Celebrating its 20th anniversary, presenting both local and international choreographers in various venues in Johannesburg.

From February 16 to March 15, 2008, Johannesburg will rock with exciting new dance programmes at The Wits Theatre Complex, Jorissen Street, Braamfontein; The Market Theatre and Dance Factory in Newtown, the UJ Arts Centre in Auckland Park, Nelson Mandela Square, Sandton and the Johannesburg Art Gallery in Joubert Park.

Stepping Stones 1, 2 and 3 is on February 16, 17 and 24 at the Wits Theatre from 10:00. These programmes are mainly youth and community based groups.

On Friday and Saturday February 22 & 23 at 19:00, the main festival opens at The Dance Factory with a collaboration between German Choreographer

Gerda König  and the DIN A 13 tanzcompany from Germany, and Remix Dance Company from Cape Town. They have created a new work with which they researched „skin color“ in the context of South Africa’s cultural history.

Also on February 22 & 23 at 21:00, the Market Theatre will be abuzz with a new work by Robyn Orlin. Dressed to Kill/Killed to Dress will (a)dress with her usual humor and irony, the art of ‘ Swenking ‘, something that has become part of our old and new found heritage.  ‘Heritage’ being the operative word, performers will exhibit their pride and parade their taste, a contest that has survived many generations. The term "Swenkas", originates from the English word "swank" and was first given the name "Oswenka", hence the word’’ swenkas’’.

Dominique Bouvin from France will undoubtedly fascinate audiences with his work entitled Transports Exceptionnels at the Newtown Cultural Centre on February 23 & 24 at 14:00. This is a tender love story between a dancer and a mechanical digger. Accompanied by the wonderful voice of Maria Callas, this is a witty interpretation of pas de deux between flesh and iron and is a work that will entertain everyone!!!

On Sunday and Monday, February 23 & 24, MONTAGE VIDEO DANCE FESTIVAL can be seen in the Wits Downstairs Theatre. Montage is very proud to present the second video dance festival in partnership with FNB Dance Umbrella 2008. Montage has also established many partnerships with international video dance festivals and has become part of a global video dance network.

Last year, montage was named “a world beater” by Adrienne Sichel and will again this year give you a line up of dance videos that are exciting, innovative and even astounding. Jeannette Ginslov and Gerard Bester of Walking Gusto Productions have selected the very best of local and international video dance works for this year’s festival.

Via Katlehong team up with Robyn Orlin (RSA) and Christian Rizzo (France)  with IMBIZO e MAZWENI(meeting out of the country…) on Tuesday and Wednesday, March 26 & 27 at the Market Theatre from 19:00.

This collaborative work looks at Pantsula and what it means to the community today. Orlin says:

“Pantsula... A name that goes back to the 70's when a pantsula was supposed to be the one who dressed elegantly yet not too formally but still made a fashion statement, also a popular dance form called “pantsula jive”... It became a very popular dance form during the 80's among young men in the townships... It includes not only a dance as a way of expressing oneself, but it is a way of life and impacts on where one lives... It has been described as .... A flat footed African tap - and - glide style of dance... The Zulu word pantsula can be translated to mean - to waddle like a duck or alternatively to walk with protruded buttocks - a characteristic of this dance form...”

On Tuesday and Wednesday, February 26 & 27 from 19:30 there is New Moves 1 at the Dance Factory from 19:30. This programme features young artists who have participated in residency programmes over the past two years.

The annual FNB Gala programme takes place at the UJ Centre for the Arts on Thursday February 28 from 20:00. This will be a final dress rehearsal and the Gala performance is on Friday, February 29, which is not open to the public. This programme will feature works presented over the past 20 years of the Dance Umbrella which includes Bloodsport by Susan Abraham; Pride by Neville Campbell; Solve for X by Moeketsi Koena; Southern Comfort by Gregory Maqoma and Last Dance by Jazzart Dance Theatre.

Back choreographed by PJ Sabbagha can be seen at the Wits Downstairs Theatre

March 1 @ 19:00 and March 2 @14:00. Performed by: Dada Masilo and PJ Sabbagha, this is a story about trying to move forward, moving forward through time and space. The door on our past and the door to our future each slightly ajar, eyes fixed firmly one on each door.

