Robyn Orlin - Moving Into Dance

The Teatro Vascello hosts the South African dance enfant terrible, who presents her latest creation as part of the Romaeuropa Festival 2022. The performance is inspired by her childhood memory of the colourful Zulu rickshaws, the common bicycle taxis in the streets of Durban during apartheid.

"We wear our wheels with pride and color your streets... we said bonjour to Satan in 1820", the full title, is a tribute to the drivers of these means of transport of the country's colonial past. Despite the strict regulations governing this humiliating practice, for Orlin, these men “seemed to dance, their bodies hanging in the air”, full of energy and imagination, customizing their vehicles and costumes with traditional feather and pearl headdresses.

On stage, eight young performers of Moving into Dance, among the first non-racial dance companies in Johannesburg, bring to the stage the reality and the nuances of these forgotten lives, revealing a form of resistance behind the pain of living conditions.

Born in 1955, the eclectic and provocative choreographer gives life to a profound work. Combining beauty, sharp humour and dignity, it investigates the consequences of colonialism through the artist's original and controversial choreographic language.

Photo: We wear our wheels with pride and slap your streets with color © Jérôme Séron