Arts Alive festival highlights
JOBURG - The city will come alive with all manner of performing and visual arts for 10 days in September.
MMC for Community Development, Chris Vondo, said Johannesburg Arts Alive International Festival confirmed the city’s position as the nation’s “cultural capital”, and as a city that can host world-class events that are accessible to all communities.
The festival will open on 31 August with the Jazz on the Lake concert at Zoo Lake, to be headlined by local music legend Johnny Clegg.
The Dance Umbrella section of the festival will feature a range of collaborations between South Africans and dancers from different countries.
Among the performances will be Lonely Together, created by local choreographer Gregory Maqoma and Spanish choreographer Roberto Olivan De La Iglesia.
Cargo, a collaboration between Dance Forum, the Forgotten Angle Theatre Collaborative, the Fortune Cookie Theatre Company, and composer Concord Nkabinde, will tell the story of the so-called ‘Hottentot Venus’, Saartjie Baartman.
Festival spokesperson Marang Setshwaelo said the annual event would also host a 20 Years of Democracy Divas Concert, featuring celebrated Brazilian songstress, Tania Maria, Cape Verde’s Nancy Viera, Mozambique’s Isabella Novella, and South Africa’s Lulu Dikana.
Theatre-lovers can look forward to award-winning actor Charles Dutton’s autobiographical one-hander, From Jail to Yale, which chronicles his story of triumph over adversity.
“Known for his many TV and film roles, this established Hollywood player is definitely one of the festival’s highlights,” said Setshwaelo.
The event’s Shared History Festival section will see Ira Dubey perform the one-woman show Nine Parts of Desire, which depicts the lives of nine Iraqi women during and after Saddam Hussein’s oppressive regime.
The festival, in partnership with the Brenda Fassie Legacy Project, will also pay homage to the Madonna of the Townships with the Can You Sing like MaBrrr? competition.
The inaugural SEAexpo (Showbiz, Entertainment and Arts Expo) at Newtown’s Sci-Bono Discovery Centre will bring the festival to a close.
Setshwaelo said creative industry practitioners, media and thought-leaders in the fields of film, visual arts, theatre, fashion, TV, and crafts would be able to network and showcase their businesses at the expo.
Details: www.arts-alive.co.za