Also on Saturday and Sunday March 1 & 2 at 20:00 and 15:00, is the second New Moves Programme featuring young artists.

The Wits Theatre complex will be busy on March 4 & 5 as it will feature three programmes : Julia Raynham presents 21^st Century Animal in the Wits Downstairs Theatre from 19:00.  21st Century Animal is a ritual inscription, directed & designed by Julia Raynham, who worked with an aesthetic that values fragments & unexpected juxtapositions. Dancers of extra-ordinary presence, Ntombi Gasa & Mpho Masilela, alert the senses to the 'Tropic of Pan', the "inversion of being" & the "Rulings of the night"... recalling our ability to dream of the mystical beyond the mundane ... revising the relationship between mutating cities and our ecological lore ... and propelling the audience into moments of sublime awareness.?

At 20:15 a triple bill is in The Wits Theatre : Ballet Theatre Afrikan/ Jayesperi Moopen/Gregory Maqoma

Reflections, choreographed by Jayesperi Moopen

“The dancer of the future will be one whose body and soul have grown so harmoniously together that the natural language of the soul will become the movement of the human body. The dancer will not belong to any nation but to humanity”. ISADORA DUNCAN. The second work on this programme is Ketima choreographed by Gregory Maqoma. In this work, Maqoma explores human rashness in relation to the tranquil of nature. According to him, ‘Ketima examines phases of development from crawling through toddling to the time when human thoughts, feelings and actions get hooked to the mainstream of life’. The third work is a piece performed by Ballet Theatre Afrikan.

On Thursday and Friday, March 6 & 7 from 20:30 at the UJ Centre for the Arts, Jazzart Dance Theatre will present their renowned work Cargo.

Cargo is the 7th in a series of inspired collaborations between two of South Africa’s most exciting movement theatre companies, Jazzart Dance Theatre and Magnet Theatre. It uses performance to re-imagine the archive of slavery at the Cape and to bring it to the attention of a wider audience, while linking the past to our present reality.

For so many centuries cargo has come to this place, our city, the Cape of Good Hope.  Porcelain and silks and spices and slaves.  Slaves from Mozambique from Madagascar, from India and the Indonesian archipelago.  For 186 years between 1652 and 1838 slaves were a major part – sometimes the major part - of the unique and diverse society in formation at the Cape.  Today, slavery haunts the city, an incrustation of the past at the heart of the present.  It is “a past that will not pass” and yet it is so little remembered.

Nelisiwe Xaba (RSA) and Kettly Noel (Mali), get together with a work called Correspondances in the Dance Factory on March 7 & 8 at 19:00.

Two people – two women – meet after many correspondences.

Meeting place: under a lamppost in a modern city, in front of a disco,

at the beach, in a room or a closet.

Here they are. Their bodies are here. These girls are here.

They have come to tell their stories, to exchange opinions, to laugh, to

fight.

In 2008 Moving into Dance Mophatong (MIDM) will be celebrating of 30 years of existence, innovation and collaboration, all brought together in an institution devoted to learning, sharing and pursuing the passion of dance.  To mark this incredible milestone, MIDM will start the festivities at the 20^th Anniversary of the FNB Dance Umbrella International Dance Festival with the remounting of the award-winning work Hanano - Blessing of the Earth which will feature most of the original cast of the work including the choreographer Vincent Sekwati Mantsoe. The second work in the programme is Ek se Hola! a work that looks at perceived ideas of our youth in South Africa.  Gregory Maqoma has choreographed “Ek se … Hola!” on Moving into Dance Mophatong Company, which blends Kwaito with contemporary dance.  This work is energetic and inventive and builds bridges between popular urban dance forms and theatrical contemporary dance. These programmes are on March 7 & 8 at The Wits Theatre from 20:00.

The final week opens with Totems, created by Sello Pesa in the Dance Factory on March 11 & 12 from 19:00. Ntsoana Contemporary Dance Theatre’s new work Totems explores different totems used in indigenous South African cultures and traditions. Through contemporary dance the body will creatively explore the spoken totem, the different ways that clans do things and the animals that they honor in order to find similarities within the diversity of South African totems and express the common meeting points that bond people.

