Clapping hands, stepping forward, the vibrating group gains energy as more dancers join in a wave of movements that see them reaching ahead, then leaning backwards — the energy and palpable as they heave and release in unison.
The dancers are all members of Joburg Ballet, they’re at one of their six-days-a-week rehearsals. They are performing Resonance, a newly choreographed work by Dane Hurst, the recently appointed interim artistic director of the company.
“It’s a work in progress. Still a bit messy, but it’s coming together,” Hurst told TimesLIVE Premium.
Joburg Ballet, one of few ballet companies in South Africa, has new leadership for the first time in two years thanks to Hurst agreeing to come on board and create a fresh programme to get the company growing and moving again.
He’s putting in long hours and his plans are ambitious as he has also set out to double the number of students at the Joburg Ballet School within six months. “Though I could easily accommodate 100 dancers from today,” he announced proudly, explaining how South African dancers are suddenly in big demand globally.
“Gone are the days of the stereotype,” he said, referring to the typical assumptions that ballet dancers are extremely pale, slightly built, highly sensitive, fragile and emotional beings prone to anorexia.
“The world is embracing diversity, and our company is one that has dancers of all sizes, body shapes and strengths. The overseas companies see that and they’re coming here to find brown-skinned and black dancers,” he said.
His sentiment resounds in the new production Joburg Ballet will be premiering at the Roodepoort Theatre later this month. DreamScapes is a triple bill celebrating heritage, artistry and innovation.
The programme weaves together three works. The internationally renowned Les Sylphides, a classical ballet set to the emotive music of Frédéric Chopin; a new work by local dancer and choreographer Kitty Phetla titled The Underworld & Elsewhere, described as a poignant meditation on the interconnectedness of life across generations and then Hurst’s Resonance — “of what brings people together”. Combined, they form a tapestry of tradition, identity and creative exploration.
“My piece is not political. It’s more about my memories of childhood, growing up in [South End in] Gqeberha at a time when the jazz scene was big in places like District Six and Sophiatown. My dad was a guitarist and my grandfather was a saxophonist and they played in the underground club,” he said, explaining why the music he chose for his piece was a jazz score by Kyle Shepherd.
He’s come a long way since those days. Now 40, he is married, based in London and has a son who will turn two just a few days before Resonance premieres.
“This is all part of living the dream, and it’s a big responsibility to do great things.”
Hurst will lead Joburg Ballet into the second-half of the year before returning to his family. His Polish wife Romany Pajdak is a dancer at the Royal Ballet and their son Tadeusz is in nursery school. Hurst took a year off to support Pajdak in her career and to be full-time carer of their baby before taking up the interim post at Joburg Ballet.
He is optimistic about where these few months will take the company. As the last recipient of the Mandela Dance Scholarship that sponsored South African dancers on a global programme, he is planning to revive the idea and restart the South African Ballet Scholarship with the aid of retired prima ballerina, old friend of Nelson Mandela and arts patron Anya Linden, Baroness Sainsbury of Preston Candover CBE.
He is also collaborating with another old recipient of the Mandela Dance Programme, Thabiso Manare of Maison de la Dance Projects in Soweto as well as working on a cross partnership with the Royal Ballet in London.
As the new programme comes together, Joburg Ballet is hard at work. Five days a week they gather at their upstairs studio at 10am and dance until 6pm — with two 15-minute breaks and an hour lunch time to rest. The Saturday sessions are shorter: from 10am to 1pm.
Joburg Ballet CEO Elroy Fillis-Bell said he had met Hurst several years ago and “loved his vision and values, so I continued to engage with him”.
Last year while he was in the UK at the invitation of the British Council he made use of the opportunity to visit Hurst and float the idea of him coming back to South Africa as artistic director.
“We were thrilled when he accepted, and it’s been a wonderful ride. His vision, experience, skill set and character blend so well with us, and he works magic with the dancers,” Fillis-Bell said.
Phetla describes Hurst as “an amazingly gentle soul that is so needed in the arts”.
“I knew of him, but this is the first time working with him. I’ve not yet seen his full piece, but what I’ve seen is soulful and sultry and happy jazz, which speaks to the theme of DreamScapes and merges well together with my style, which is very intense and representative of the underworld and different journeys of the spirit,” she said.
DreamScapes will be performed at the Roodepoort Theatre from March 28. Prices range from R100-R350 on Webtickets. The cost for opening night is half the standard price. On presentation of a student card at the box office, students pay R110. Seats for midweek morning performances on April 2 and 3 are also R110. Other discounts include 50% off for children aged 4-7 and 15% off for pensioners.
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