Cape Town Audition Notice for Dancers for Spartacus of Africa 2011
 

The South African National Dance Trust (SANDT) has been formed to promote, preserve and support the art form of classical ballet and contemporary dance throughout South Africa. The first project of the SANDT is Veronica Paeper’s Spartacus, which will be re-choreographed and staged as a grand scale national production, The Spartacus Of Africa, in 2011.

Cape Town auditions for independent dancers (who are not part of companies) for this production will be held at the Artscape over the weekend of 4 and 5 September 2010. The production requires classical as well as contemporary dancers. Audition dates for other cities will be announced shortly. Dancers contracted with companies must please note that their audition dates will also be announced at a later stage.

Audition details:
Dates: Saturday 4 September or Sunday 5 September
Time: Class at 12h00
Registration: From 11h00
Venue: Studio 301, Artscape
Other: Ladies to please bring point shoes. (All dancers to hand in a basic CV).
Availability: Phase 1 dates of Spartacus: May – September 2011

This exciting production, involving in excess of 100 dancers drawn from all dance- and dance training companies in S.A., will open in 2011. It will be performed in Johannesburg, Durban, Bloemfontein, The National Arts Festival and Cape Town. Suitable township venues are being sought to broaden the South African dance audience.

The orchestras which will play for the production are the Johannesburg, KwaZulu-Natal and Cape Philharmonic Orchestras.

“A grand scale Spartacus seemed an impossible dream until I wondered if it would be feasible to mount a production using dancers from as many companies across the country as I could link together,” said Paeper. “From this idea grew the concept of the South African National Dance Trust, which aims to educate the general public nationally on the wonderful of art forms of ballet and dance. To achieve the aims of the Trust the trustees needed to embark on a project and so, after many discussions with all sorts of people, the concept of The Spartacus of Africa evolved,” she added. “The music is that of Aram Khachaturian, and the story has been adapted slightly for an African setting,” said Paeper.

Independent dancers interested in auditioning need to email robyntaylor@iafrica.com to reserve a place for either the Saturday or Sunday audition. For more information please phone Robyn Taylor on 021 797 0593.

About the SANDT

The South African National Dance Trust (SANDT) has been formed to promote, preserve and support the art form of classical ballet and contemporary dance throughout South Africa. The SANDT is the brainchild of Cape Town City Ballet choreographer and director Veronica Paeper, with Robyn Taylor and Mike Bosazza as the other two Trustees.

The Trust aims to increase awareness and widely inform the South African public about dance and will provide the opportunity for national, grand-scale, bi-annual, dance productions to be performed in all the major cities and arts festivals in South Africa. SANDT seeks to involve and collaborate with all the professional dance companies and dance training organizations, orchestras and theatres to achieve its aims and offers them unique creative and performance opportunities as well as financial benefits. Particular encouragement will be given to organizations that foster performers from previously disadvantaged backgrounds.

SANDT will focus strongly on education, incorporating all avenues of dance (performance, music, visual, design, technical and arts management) to students studying the various art forms, as well as inviting and encouraging new audiences to theatre productions to appreciate and enjoy the wealth of talent that South Africa has to offer.