Splash and Leap! is an expressionistic, contemporary/ballet dance piece incorporating art influenced by internationally renowned Australian artist, Ashvin Harrison.
Choreographer and director of the work, Janelle Claassen, drew inspiration from Ashvin’s artwork, Glamorous Gala Dance. She is inspired by how he mostly works with coal and acrylic paint, combining them into drawings that are designed to capture the beauty of everyday encounters, feelings and fantasies.
Claassen explains: “The dancer’s body is a work of art, creating shapes and patterns within a space, just like a visual artist creates a piece of art. I wanted to create a work of art depicting how the choreographer is the artist as well as the paintbrush, and the dancers are the paint splattered onto the canvas.”
“I also drew inspiration from expressionistic and impressionistic art. Expressionistic art emphasizes intense emotions, distortion and the inner psyche while impressionistic art focuses on capturing the beauty of the world. That is why I chose to combine contemporary dance with ballet. The ballet pieces focus on the beauty of the art creating lines and shapes while the contemporary symbolises the emotion that the artist felt while creating the piece of art.” continues Claassen
When asked what inspired this, Claassen explains how she asked Lauge Sorenson to create a digital version of an artwork. “I sent him a picture of one of my dancers doing a leap. He then drew inspiration from Ashvin Harrison’s work and created a colourful tutu for the dancer recording the process of the creation. After the work was completed, he then cropped the video into segments that does not reveal the complete image.”
During the dance the video is projected onto the cyclorama revealing paint being splattered on a canvas. Every time a colour is introduced on the canvas, the lighting changes and maps out the splattering’s on the white dance floor. The dancers move under the lights, their movements depicting the manner in which the paint splatters/falls onto the canvas. The colours that appear on the canvas are merlot red, burgundy, bright red and gold shimmers (inspired by Ashvin Harrison’s work Glamorous Gala Dance).
The dancers move on the stage in the same shapes and lines that their paint has created on the canvas. Once all the paint has been splattered on the canvas the image projected on the cyclorama zooms out to reveal a full image of a ballerina doing a leap (firebird) and the paint splattering’s form her colourful expressionistic tutu/skirt. All the dancers finish in the same pattern as the colourful tutu, and the artwork is now complete.
Splash and Leap! is a part of the main programme for the Kucheza Africa Festival 2024/2025.
Watch Splash and Leap! from 5 – 9 November 2024 at the Drama theatre at The State Theatre, Pretoria. Tickets are R150 each. Tickets can be booked through Webtickets.
For more information, go to: https://statetheatre.co.za/
The dancers include:
Celia Byleveldt, Chantelle Ferreira, Charlize Vorster, Franco Lamprecht, Vivienne Dirkse van Schalkwyk, Bianka Botes, Nicola Tolmay, Saskia Teixeira, Chané Venter, Charldon Vosloo, Lisa de Wet, Tamia Marupen, Tyra Louw, Leanka Barnard, Monique Barnard, Phelang Chiloane, Marcel Venter, Temogo Phaka and Bongani Theophilas
Directed and choreographed by Janelle Claassen.
The imagery and videography used in the piece are edited by the professional dance photographer, Lauge Sorenson. The immaculate lighting design is done by Wilhelm Disbergen. Wilhelm is a prolific theatre designer who regularly works in all major theatres in South Africa. He is a multiple winner at the annual Naledi Theatre Awards and has also received a Fleur du Cap award for lighting design.
