Only 27, Ofentse Pitse owns and conducts an orchestra in South Africa, rewriting the soundtrack for the region’s abundant though overlooked musical talent. But the pandemic has made performing together a logistical conundrum.



IF IT REQUIRES 10,000 HOURS OF dedication to master an instrument, it takes someone of harmonic resolve to become the conductor of a 45-piece orchestra, and 30-member choir, by the age of 27. Ofentse Pitse is the owner of Anchored Sound, the Johannesburg-based, all-black phenomenon rewriting aspiration’s soundtrack for the region’s abundant but overlooked musical talent.



The first black South African woman to own and conduct an orchestra was playing the flugelhorn, a gift from an uncle, by the age of 12 (her grandfather was the trumpeter and jazz conductor Otto Pitse); her nascent talent and determination were nurtured by the Salvation Army band in her home town of Mabopane, Pretoria, the capital of South Africa.



“In the beginning, the dream was a silent dream,” she says. “I didn’t really share my ideas, I was just thinking of how far I wanted to go. I didn’t see enough representation in the brass band at church. I thought to myself, ‘hang on, I’ve not seen enough girls’! That was a leadership step.”



A formative experience at school then sparked a natural instinct for transgressive innovation.



“I remember one day just wanting to touch the piano in the music department,” she says. “And being told, ‘no, you can’t touch the piano’. That made me feel so small. My argument will always be that you have to be what you want to see; you cannot fight a system if you are not willing to challenge it yourself.”



Out of this frustration, Anchored Sound was born, named after the Biblical metaphor of hope as the anchor of the soul. The choir and orchestra, supported by Pitse, with funds from her own architectural practice, perform everything from Sibelius to Vivaldi to Dvořák, with Pitse’s leadership in turn bolstered by mentorship from the University of Pretoria Symphony Orchestra conductor, Gerben Grooten.



“I told him that if we need to do the very hard pieces, we are going to do the very hard pieces,” she says. “So we do. It’s always a challenge, every single week. He always emphasizes the leadership required. How you stand, or how you enter a rehearsal space, influences how you are treated. Because being a woman, sometimes when they see me enter the space they think, ‘ah, what does she know’!”



The obstacles she faces are financial as well as cultural; funding is scarce and difficult to obtain. “Sometimes people see your pictures and you look like money, they hear interviews, you sound like money,” she says. “But there’s not one single person investing in Anchored Sound, the brand, or myself as a conductor. It’s challenging to keep the ship afloat. I learned early on that if you want something to happen, you cannot wait for the government, or whatever, because then I would complain for years without having anything done.”



Central to her role is her support for her members, many of whom lack the resources to purchase their own instruments or fulfil their own ambitions alone.



“I empower my members by first of all being great – or at least a good enough! – example,” she says. “So beyond just the musicianship, I always encourage them to study, even if it’s not music. Education is the tool for opening up many doors mentally, not just in terms of opportunities. In the beginning, I would help them with their registration at school, with their tuition, with their accommodation.



Whenever we book concerts, the funds go straight into their education. Most of them are very talented, but they come from homes that are disenfranchized.”



The pandemic has also made rehearsing and performing together a logistical conundrum that is difficult to solve for members from disadvantaged communities.



“Technology doesn’t come as second nature to some of us, so it has been difficult to facilitate how we go digital,” she says. “All the major orchestras have the infrastructure to have your good cameras, your good clip-on mics. For us, it’s very challenging, because you have players in remote areas, some in very small houses. If you ask them to record using their phone, you find in the other room there’s a baby sister making noise. So I’ve been looking at new ways of thinking as conductors, because we are so used to meeting up in spaces that are enclosed; how do we live with this new norm? How do we create a new world symphony?”



For Pitse, the unexplored musical frontier that emerges after the pandemic will be unapologetically, dynamically African.



“My second dream is to create an African orchestra, with African instruments like the marimba and the balafon (gourd- resonated xylophone),” she says. “Most musicians who play African instruments don’t know how to read music, so it would be such a spiritual exchange. These musicians know how to be guided by the spirit of music. And that’s the beauty of all things African – it really is the spirit! I’m eagerly excited to make that happen in the near future, to find out how the spirit of Africa can come alive within this new world of what an orchestra can be.”



