Dance for Gay Rights
JOHANNESBURG – The University of Johannesburg hosted H28 on the weekend.
The performance was filled with emotional choreography relating to the treatment of gay people and expressed the hardships felt by them in Uganda.
The performance was specifically dedicated to David Kato, a gay rights activist from Uganda who was murdered in his fight for equality and freedom to love.
The dance, performed by FATC dance cast including Thulani Chauke, Nosiphiwo Samente, Nicholas Aphane, Thabo Kobeli and Charlston Van Rooyen, depicted the barriers that keep homosexuals from a free existence unlike that of heterosexuals.The director of the performance, Melissa Eveleigh, explained that being gay is illegal in 38 African countries and that even being part of a performance of this nature placed the actor’s lives at risk.
The music featured in the show was very emotional and had snippets from speeches of anti-gay activists. It could have been seen as vulgar in the description of homosexual people and possibly untrue in the depiction of the love shared between people of the same gender.
The show was described by the audience as fantastic, extremely brave and deeply moving.
