Get ready to ride… to the Hermanus FynArts Festival to see Bovim Ballet perform on Saturday 7 June 2014.

The Hermanus FynArts festival is no staid or upper-crust affair, in fact, with its focus on arts, music and wine in one of the Cape’s most gorgeous landscapes, it looks set to be a rocking little festival. No surprise then that it attracted South Africa’s rock ballet company, Bovim Ballet, to present a programme of its hip-swinging ballet highlights on Saturday evening, 7 June 2014 at the Hermanus High School Hall. They’ll be hosting a dance workshop earlier on the same day too (more on that below).

Bovim Ballet has called this production Ovations and it’s aptly named considering it includes specially selected popular pieces and award-winning choreography from across the company’s five extraordinary full length ballets: Tango Nights, Swing Time, Romeo’s Kiss, Queen at the Ballet and Private Presley.

Bovim Ballet’s founder and choreographer, Sean Bovim, has found a way to introduce ballet to whole new audiences through his highly accessible and entertaining rock-style ballet. It’s ballet with a twist, and a jive. See for yourself in this video montage of some of Bovim Ballet’s productions.

The audience can expect a night of touching duets and toe-tapping trios and quartets, as well as big hits like Fever from Swing Time and Jailhouse Rock from Private Presley. Ovations dancers will include Henk Opperman, Tanya Futter, Faye Dubinski, Devon Marshbank, Nicola van der Merwe, Trevor Schoonraad, Elzanne Crause, James Bradley, Zandile Constable, Darren Greeff, Tammy van Houten, Steven van Wyk, Llewellyn Mnguni, Sven-Eric Müller, Simoné Botha and Javan Mattei.

Bovim Ballet brings you swirling duets as well as their beat-thumping group numbers. Why not learn some of the moves too during their FynArts workshop?

Ovations is a one-off performance at Hermanus FynArts, so make sure to book your tickets now and do whatever you can to get to Hermanus to see it.

Booking details for Ovations:

Date: Saturday 7 June 2014 at 19:30.
Venue: Hermanus High School School Hall, Hermanus (about 2 hours drive from Cape Town, including a mandatory and delightful stop at Peregrine Farmstall on the way).
Tickets: R50 for scholars and R120 for full price via WebTickets here or through Hermanus Tourism on 028 312 2629.
Find more information on Ovations on the FynArts website here.

Bovim Ballet’s dance workshop

If you’re looking for an entertaining and informative insight into dance and choreography, irrespective of your age or level of dance-ability, you’re invited to join the Bovim Ballet dancers in their fun winter school-style workshop from 11:00 to 12:00 on Saturday 7 June 2014 at the Hermanus High School.

This will also give you a great sneak peek into that evening’s Ovations performance.

Booking details for Dance Workshop:

Date: Saturday 7 June 2014 from 11:00 to 12:00.
Venue: Hermanus High School School Hall, Hermanus.
Tickets: R50 via WebTickets here or through Hermanus Tourism on 028 312 2629.
Find more information on this workshop on the FynArts website here.

Fusion of Arts Fest and Winter School at this year’s FynArts Festival

To further tempt your little inner travel bug, more reasons to get to Hermanus this June include 10 days of festival activities to choose from – from 6 to 16 June 2014 – including fabulous wine routes and tastings, music recitals, soirées and workshops, art exhibitions, demonstrations and talks, and quite a bit more (see the full festival programme here) all set in the truly breathtaking scenery of this seaside village.

A little piece of heaven on earth – visit the Hemel en Aarde Valley and you’ll soon discover the truth of its name.

As for the name FynArts, it’s a play on ‘fyn’ as in the fynbos of the region and the Afrikaans word for ‘fine’ as in ‘fine arts’ or ‘of high quality’. The festival takes place across galleries, hotels and special venues in the town of Hermanus, as well as in tasting rooms and wine farms along the wine routes in the adjoining Hemel en Aarde Valley.

Oh and did I mention the classic movies?

Vintage film screening of a classic ballet movie

Ballet and film lovers alike will want to book early for the screening of The Red Shoes, showing at the terribly quaint Romantiques vintage cinema on Monday 16 June 2014 at 15:00. This 1948 film about a ballerina’s love-torn life won two Oscar awards and is considered a landmark film for its integration of dance in storytelling. Here’s the movie trailer for you to enjoy…

Booking details for the screening of The Red Shoes:

Date: Monday 16 June 2014 at 15:00.
Venue: Romantiques, 14 Aberdeen Street, Hermanus.
Tickets: Call to book on 028 312 4226.
Find more information on this film screening on the FynArts website here.

Now in its second year, the festival focuses specifically on showcasing short films where dance and movement is the medium of communication (see the video clip below for an example). Through this festival, the creators – Joni Barnard and Jane Crewe from the Wits School of Arts – hope to encourage students, young professional choreographers and filmmakers to explore this exciting field of screendance.

Teaming up with Screendance Africa, the Cape-Town based dance-for-film experts, the Re-visioning Dance Festival will be screening works from South Africa, Rwanda, a collaboration between artists in the Congo and Canada, as well as the USA.

These works feature artists such as Jeannette Ginslov, Catherine Meyburgh, Dada Masilo, Dusko Marovic, William Kentridge, Louise Coetzer, Chantel Cherry, Ella Gabriel, Umar Bradlow, Shelley–Anne Rabe, Ndoli Kayiranga and Eugene Dushime (Rwanda), Tori Lawrence (USA), Stefan Verna (Congo/Canada) and many more.

The programme will also include a special sneak preview screening of a global dance film that is still under construction.

While directed by Joni Barnard, a lecturer in the Movement Division at the Wits School of Arts, the festival is brought to life with the support of third year Wits Arts Management students, who manage all aspects of the running of the festival as part of an intensive internship in arts management.

Festival details:

Dates: 17 – 19 October 2013 at 19:00
Venue: Wits Downstairs Theatre, East Campus, Braamfontein, Johannesburg
(Free parking is available in Senate House; the entrance is on Jorissen Street, Braamfontein.)
Running time: Forty minutes, no interval.
Tickets: R10, available at the door.
For more information: Contact Catherine Pisanti on 011 717 1376.

Telling stories via dance on film

See this short film that featured at the 2012 Re-Visioning Dance Festival for a haunting and surreal example of the art of motion control…

Choros – a mesmerising experimental dance film

Through some digital magic, one solo dancer fluidly multiplies into many while simultaneously also melting back into herself, creating a phantom echo that moves beautifully in sync. It’s an enchanting study of human movement, set to the chiming “Music for 18 Musicians” by Steve Reich.

This experimental art film by Michael Langan explores the motion of the human body, and what more beautiful way to show this than with a dancer, Terah Mayer.

Read here for more about the film and the major advancements in digital composting to create this animation technique.

Here are some perplexing images from the film for your visual enjoyment.