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-style-default"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/2-Photo-credit-Hymie-Sokupha-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-49775" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/2-Photo-credit-Hymie-Sokupha-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/2-Photo-credit-Hymie-Sokupha-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/2-Photo-credit-Hymie-Sokupha-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/2-Photo-credit-Hymie-Sokupha-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/2-Photo-credit-Hymie-Sokupha-600x400.jpg 600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption>Photo by Hymie Sokupha</figcaption></figure>



&#8211;BY ALASTAIR HAGGER

5 Photo credit Media24 copy

The Musician Who is Conducting Inspiration Even During Covid

On a windy spring day in Johannesburg, South Africa, we make our way through the dusty streets of Braamfontein to the hallowed halls of the Joburg Theatre, a venue often described as the nucleus of the country’s theatrical history. It’s the perfect setting for the retelling of South Africa’s historic hit musical, King Kong, more than half a century after it was first showcased.
Ahead of the play’s Johannesburg run – from September 12 to October 8 – we are here to meet Nondumiso Tembe, the female lead playing Joyce, a role that catapulted the late Miriam Makeba to international stardom in the original production of <a href="https://www.kingkongstagemusical.com/about" target="_blank" rel="noopener">King Kong</a>, which opened at the Wits University Great Hall in 1959 as South Africa’s first black musical. In 1961, the play transferred to London’s West End and was a stupendous success with a 200-performance run.
Tembe, an award-winning actress and singer-songwriter, has credits of her own, including HBO’s Golden Globe and Emmy-award winning True Blood, SABC’s Generations, the military drama SIX on the History Channel and Zulu Wedding opposite Darrin Dewitt Henson.
She walks in to Stages, the restaurant at the entrance of Joburg Theatre, with a beaming smile and a spring in her step. She is relaxed but excited– the opening night is in five days – and rehearsals are on at the theater. Ordering a cappuccino, she gets straight to the interview.
“I think for our generation, King Kong, and the legend of this man has always been alive in our consciousness as South Africans,” she says.
“And many of us were aware of it and perhaps our parents had shared some of the memories and the experience of the production with us but I don’t think we really knew or understood the story or the music in-depth… It was there alive somewhere in the back of my consciousness but I did not know too much about it and in particular, I didn’t know much about the role of Joyce.”
Tembe smiles as she also admits she was not aware Makeba originally played the role.
“I was humbled to be chosen to be part of a play that was incredibly historic, ground-breaking and deeply brilliant at the time. I was hired two weeks before we were meant to start rehearsals and honestly it’s all kind of a blur,” she laughs.
“Before I knew it, I packed up my life in Los Angeles and prepared to be away for an extended period of time. From then, I spent every waking moment researching the production, the period and the role, in particular the music.”
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Set in the 1950s’ Sophiatown in Johannesburg, King Kong tells the true story of heavyweight boxing champion Ezekiel Dlamini who named himself ‘King Kong’ because of his stout physique and fearless personality. The play is a story of love and self-destruction enacted to the invigorating music of Todd Matshikiza.
<div id="attachment_34495" style="width: 510px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-34495" class="wp-image-34495" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/King-Kong-Print-04-DM-e1511423075127-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="333" />From left to right: Nondumiso Tembe, Joel Zuma, Sanda Shandu, Barileng Malebye and Ben Kgosimore star in King Kong. (Photo by Daniel Rutland Manners)</div>
Dlamini is aptly essayed by actor, singer and dancer Andile Gumbi, who made his Broadway debut as Simba in Disney’s The Lion King.
Born in Vryheid in the then Orange Free State, Dlamini himself became an unwitting symbol for freedom and the wasted power of his people under apartheid. After sudden stardom in the boxing world, Dlamini&#8217;s life degenerated into drunkenness and gang violence.
In 1957, Dlamini was to be a classic Greek tragic figure when, in a fit of jealousy, he killed his girlfriend and at his trial asked for a death sentence, to serve as a warning to others. Instead, the white judge, who refused to take instruction from a black defendant, sentenced Dlamini to 12 years of labor. But, three months later, King Kong is found drowned in a dam on a prison farm. At 36 years old, he had taken destiny into his own hands and, inadvertently, become a legend.
Dlamini’s story bears a striking resemblance to William Shakespeare’s tragic hero Othello; a man consumed by love and his vices. Like Othello, King Kong is said to have ended his own life, unable to live with the devastation he caused.
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On the opening night of the re-imagining of this tragic tale in Johannesburg in September, the theater is abuzz, unlike the quiet venue it had been a few days ago when we met Tembe.
