11 – 19 Okt 2025
11 – 19 Okt 2025
Production: Cape Ballet Africa: SALT
By: Gillian Mitchell
Photos: Nardus Engelbrecht
SALT was the inaugural programme for Cape Ballet Africa in 2024. A blended programme of classical, neo-classical and modern dance, it served to showcase the versatility and technical prowess of this young company and celebrated the work of four South African choreographers.
The programme opens with Kirsten Isenberg’s soul-stirring Reverie, a work of quiet power and poetic beauty. Rather than simply pairing music and movement, Reverie sets them in counterpoint – each element enhancing the other while inviting the audience into a state of dreamy reflection. Set to Rachmaninoff’s beloved Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, known for its lush textures and emotional depth, the choreography is gentle, seamless, and deeply expressive.
Isenberg invites us to release the need for narrative and instead surrender to the emotional landscapes shaped by pure movement. Dance without story is notoriously difficult to choreograph and perform – it demands both technical mastery and authentic emotional presence. In Reverie, both choreographer and dancers rise to the challenge. With sharp technique and sweeping romanticism, they deliver a work that lingers in the heart and will reveal something new with each viewing.
Isenberg’s second work, Nocturne, carries a similarly evocative tone. Two dancers drift in and out of a continuous wave of motion – touching, rebounding, connecting, and parting – tracing a delicate, transitory pattern of intimacy and separation. It’s a beautifully rendered ode to the mystery and fluidity of dreams and night.
Chapter Two, choreographed by Mthuthuzeli November, is a powerful tribute to the rhythm and intensity of modern urban life. Rather than simply dancing, the performers seem to channel a raw, electric energy – bodies undulating and reforming with sinuous precision, becoming vessels of expressive transformation. The work pulses with a jittery urgency, mirroring the relentless pace and fragmentation of contemporary existence: the constant motion, reinvention, and bombardment of stimuli.
Textured and edgy, the choreography hints at a life force perpetually on the verge of eruption. The dancers rise to the challenge with controlled, frenetic energy, showcasing remarkable versatility and precision.
Smoke, choreographed by Michelle Reid, closes the programme. Billed as “Classical ballet company meets old-school jazz”, it delivers exactly that. Evoking the spirit of a genre once central to modern dance programmes but now seldom seen outside of musicals, Smoke is a nostalgic celebration of rhythm and style. It struck a chord with the hundreds of young learners in the audience who cheered and grooved along with great delight to Papa Was a Rolling Stone – a classic I bet they were hearing for the very first time. The joy of the young audience was infectious, visibly energising the performers, and the thunderous applause that followed was richly deserved.
Cape Ballet Africa is a sparkling addition to dance in South Africa – bold, versatile, technically confident and deeply engaging. The programme may be called SALT, but what it delivered was pure, unfiltered joy.
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Cape Ballet Africa: SALT
16 Oct 20:30 | 17 Oct 20:00
90 min | Adam Small Auditorium
R190-R290 | R220-R320 at the door
