REINVENTING DANCE

South Africa’s major dance companies have closed for lack of funding. A disaster? Perhaps. “The other point of view is that the departure — particularly of the ballet ensemble, the management style of which was characterised by a blatant disregard for the political and artistic realities that came into play from the middle of the 1990s — is a positive move, leaving a gap crying out to be filled by the entrepreneurially and/or artistically minded. Over the next few months that gap is to be solidly plugged by a plethora of local and visiting dance companies, varying in degrees of motivation from art to capitalism.” – Daily Mail and Guardian (Johannesburg)