03a / Sanmarie Kreuzhuber: Soloist: The South African Ballet Theatre

Ms Kreuzhuber makes her debut in the title role of ‘Giselle’ at the Joburg Theatre from April 12th to April 29th 2012.

She was very excited to see her name on the cast list when it went up on the dancer’s noticeboard. In 2009, Sanmarie had been cast to learn the role but was not given a performance. Seeing her name on the list three years later affirms her growth and development at SABT over the past three years.

Sanmarie started dancing at age three, training with Marna Bolt, Paula Olivier, Rene Callis and Liza Fekete. In 2000, she attended Hoërskool Waterkloof’s Dance Academy and began contemporary dance classes with Kelsey Middleton.

In 2004, she won the prestigious Adeline Geneè Silver Trophy at the South African competition and participated in the International Adeline Geneè competition in Athens, Greece.

Sanmarie joined The South African Ballet Theatre in 2005 as part of the Graduate programme and performed in the Potchefstroom Youth Ballet’s production of Cinderella dancing the principal role as well as the Fairy Godmother that same year.
In January 2006, she was accepted into the Corps de Ballet and once again performed both the principal role and that of Fairy Godmother in the Roodepoort Youth Ballet’s Cinderella. Her first season with SABT was Giselle.

She has appeared in La Traviata, The Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella-the Ballet, Rock – a – Tutu, Coppélia, Hamlet, The Nutcracker, Triple Bill, Don Quixote (Mercedes), Swan Lake (Pas de Trois, Russian and Big Swan), The Sleeping Beauty (Lilac Fairy, Enchanted Garden Fairy, Aurora and Sapphire Jewel) and Romeo & Juliet.

She also performed in Gregory Maqoma’s Neon Flight at the 2007 Arts Alive International Festival in Soweto, Alexandra and Newtown and performed on the main programme of the National Arts Festival with SABT’s Don Quixote in 2008.
In 2009, she made her debut as the Fairy Godmother in Veronica Paeper’s Cinderella-the Ballet at the Joburg Theatre and appeared as a guest artist as the Winter and corps de ballet Fairies with The Cape Town City Ballet during their season of Cinderella at the Artscape Theatre. In June 2009, she appeared in several roles in Coppélia at the Promusica Theatre making her debut as Dawn. Also in 2009 was the season of FNB’s Giselle where Sanmarie made her debut as Myrthe. She appeared in Janice Honeyman’s pantomime Pinocchio followed by Swan Lake in March 2010 when she made her debut as Odile.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sanmarie was promoted to Soloist in July 2010. In August 2010 she made her debut in the title role of Veronica Paeper’s ballet Carmen and also performed the principal lady in the La Esmeralda pas de quatre while on tour to the Eastern Cape to raise fund for Hospice. In February 2012, she travelled to Muscat, Oman on SABT’s historic tour to perform the solo from La Esmeralda at two sold-out performances at the Royal Opera House.

Sanmarie is 25 years old, and, although she has performed the role of Myrthe (Queen of the Wilis) in Giselle in previous seasons, she has wanted to perform Giselle since she joined SABT. She considers it her ‘dream role, with challenges!’ and describes the ballet as ‘so beautiful!’

She started rehearsing for her debut mid-February and is finding it a challenge as her own personality is more like that of Myrthe-while she has to adapt a naïve and younger outlook in order to ‘become’ Giselle, a beautiful young peasant who falls in love with Count Albrecht. Sanmarie is lucky to be sharing the studio with other senior dancers who have performed the role of Giselle several times. She carefully watches each dancer’s interpretation and must then bring her own character to the role. She finds SABT Principal dancer Anya Carstens’ interpretation of the famous ‘mad scene’ in Act 1 particularly moving.

Technically Act 2 is proving difficult and she has therefore prepared two pairs of shoes for each performance: a harder pair the pas de deux and adagio work in Act 2; and a softer pair for Act 1 with the allegro work.

Sanmarie is also looking forward to performing with the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra-she adores the Adolphe Adam score and is excited to be dancing to it-live!

She admits to having a sweet tooth and spends her limited free time reading (she is a big Stephen King fan!) and spending time with friends and family.

03b / Theatresports:

Theatresports, played by the troupe ImproGuise, is going into its nineteenth year of performances. Cape Town’s longest running improvised comedy show has been playing approximately two shows a week for the past eighteen years, besides having performed for charities, schools, corporates and festivals too numerous to mention. But this year an exciting new adventure awaits three of ImproGuise’s veteran improvisers Megan Furniss, Tandi Buchan and Candice D’Arcy, who will be travelling to Canberra, Australia to take part in Improvention 2012. Improvention is a festival dedicated to the art of Improvisation and will take place from 30 June – 8 July. The festival will include performances, workshops and a conference, and the three ladies will be hosting their own African-styled workshop using improv to cross language barriers and bring people of different cultures and dialects together.

