In 1988, a feature on Napac Dance Company’s first three years appeared in the arts magazine Scenaria. You can see it in the Press Cuttings pages. And South African TV showed Three Years On, a programme devoted to Napac Dance Company. Part 1 here and Part 2 here.
The company was growing rapidly. The Junior Dance Course continued to supply the parent co. with new talent, frequent, varied performance opportunities as well as an array of teachers (resident and visiting), aided the rapid technical gains that every dancer was making.
By Popular Request : Allegro Brillante, Sonatine, Transfigured Night, The Lady and the Fool Natal Playhouse Drama 20-28 February , Winston Churchill Theatre Pietermaritzburg, 8 & 9 April. Use the side arrows to look inside the programme:
Coppélia Natal Playhouse, Opera 13-17 April Peter Cazalet’s superb designs for this production were yet another example of his mastery of ballet design.
NDC dancers appeared in Geoffrey Sutherland’s A Tribute to Andrew Lloyd Webber and A Handful of Rice at the Natal Playhouse, Opera Theatre 28 April-15 May.
Dance Classics: Les Sylphides excerpts, Florestan pas de trois, Ragtime, Transfigured Night, Nursery Suite, Nutcracker pas de deux. Does anyone remember where we took this programme? When was the Schools programme for which Gerard Samuel devised a presentation – was it at the same time as the Dance Classics tour? Venues? Dates? Please help!
Dance Forum II. Natal Playhouse, all venues July 7-31 1988.
The Forum included Romeo and Juliet & The Selfish Giant and a programme that included the new La Chatte, and a staging of Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments by Patricia Neary (Hurricane Pat), plus the evergreen Pineapple Poll by Cranko. Other new works were Melodrame (Jack Carter) and Bacchus and Ariadne (Prokovsky). As in Dance Forum I, numerous other workshops and events took place.
This was the brochure (excuse it’s tattiness!) Has anyone got the full programme?
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The Forum a included a Gala called Dance International.
One of the pieces was Jack Carter’s Melodrame, seen in this photo of Judy Holme and Aton van Niekerk. Neither Pat Durham nor I have any further info on the Dance International show – do you?
Coppélia made a re-appearance at Pietermaritzburg’s Churchill Theatre 11&12 Oct. & at the Natal Playhouse Opera 22 Oct – 6 Nov., and the NDC dancers appeared in the musical Cinderella (staged by John Moss) at the Natal Playhouse Opera Theatre 8 December 1988.
ashley killar 