Cape Town ballet 'too colonial'

Vox Populi Vox Dei

Vox Populi Vox Dei

High Tory
Joined
Mar 6, 2004
Messages
54,148
Reaction score
38,948
Location
Cape Town
Part of the decolonisation process no doubt...

After 82 years of partnership, Cape Town City Ballet has been booted out of its University of Cape Town premises because ballet is "Eurocentric and colonial".

Company members said they had to rush in to clear out their lockers after they were told it was "unsafe" for them to be at the university.

With three productions opening, they have been offered the temporary use of a small studio with no changing rooms at the back of the Artscape Theatre Centre.

Company executive director Elizabeth Triegaardt sits at a table in the foyer.

"Artscape is also under major pressure for space because they have their own productions starting, so we take whatever space we can get," she said.

Triegaardt was told last year that a group of students indicated to the dean that it was "not appropriate for a classical ballet company to be on the premises because it's Eurocentric and colonial".

The company's lease expires at the end of the year but it was "warned not to go to UCT" in mid-September, Triegaardt said.

The company has had to suspend its young male dancers development programme, in which several black male dancers were flourishing.

Triegaardt said: "I feel really sad it has come to this . A tradition that has been built up over eight decades is now out of the door."

UCT spokesman Pat Lucas said demand for rehearsal space was the reason for the lease ending and discussions to cancel the lease began "before the most recent spate of protests".

Jane Fidler, who has been with the company for 22 years, said it was "traumatic" for her and the other dancers to leave a place that had been their "home" for so long and to "pack up their lockers so quickly" because "protesters weren't allowing [us] in".
Click to expand...
 
LOL!!!

"Eurocentric and colonial".
Click to expand...

This is a poor attack on European culture, not to mention that ballet evolves. They should tell this to the modern or contemporary black ballet dancers all over the world. Silly, silly, silly...
 
I wonder if these black nationalists will also insist about certain luxury car brands and clothing to be banned from South Africa, since they are also "Eurocentric and Colonial"?
 
Okty said:
I wonder if these black nationalists will also insist about certain luxury car brands and clothing to be banned from South Africa, since they are also "Eurocentric and Colonial"?
Click to expand...

Don't hold your breath:(
 
Your smartphones,tablets, cars, busses, trains, aeroplanes, roads are also Eurocentric and colonial.

You best stop using those ASAP.

Idiots.
 
More ululating with your tits out! Less frilly clothes and toe standing.
 
Triegaardt was told last year that a group of students indicated to the dean that it was "not appropriate for a classical ballet company to be on the premises because it's Eurocentric and colonial".
Click to expand...

UCT PR:

UCT spokesman Pat Lucas said demand for rehearsal space was the reason for the lease ending and discussions to cancel the lease began "before the most recent spate of protests
Click to expand...

To quote,

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/853273-UCT-grants-clemency-to-protesters

The executive and students have been in ongoing negotiations to find a way forward.

From the side of management,we believe that there is sufficient common ground for us to reach agreement on a set of principles which can break the deadlock and move the university forward in the best interests of all the constituencies.

Agreement on these principles can lead to a de-escalation of the tensions,end the cycle of protests and counter-actions, limit the need for private security and create the conditions where the 2016 academic year can still be completed by all students. Such an agreement can also provide the framework for solutions to the longer term challenges that the university faces that can lead to the emergence of a new, inclusive identity in a transformed, decolonized UCT.
Click to expand...

Pat Lucas essentially said that other demand took precedence over the lease and that they had to enter cancellation. Yah... I honestly do not trust UCT anymore, their administration has damned the system. I mean,

Jane Fidler, who has been with the company for 22 years, said it was "traumatic" for her and the other dancers to leave a place that had been their "home" for so long and to "pack up their lockers so quickly" because "protesters weren't allowing [us] in".
Click to expand...

is the protesters appointed by UCT to evict their tenants?
 
ballet...

surely someone with a conscience can help the little snow flakes :p

a gym or sports center...
 
Triegaardt was told last year that a group of students indicated to the dean that it was "not appropriate for a classical ballet company to be on the premises because it's Eurocentric and colonial".
Click to expand...

Told by whom?
 
My niece has just started studying at a 'top 5' UK university, and we are sitting back and chuckling at the antics of students in SA. Needless to say, upon completion of her degree, my niece will not be returning to SA!
 
Going to wake up from this decolonization / Trump nightmare soon
Going to wake up from this decolonization / Trump nightmare soon
Going to wake up from this decolonization / Trump nightmare soon

:erm:
 
Clearly, if the ballet dancer were dancing with their breast exposed and an assegai in hand then they clearly would not have been colonised. Clearly, they only have themselves to blame.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X