seen in common (social) assumptions around Ballet as a primarily 'white-owned' and 'white-practiced/accessed" dance form and Gumboot as a primarily 'black- owned' and 'black-practiced/accessed' dance form, for instance.
This all said, important questions around the life of site-specific dance theatre in South Africa out-side of Jay Pather's production of the form, need to be raised and subsequently addressed. There have been relatively few other local performers and artists who have decided to engage site-specific dance theatre as a formal genre. Many established artists/choreographers overwhelmingly choose to create work within the confines of conventional theatre spaces,98 one possible reason for this may be due to South Africa's historical legislation which prohibited access of many local artists to formal public theatre spaces through enforcement of, amongst others, The Group Areas Act', 1950. Perhaps the historical prohibition of access to formal theatre spaces which forced many of South Africa's artists of colour to create and perform works in non- conventional/traditional theatre spaces, has resulted in a contemporary preference towards using formal theatre spaces. This may be one possible reason for the relatively small occurrence of site-specific performance work being made in the 'New South Africa'.
While there are a hand-full of young artists/choreographers who have considered and worked within the genre of site-specific dance theatre, often this engagement has been short lived, and often also in close association with Jay Pather in his capacity as a facilitator to the working processes of these young practitioners. Republic: performing the body politic (2004) and PARADISE (2005), two site-specific dance theatre ventures which formed part of the JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience over 2004 and 2005, were both conceived and facilitated by Pather. These projects took the form of a series of workshops with local choreographers, video artists, experimental architects and gallery curators; participants were selected from a pool of young dance makers in Durban. The aim of these projects was the culmination of an evening of new site-specific/installation collaborative dance theatre works at Albany Grove" and ArtSpace100 (for Republic) and The KZNSA Art Gallery (for PARADISE). While these two projects provided a platform for young dancers and dance-makers to engage site-specific dance theatre as a possible formal choice; none of the participants have continued on in this vein, subsequent works that have been presented by the participants of these projects have all, without fail been made for conventional theatre spaces. Perhaps this is a point of departure for further research in this area, as to possible reasons for the lack of engagement with site-specific dance theatre in Durban, and South Africa in general.
In closing, perhaps this document may serve as a future starting point to engage further academic research into local contemporary dance in South Africa, an often under-acknowledged area of academic study:
No art suffers more misunderstanding, sentimental judgement, and mystical interpretation than the art of dance. Its critical literature, or worse yet its uncritical literature, pseudo-ethnological and pseudo-aesthetic, makes weary reading. (Suzanne Langer, in Redfern, 1988:15)
Either Proscenium Arch spaces, Thrust Stages. Theatre-in-the-Round or Open-Air Theatre spaces.
99 Albany Grove is a street in Durban's city centre, it runs between the local Playhouse Complex and The Albany Hotel.
100 ArtSpace is a Durban Art Gallery Space.
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