LOVAFFAIR FROM REMIX DANCE COMPANY
Highlight this, and book for it, because it's only on for this one week. With Lovaffair, Remix Dance Company celebrates its 10th birthday and its new home at the Baxter Theatre, where this show opens a new theatre called the Flipside. The last production I saw was inspired by Santu Mofokeng's photographs at the National Gallery and it is hard to shake off the images they created in that space. Like all their work, it was mysterious and moving, and the prospect of a new show is something to relish.
For those who may have missed them, the company is "an acclaimed contemporary dance initiative that brings together performers with physical disabilities and performers without. Remix is interested in exploring dance that values the honesty of the body and then surprisingly twists these tales and stories in space to create dance performances of unusual and outstanding perspective."
The artist Ariadne Rudolph once spent a series of sessions drawing the Remix dancers in rehearsal, and the images she captured reflect the delicacy and deep feeling of the dance. I am very pleased to have her permission to include some of them in the post-script at the end of this listing today.
CAPE TOWN JAZZ FESTIVAL
This is the major cultural event of the week and the programme for Saturday and Sunday is profuse and overwhelming. Look it up on www.capetownjazzfest.com. I consulted three musician friends to assist with selecting highlights from this list, but there are so many great names that between them they named almost every one! Unknown to me until yesterday is a band called The Bad Plus, which has been recommended as fantastic. So has the singer Rachelle Ferrel.
A wonderful aspect of the festival every year is the free Community Concert, featuring many of the musicians, this time again at Greenmarket Square starting at 17h00 on 1 April.
Something else to investigate is the Master Classes - last year they were open to anyone, not only advanced music students, and participants were privy to intimate performances by some of the leading lights of the festival.
EXHIBITIONS AND PERFORMANCES ALERT: NOT LONG TO END OF RUN
There are a few shows that we should keep in our sights as they enter the last two weeks of their run. Train Driver, the Fugard at The Fugard is one of them, London Road at the Kalk Bay theatre is another, and the Michael Subotzky with Patrick Waterhouse exhibition at the Goodman ends then too.
There are just a couple of days to catch an exhibition with the evocative theme of Waters - Vesi� - Amanzi. It features "three Finnish artists living in Kuopio, surrounded by lakes, and three South African artists from Cape Town and Durban, living on the shore of oceans": Eunice Geustyn, Kristiina Korpela, Leena M�ki-Patola, Witty Nyide, Jaana Partanen
and Jill Trappler. It closes on Wednesday 31 March at 13h00
GREAT TEXTS/BIG QUESTIONS LECTURE SERIES
The Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts (GIPCA), based at the Hiddingh campus, is hosting a series of talks by eminent and interesting people who've been asked to "discuss one of life’s big questions, or the personal significance of a particular book or artwork." The first season of these lectures last year was sometimes disappointing, but there were some that delivered the intellectual excitement that the concept promises. The next one, this Thursday, looks like it will be one of those: novelist Imraan Coovadia will be talking on 'How to read Lolita.' I am sure there are many of us who welcome a guide to reading this novel which has become so much a part of our language and culture, and at the same time continues to cause so much disquiet. And how to read Nabokov's language, described by critic Michael Wood as "a fabulous, freaky, singing, acrobatic, unheard-of English."
At Hiddingh Hall, Hiddingh Campus, Thursday 1 April, 17h00, one hour long, free of charge. For more information, call Niek de Greef (021) 480 7156 or e-mail niek.degreef@uct.ac.za.
BOOK LAUNCHES: IN A STRANGE ROOM AND KILLER COUNTRY
It's a week for celebrated male South African novelists. In addition to Imraan Coovadia at GIPCA, there are at least two others appearing here in the days to come - Damon Galgut to launch his new novel In a Strange Room at the Book Lounge and Mike Nicol his new thriller Killer Country at Kalk Bay Books.
In a Strange Room is described on the publisher's website as "The most intense and passionate novel to date from Man Booker-shortlisted author Damon Galgut."
The launch of In a Strange Room is at the Book Lounge, on Wednesday 31 March, at 17h30 for 18h00.
Leon de Kock reviewing Mike Nicol's Killer Country in the Sunday Independent said, "If you have to spend a weekend alone, with only one book for company, you'd want one that reads as slickly and as compellingly as Killer Country."
The launch of Killer Country is at Kalk Bay Books, on Wednesday 31 March, 18h00 for 18h30.
PLANT SALE AND FAMILY DAY AT THE GOOD HOPE NURSERY
The Good Hope Nursery is really worth knowing about. It is one of the longest-established nurseries specializing in indigenous plants, started more than 25 years ago by Gael and Roger Grey, and they count Kirstenbosch and Table Mountain National Parks among their customers. Initially a wholesale nursery they now welcome the general public. On Easter Monday they will be holding a "Fynbos Family Day" with children's entertainment, fynbos walks, plant talks, expert gardening advice, and 20% off on plant sales. It's four and half kilometers south of Scarborough on that beautiful road over the mountains from Simonstown.
Fynbos Family Day Good Hope Nursery on Monday the 5th of April from 10am – 4pm
For more information please contact Roushanna Gray, events manager on 021 7809299 or 0722344804.