The Fringe Programme is on the same dates at the Wits Theatre from 19:00. Choreographers who will be seen include Jeannette Ginslov, Tebogo Khumalo, Sifiso Kweyama, Mdu Mtshali, Craig Morris and Luyanda Sidiya.

Jay Pather can be seen Johannesburg Art Gallery on 12 & 13 March at 18h30 with Dancing with Shadows: A collaborative dance performance by the Remix Dance Company and Santu Mofokeng. This work is inspired by a series of photographs from Santu Mofokeng called ‘Moving in shadows’ and aims to find a synergy between visual arts and dance.

Weeleni by Salia ni Seydou from Burkina Faso is next at the Dance Factory

On March 12 & 13 at 20:00. This work is a Trio of Solos: Gestes by Salia Sanou; Waati – the time choreographed by Ousseni Sako and Feminininmasculin choreographed by Seydou Boro. The works are entwined and questions each dancer on their relationships with each other. Weeleni look’s at the invisible parts of our lives; those things we try to hide from each other but ultimately share with each other. Salia ni Seydou have toured this piece internationally to great acclaim and now Johannesburg audiences will have the opportunity to see this amazing company!

On Thursday and Friday, March 14 & 15 Jay Pather presents Body of Evidence, in a space to be confirmed. Body of Evidence  probes the inexpressibility of pain. Pain that is felt is certain and clear to the feeler but remains remote and doubtful to the witness. Elaine Scarry has written:

“When one hears about another person's physical pain, the events happening within the          interior of that person's body may seem to have the remote character of some deep    subterranean fact, belonging to an invisible geography, that however portentous, has no        reality because it has not yet manifested itself on the visible surface of the earth”.(1985)

Body of Evidence therefore, flying in the face of such noble attempts to do otherwise as Truth and Reconciliation Hearings, instead considers the enduring and perpetual containment of memories of violence in our bones. The work examines how history forever scars us, that our marrow is indelibly marked with the ravages of torture and violence.  The work will feature sound by James Webb and video by Storm Janse van Rensburg.

The final two programmes of the FNB Dance Umbrella are on March 14 & 15 and start with a new work by Vincent Sekwati Mantsoe in the Wits Downstairs Theatre from 19:00 called Ebhofolo. This creation wrestles with ideas of the disappearing decorative arts, the daily movement around the homestead as movement in time and space, the color lines of paint or natural `dunk` design, the tall lean elegant body sculptures, that are set on a human being nature.  Mr. Mantsoe’s continued artistic development is based in his commitment to cultural preservation relating to his background, which combines Ndebele, Xhosa (Nguni Speaking) Sotho and Pedi ancestry. In this endeavor he draws from and challenges the ideas that surround us daily, making us who we are: tradition and modernity.

The Dance Umbrella ends with a mixed bill of new commissioned works from Young artists that include Zoey Lapinsky, Ntsane Mopedi/Mpho Masilela; Sifiso Majola, Dada Masilo, Thabo Rapoo and Ignatius van Heerden.

During the Dance Umbrella there will also be a Young Choreographers Residency Programme which has been funded by the National Arts Council. This will take place from March 3 to March 15, 2008.

A retrospective exhibition of John Hogg photographs can be seen at the Afronova Gallery, Newtown from February 21 to March 15. This exhibition will be a collection of Dance Umbrella photographs taken by John Hogg over the past 20 years, and will be a true reflection of the history of the festival..

The FNB Dance Umbrella 2008 has been made possible with assistance from First National Bank; the CWCI (Conference-Workshop Cultural Initiative Fund: an EU/SA Partnership Programme); The French Institute of South Africa; CulturesFrance; Francophonie; Business and Arts South Africa; the National Arts Council; The Goethe Institute of Johannesburg; the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund and the Gauteng Department of Sport, Recreation, Arts & Culture.

Tickets for the FNB Dance Umbrella are available at the door or can be booked at Computicket on 011 340 8000 and prices range from R50,00 to R80,00. Concessions/block bookings and subscription tickets are available. Booking opens in January 2008.

For further information contact 011 482 4140 / 011 482 5615 or e-mail danceumbrella@artslink.co.za  

The Dance Umbrella hot-line for up-dates and programmes is 072 703 9332 or visit www.artslink.co.za/arts