with Via Katlehong Dance dancers - Vusi Mdoyi, Steven Faleni, Mukhulu Motshele, John Moloi, Buru Mohlabane, Mpho Malotana, Tshepo Stanley Nchabeleng, Xolani Qwabe and Vuyani Feni.
assistant: Maxime Fleuriot
lighting: Erik Houllier
Co-produced by: Via Katlehong Dance, Maison des Arts de Creteil, Theatre du Manege de Maubeuge, L'Onde, Espace Culturel de Velizy-Villacoublay, Institut Francais d'Afrique du Sud, Festival d'Automne a Paris, Le Sechoir a Saint Leu - La Reunion, Damien Valette Prod.
With support from the CulturesFrance Africa and Caribbean Creation department - Ministere des Affaires etrangeres and Centre National de la Danse - Pantin for their dance studio.
In 2007, Via Katlehong Dance invited Christian Rizzo and Robyn Orlin to create two separate pieces to be assembled in a programme entitled Imbizo e Mazweni (a meeting outside the country).
The programme opened in November 2007 at the Theatre de l-Onde in Velisy Villacoublay, part of the Festival d-Automne, featuring Toutes sortes de desert s by Christian Rizzo and Still Life with Homeless Heaven and Urban Wounds
(Even Bananas have Bones ) by Robyn Orlin.
When Via Katlehong asked me to work with them I rushed out to see them on stage.
During the first few minutes I was really wondering about the relevance of our collaborating on a piece.
I was caught up in my usual frame of reference relating to a certain type of contemporary staging.
But soon their energy - in both the dance and music - won me over. Beyond the actual form of what I was watching, it was the idea of a quasi-archaic ritual that really stood out - a direct relationship with theatre as a place for salvation.
That-s how I created a link to them. I wanted to bring my abstract and baroque world into contact with their desire for narrative, and to see it as a new adventure in which to rethink my own relationship to creating pieces for the stage.
That way another part of my imaginative world could begin trying to confront our different ways of making dances and looking at the contemporary world.--
christian rizzo
South African dancers set Vivat on fire!
"(...)Christian Rizzo-s piece seemed spare and demanding, choosing to use these highly energetic dancers in a different way. (...)
It was a bit disconcerting at first, sustaining a feeling of emotion without exuberance, yet full of tenderness and humanity.
The lifts, releves, men-s duos and trios are well-structured, strikingly graphic and sometimes have quite a solemn quality.
It feels like a ceremony or a ritual that is rather strange but speaks of friendship, fighting, rebellion and death. The few props - plain chairs - are enough to create the space and scenes. The drums and male voices add depth to the tableaux, which the audience seemed to enjoy. (...)"
Catherine Quetelard, La Voix du Nord - 18 January 2008
more informations : www.jgdv.net