Tandi says, “I love Improvisation because it encourages positivity and sharing and breaks down any existing barriers between people. It precipitates the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures, and new ways to act, react and communicate. It never feels like work but is more like play and Improvention is hopefully the start of many more trips where we can exercise the ability to be present, create magic, be spontaneous, communicate and learn with other like- minded people.”

The three women, who have over forty years of improv experience between them, are the most senior members of ImproGuise, with Megan and Tandi having represented South Africa overseas before. At Improvention, they will be the only team from Africa, and therefore look forward to the opportunity to bring their own brand of improv to the festival.

Being her first international trip with improv, Candice is looking forward to the experience. “I am so thrilled to be able to represent my city, country and continent in this form that I love so much and which has brought so much to my life. To have the opportunity to play and share with improvisers from all over the world is a real highlight for me.”

Megan, the founder of this group of improvisers, agrees, “I can't wait to be actively part of a global improvising community. My creative brain just delights at the thought. I have been improvising on stage for over twenty years, and it is definitely my first love. Improvention in Canberra, Australia is the most thrilling opportunity to learn and show off, at the same time."

Theatresports plays every Monday night at the Intimate Theatre in Orange Street, and every Tuesday night at the Kalk Bay Theatre in Kalk Bay, both at 8:30pm. To book, or for more info, call or visit www.improguise.co.za

03c / Education is the focus as FTH:K gears up for national tour

With a strong focus on its education programmes as part of the next phase of its development, award-winning visual theatre company FTH:K is gearing up for its 2012 annual tour which will be the most extensive one yet.

FTH:K, who on Sunday 18 March were awarded the 2011 Fleur du Cap Award for Innovation in Theatre, will start the tour on 16 April in Kwa-Zulu Natal. Until 8 September, it will visit schools, festivals and institutions in Mpumalanga, the Free State, Western Cape, Gauteng and a run at the Baxter Theatre Centre in Cape Town.

The company, whose signature style of non-verbal theatre encourages audiences to ‘Listen With Your Eyes’, works with both Deaf and hearing performers.

“In addition to our theatre workshops, this year we will be presenting our latest production OfficeBLOCK as part of the tour,” says FTH:K Artistic Director Jayne Batzofin, who devised, directed and designed the production Shortcuts for the 2011 tour. “Our national tour has become a vital part of our education programme as it enables us to engage with schools and Deaf communities across the country instead of just sitting in our Western Cape corner.

“This year we want to plant a seed for taking in future trainees from a national pool for our Tell-Tale Signs programme in Cape Town.”

Performing in OfficeBLOCK will be seasoned FTH:K Trainees Marlon Snyders, Christopher Beukes and Sinethemba Mgebisa, who also took part in the Shortcuts tour, and FTH:K newcomer Asanda Rilityana. The production previewed last year and has been further developed for the national tour. “We can’t wait to get on the road with our new version,” says Batzofin.

OfficeBLOCK takes on life around the office water cooler in a series of captivating vignettes that lift the lid on the tyranny of conformity and the culture of corporate greed. The series is set in the seemingly familiar world of white-collar workers and dreary office surroundings where everything is business as usual...or is it? In a battle between personal and personnel, four co-workers negotiate life within the corporation, and the audience watches as things unravel at the suit-seams when the hunger for greed and power leads to the point of no return.

“We also welcome Sherna Botto, our new project manager for the schools tour, to the team. Sherna has worked with the likes of Magnet Theatre and BLK Sunshine so it’s great to have her on board.

“We are proud of our trainees Marlon, Christo and Sinethemba for the role they are playing in taking the Tell-Tale Signs programme further,” says Batzofin. “Having started themselves on the programme at the School for Deaf Children in Wittebome, Cape Town, they now teach learners there and are a great inspiration to the students.”

Other plans for Tell-Tale Signs this year include introducing puppetry and film to the curriculum, working with theatre practitioners Jori Snell, Sjaka S Septembir and Jason Potgieter from Handspring Puppet Company.

FTH:K is also coordinating the Artsbridge International Exchange, a project founded in 2010 with Wings, a Deaf and hearing visual theatre company in Washington, DC, to facilitate cultural and skills exchanges between Deaf and hearing communities in the USA and South Africa. It plans to establish a partnership between the National Arts Festival in SA and the QuestFest in the USA.

