Like all embodied artistic practises, the COVID-19 global pandemic has really hit FLATFOOT DANCE COMPANY hard. In March 2020 we suspended all our studio (training and rehearsals) and performance work and much of our community engagement work came to a standstill. Social distancing and very tight curfews in South Africa made working as a dance company impossible. Despite the shock of what this meant to our work, we were eager to begin to reinvent ourselves and find ways to keep working. As the lock down continues into 2021, we continue this journey to re-imagining ourselves and our ways of working.
We Dance @ Home
In April 2020 we created the “WE DANCE @ HOME” short film. Shot on cell phones in the dancer’s homes in the first 21-day hard lock down, and edited by Clare Craighead, this is a celebration of the spirit of the FLATFOOT dancers.
Digital JOMBA! & DUT Digifest 2020
Over August and September 2020, the three senior FLATFOOT dancers were awarded an “ON-LINE JOMBA! 2020” commission to create and present a digital dance offering for the festival platform. The resultant three short screen dance films won critical acclaim and have gone onto be presented at the 2020 DUT DIGITFEST. Check the work out here:
Ya Kutosha
"Ya Kutosha" is an intimate and terrifying exploration of gender-based violence and what it means to be trapped in the home.
Dancer/Choreographer: Jabu Siphika
Shot and Edited by Gabriel Masango
Walls
"Walls" is a deeply intimate exploration of a father/daughter relationship set against the separation imposed by COVID-19 and the lock down.
Dancers/Choreographers/Poetry: Sifiso Kitsona Khumalo and his daughter, Lethiwe Zamantungwa Nzama
Sound by Sthembiso Hlela
Shot and Edited by The Gobinski Cartel
Shadow
"Shadow" is an intimate look a friendship and the validations of having someone there for you always; even when you cannot hold hands in a world that now asks for distancing.
Dancers/Choreographers: Zinhle Nzama and Kirsty Ndawo
Film by Zinhle Nzama and Kirsty Ndawo
Music by Nick Pitman