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Talk about location. Cape
Town, South
Africa, near the southern tip of the African
continent, boasts gorgeous mountain
views as well as white, sandy beaches.
Dancers at the Cape Town City Ballet
are greeted by squirrels and guinea
fowl outside the studio windows where
they rehearse.
"It's
very therapeutic, after a long and challenging
day, just to sit on the beach listening
to the sound of the waves and get your
life back in perspective," says senior
principal Johnny Bovang, a Norwegian
dancer who joined the company
in 1997 and has danced lead roles in
Artistic Director Veronica Paeper's Spartacus,
Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet.
But life
at CTCB is not just a day at the
beach. Initially generously subsidized by the
government, the 71-year-old company
faced severe cutbacks in 1994, as the
country underwent major changes with the
dismantling of apartheid and funding
from the central government was
eliminated.
The
nonprofit CTCB now employs 30 dancers
under the leadership of Paeper, a
choreographer who was a principal dancer
with three South African ballet companies,
including an earlier incarnation of CTCB. "The
fact that CTCB is still in existence
against tremendous odds is wonderful,"
she says.
The
company shares studio space with the
School of Dance at the University
of Cape Town, from which many
dancers are recruited. The repertoire
is classical and neoclassical, and
Paeper looks for strong and versatile dancers
who can perform both.
Dancers
at CTCB are required to know many different
styles of dance, including
African forms and gumboot dance,
which was created by black South
African mine workers. But it's the nurturing
environment of the teachers and
staff that sets CTCB apart.
Senior
principal Tracy Li a former member
of Hong Kong Ballet who's been with the
company for 12 years, was cast as
Carmen soon after joining the company and
didn't feel ready. "Fortunately, Veronica
Paeper took me under her wing and
coached me for two months," recalls
Li. Highlights of Li's career include representing
the company with her partner,
Daniel Rajna, at the International Ballet
Festival of Miami, as well as being coached
by Ricardo Bustamante for the company's
productions of Don Quixote and Sleeping
Beauty.
In 2004,
the company commissioned the new
work Swing Time and More, by South
African choreographer Sean Bovim, in
addition to performing Paeper's Orpheus
in the Underworld, Andre Prokovsky's Anna
Karenina and David Poole's
versions of Giselle and Firebird.
2005
promises more classics and a rock ballet
by Bovim called Queen at the Ballet. The
company performs at the Artscape Theatre
Centre and embarks on a national tour
each year to bring the art of ballet to smaller
South African communities.
"I
would say that CTCB has only changed in
numbers over the years," says Bovang. "There are a lot fewer of us, which
means that everyone gets more opportunities
to shine and develop. Everyone
gets a place in the spotlight at the end
of the day, when all the hard work finally pays
off!"
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At A Glance
Number
of dancers: 30
Contract length: Year-round
Associated school: The
UCT
School of Dance
Performances
each year: Approximately 70
Auditions: Invitation only
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POINTE June/July 2005
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