performances, workshops & events

One of the major labours of ABZ (especially from 2017 onwards) was initiating various performance opportunities, live art platforms and facilitating workshops for independent artists in the Cape Town community. Here you can read about various performances, workshops and events that ABZ was apart of as well as witness the photographic archives of these projects.

ANY BODY DANCE LAB (ABDL) was a 6-week residency for artists based in and around Cape Town. Hosted by New Dance Lab, ANY BODY ZINE and the Theatre Arts Admin Collective, it was created in collaboration with the Goethe Institute as part of the Goethe Project-Space. The residency ran over 6 consecutive weekends (16 March – 22 April 2018). ABDL focused on creating a space for independent artists engaged in movement research and performance, who were looking to cultivate and extend their performance practice.

The program consisted of a series of workshops in improvisation, somatic movement, composition and writing, as well as a facilitated space for developing performance practice. Workshops culminated in performances and a publication.

The project facilitators included: Kristina Johnstone, (New Dance Lab), Thalia Laric (New Dance Lab), Kopano Maroga (ANY BODY ZINE), Nicola van Straaten (ANY BODY ZINE) Julia de Rosenwerth (ANY BODY ZINE), Lucia Walker, Jori Snell, Tossie van Tonder and Tetsuro Fukuhara.

Participants included: Adriana Jamisse, Elijah Ndoumbé, John Cartwright, Leilah Kirsten, Louise Westerhout, Luvuyo Nyawose, Matshidiso Skosana, Nico Athene, Qondiswa James, Tiisetso Mashifane, Amy Simons, Tamryn Pelser, Tania Vossgäter, Yonela Makoba, Mia Labuschagne.

Scroll through the visual documentation by Lindsey Appolis below:

I call you dance was a week of dance performances, workshops and discussions with Adriana Jamisse, CAN Creative (Nathan Bartman and Ciara Baldwin) and Ché Adams that ran from the 24th to the 30th of September 2018 at the Theatre Arts Admin Collective. Curated by Julia de Rosenwerth, it invited conversation around dance as a modality for self-exploration and integration. Themed around looking into the past, each participating artist was invited because they work with or are influenced by historically established music and dance traditions that inform their practice and shape their understandings of why they dance and how they dance.

I call you dance made space to witness and engage with the artists on their practices, influences and inspirations, with an openness to spark more conversation around the roles folk-dance knowledge systems have in contemporary artistic work.

Scroll through the visual documentation by Lindsey Appolis below:

writing the body was a writing and movement workshop faciliated by Alok Vaid Menon and Kopano Maroga, centering black and brown queer folks, their joy and their liberation. Central questions of this workshop were: How do we rewrite our histories? What is the language that only the body knows? How do we work to write ourselves, our joy, our trauma, our bodies out of the imaginary of oppressive institutions that could and can not conceive of the unnameable beauty that it is to be this black, this brown and this queer at this moment in history? In this workshop, we used embodied and writing techniques of exploration and excavation to develop strategies for giving birth to ourselves.

In 2018 and 2019 we had the privilege of working with Jan Wallyn, artist coach, programmer and General Director at Zinnema Art House in Brussels. Jan has impressive experience in skills development for artists and was able to lead a workshop in Communication Strategies for Freelance Artists. This two full day workshop was intended specifically for emerging freelance and independent artists based in Cape Town and the content included:

• Professional self-branding
• Creating your own communication plan
• Optimal use of social media
• Understanding art programmers and pitching your project
• Building and maintaining useful networks

Live Arkive was an experimental exchange between independent performance artists based in Cape Town and Windhoek. Conceptualized and performed by Ndinomholo Ndilula, Lavinia Kapewasha, Coila-Leah Enderstein and Nicola van Straaten (South Africa), the project travelled across time and space to unravel questions of what is invisible in the archive, exploring different forms of documentation and liveness through interdisciplinary practices.

The four artists set up performances, sound and space installations and hosted discussions where conversations around archiving and art-making could occur. Events took place in October 2017 at the John Muafangejo Art Centre and National Art Gallery of Namibia in Windhoek and the Theatre Arts Admin Collective in Cape Town. The project was supported by an ANT Funding Grant from Pro Helvetia Johannesburg, the Goethe Institut Namibia and the John Muafangejo Art Centre in Nambia. Live Arkive was developed in partnership with the National Art Gallery of Namibia and Any Body Zine.

Scroll through images of the project below. To download the full Live Arkive zine and find out more about the project, click here.

Anybody Anywhere Making was a multidisciplinary performance event held at the Drawing Room Cafe in Observatory on 25 November 2017. The day included film, poetry, movement and music. Performing artists artists included: Kopano Maroga and Dumama and Kechou.

Falling was a studio concert released in conjunction with the Falling Publication issue. The event was held at The Bijou in Observatory on 3 June 2017. Performances were offered by: Adriana Jamisse, Coila-Leah Enderstein, Emma Turpen, Jan Wallyn, Julia de Rosenwerth and Kopano Maroga.