A shiny, happy rainbow nation fantasy

Fresh from another international tour, this time to France, African Footprint is celebrating its 10th anniversary.

Johannesburg : Dance

African Footprint

• Conceived and directed: Richard Loring
• Choreographed: Debbie Rakusin and David Matamela
• Poetry: Don Mattera
• Music and lyrics: Dave Pollecutt
• Costumes: Lindy Joubert
• Where: The Theatre of Marcellus, Emperors Palace
• When: Until June 20

The first public performance of the show was in May 2000.

African Footprint initially presented itself as the answer theatre-goers had been looking for - a post-apartheid stage show that told the story of South Africa without making some in the audience feel the pain of the past while others felt guilt.

Told primarily through dance choreographed by Debbie Rakusin and David Matamela, poetry written by Don Mattera, and music and lyrics by Dave Pollecutt, African Footprint starts with humankind's genesis in the Southern African region.

With the help of many costume changes, the dancers move from animal skins, to suits and flashy cocktail dresses in the Sophiatown era, ending with the jeans and tackies of urban Kwaito culture.

This was my second viewing of African Footprint.The show, with its cast of 17 dancers, four singers and six percussionists, has a number of moments that impress. These include the Genesis opening sequence where bodies in slight silhouette, at first take on human and animal qualities; and the intense Prison Pas de Deux, performed by Oscar Tsele and Supa Zungu.

However, due to the show's reluctance to delve into the bad as well as the good things in our history, those things that prove what resilient people we are as a nation, I was left, both times, feeling as though an optimism without wisdom, without reasoning, was being forced upon me.

I had no choice but to accept that this country is wonderful, beautiful, full of people of different races living under one rainbow, all happily ever after.

This is problematic.

It tends to suggest that to look at the bad, to contemplate what it meant for some people to go through that kind of pain, is in some way futile and counter-productive in the ways in which it dredges up the bad old past.

To cut the hardship, the difficulty, the racism, the violence that gripped this part of the continent since 1652, debases much of the good we've achieved.

It is a light, entertaining show, suitable for the whole family - and the visitor from overseas - that is set in a place almost the same as the South Africa I know.

Which is why taking tourists to this view of South Africa is, at best, weird.