The OfficeBLOCK National Education tour dates are:
16-30 April Kwa-Zulu Natal
16-21 July Baxter Theatre Centre, Cape Town;
22 – 31 July Western Cape
8 Aug- 14 Aug Free State;
14-19 - August Mpumalanga
20 Aug – 8 Sept Gauteng

For further information visit www.fthk.co.za

FTH:K remains grateful to all its 2012 supporters, including:
National Lotteries Distribution Trust Fund
National Arts Council
Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport
Pretoria Portland Cement Company LTD
Arts and Culture Trust
Nellie Atkinson Trust
Institute for Catholic Education
Distell Foundation
City of Cape Town
FTH:K individual members
Supported by Business and Arts South Africa

*FTH:K is a young, ground-breaking theatre company that works in the field of Visual Theatre. Without a dependency on any one language, its work crosses over cultural and linguistic divides and calls on audiences to “Listen With Your Eyes”. It has already won multiple awards, toured all over South Africa, Germany and Argentina, and in only seven years, has reached more than 50 000 people.
More than that, FTH:K is South Africa’s premier Deaf and hearing theatre company with the goal of integrating the Deaf into the performing arts world in South Africa. This aim is best illustrated through its unique Tell-Tale Signs programme which is currently training South Africa’s first generation of Deaf artists for inclusion in the professional performing arts industry. There is currently no other project like it (nor has there ever been) running in South Africa.

FTH:K works include OfficeBLOCK, its award-winning performances of Pictures of You and Benchmarks (in association with a conspiracy of clowns), GUMBO, and its multi-award-nominated QUACK! and Womb Tide.

03d / Arthritis: A dancer’s challenge

As with any form of strenuous exercise, ballet has its side-effects and there is not a dancer alive who has not experienced an injury. The physical demands on the body which require flexibility, strength and endurance make dancers ideal candidates for injury and as susceptible to injury as football players. As any dancer knows, the immediate effects of a class are aching joints, sore feet and aching muscles.

But what, if any, are the long term effects of following your passion for dance? It seems that there are 2 opinions on this and no conclusive evidence has been found to support either argument.

Before we investigate the differing views, let’s first take a look at arthritis itself. Arthritis is a chronic disease, mainly characterised by inflammation of the lining, or synovium, of the joints. It can lead to long-term joint damage, resulting in chronic pain, loss of function and disability. There are over 100 types of arthritis, ranging from those related to wear and tear of cartilage (such as osteoarthritis) to those associated with inflammation resulting from an overactive immune system (such as rheumatoid arthritis). Osteoarthritis (OA) is the commonest joint disease and its prevalence increases with age so that more than 50 percent of older people over 65-years of age have clinical evidence of OA. In dancers, the onset of arthritis can be as early as 20 years of age. The prognosis depends on the type of arthritis you have, but in severe cases this can lead to permanent disability also affecting internal organs.

There are those people who hold that a life of ballet has contributed towards their arthritis and, in some cases, has cut short promising careers. Experts who conducted a study using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to view the ankles of 11 female dancers with the National Ballet of Canada found that each of them had signs of arthritis in the joints of the ankles. These findings were presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). Painful joints are nothing new to ballet dancers, yet the same type of injury may be found in sprinters and long distance runners.

Dr Madeline Devey, scientific secretary of the Arthritis Research Campaign, said the problem was that ballet dancers had to twist their joints into unnatural positions. She said: "Their joints are far more mobile than normal, and in a small proportion of people this hypermobility leads to arthritis." Having said that, Dr Devey points out that anybody who took part in physical activity or sport could be said to be at risk of developing arthritis.

On the other hand, dancers themselves believe that while they may experience arthritis, their symptoms cannot solely be laid at the door of their profession.

Whatever your opinion, the risk of developing arthritis for a dancer is very real as overworking certain muscles and under using others will cause unnatural strain on the connecting joints. The young age at which serious dance training begins, the long and rigorous hours of practice, the thin ballet slipper, dancing en pointe and unusual dietary regimens may all contribute to injury patterns in varying degrees. It is vital that anyone wishing to continue their ballet career should practice relevant prevention techniques. These include
• being sufficiently warmed up to practice
• being well fed with highly nutritional food, the best lean proteins included
• being well slept
• learning stress management as you mature and get more involved with ballet
• being dedicated, but not obsessed
• understanding your body type, how to work with it, not against it
• using correct technique
Finally, be kind to your joints by applying an ice pack to those areas that are hot and inflamed, taking a warm or hot bath before going to bed and treating yourself to massages.

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