BOOK REVIEW: Mapping the power and evolution of dance in SA
After decades as a dance writer, Adrienne Sichel has earned the right to write this book archiving a history at risk of being lost
Body Politics: Fingerprinting South African Contemporary DanceAdrienne SichelPorcupine Press The description of dance as a “wordless expression in a world where words are currency”, by poet Lebo Mashile in her unpublished poem I Dance To Know Who I Am, speaks to the local hesitation and lack of engagement with SA contemporary dance. The poem encapsulates the transformative experience that dance offers. Mashile created the poem for the production Threads, a collaboration with choreographer and anthropologist Sylvia Glasser and her Moving Into Dance Mophatong Company.
The poem opens veteran dance writer and arts journalist Adrienne Sichel’s new book Body Politics: Fingerprinting South African Contemporary Dance. It is a sociopolitical cultural history that focuses on the roots and evolution of SA contemporary dance from the mid-1970s to 2016. While the role of protest theatre is well known, contemporary dance also played an important part in championing a free and multicultural ...
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