“I’m really excited about this remake,” says South African actress and author Pamela Nomvete, just before the packed show.
“Todd Matshikiza put together a phenomenal musical and John Matshikiza, his son, launched my career in the UK. So for me, it’s like being a part of history because it was so significant at the time.”
The set design on stage is simple, consisting of painted corrugated iron shutters complete with rows of brilliant golden lights, and with the energetic actors and the live nine-piece orchestra led by Sipumzo Trueman Lucwaba, takes you back in time.
The costumes worn by the all-South African cast form an integral part of the musical narrative set in Sophiatown, the legendary black cultural hub featuring Kofifi dance, Kofifi music and other forms of entertainment.
The 1950s was when the ‘Kofifi style’ emerged, just as apartheid was being implemented. Men worked mainly in mines and factories wearing overalls and the only occasions they could wear a suit – an integral part of the Kofifi style – was at funerals, weddings or on payday.
It was a combination of fashion and a rebel lifestyle that defined this period and people who lived it up as best they could.
The South African project described Sophiatown as an area which “developed into the center of urban African music and culture and starting in the 1940s, it began to enrich its musical performances and elements of popular culture. Sophiatown symbolized something greater than the struggle of fitting in socially; it symbolized the fight for survival while having to deal with expensive rent, poverty, overcrowding, unfair wages, and unfair treatment. The people of Sophiatown established a strong community identity”.
The 120-minute play swiftly transforms from the playground to the boxing ring to the shanty town to the shabeen owned by Joyce, when Tembe makes her opening appearance with a soulful rendition of the legendary Back of the Moon, a sensual song written by Todd Matshikiza.
“The music for Joyce was incredibly challenging and sophisticated and multi-layered and really hard to sing. I was forced to buckle down and not think about the implications or the legacy we were carrying or the weight on our shoulders,” says Tembe at our meeting.
“The original script was very thin and the creative team agreed the characters were rather one-dimensional, more archetypes than real, complex, multi-dimensional human beings and we were very clear in our adaptation, not a revival of the original production; we were more interested in telling a human story the audience could relate to.”
<div id="attachment_34496" style="width: 510px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-34496" class=" wp-image-34496" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/King-Kong-Print-15-DM-e1511423279103-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="333" />Nondumiso Tembe. (Photo by Daniel Rutland Manners)</div>
It was not an easy challenge to accept for the cast.
“There were a lot of holes so we all worked very hard to fill those gaps and make it more rich and dynamic. For me the challenge with Joyce, because she was one-dimensional and didn’t really have a back story; there was the danger of her coming across as a vamp or a man-eater and I was very clear that my greatest nightmare would be for the audience members to walk away from the play thinking she deserved what she got instead of sympathizing with her,” says Tembe.
This was especially important for Tembe because of the current social context in South Africa, where there has been an epidemic of violence against women, and this being a story about femicide, it was critical for her to convey the right message.
“We really didn’t want our audiences to cheer at the end of the tragic scene between Joyce and King Kong and that actually happened when we first staged it, in preview week, so, the writer, Bill Michaelson, who I admire, snuck in, very last minute during preview week, and added a wonderful but very deep and pivotal scene between King Kong and Joyce which we rehearsed with the director for barely an hour and then Andile Gumbi and I had to perform it that very night in front of a paying audience, which was terrifying,” recounts Tembe, letting out a little scream.
Watching that scene in the play makes it hard to imagine the script was enacted without it. The raw emotions portrayed by King Kong and Joyce are paramount to the play’s climax; a pivotal scene providing great insight into the characters – who they are and why they make the decisions they do.
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South African actor Andile Nebulane calls the play “magical”.
“It’s brilliant, fun to watch and you cannot fall asleep watching it. The choreography is also brilliant; Greg Maqoma did an outstanding job.”
But he adds: “Although, I do think South African theater needs to move from the third gear into sixth gear. It needs to be shaken up, we need new stuff. We need to stop recycling stories, we need to write, we need to create and we just need to be recognized by stakeholders like government, which does not take us seriously.”
<div id="attachment_34497" style="width: 260px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-34497" class=" wp-image-34497" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/King-Kong-Print-06-JK-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="375" />Sne Dladla (left) and Lerato Mvelase in King Kong. (Photo by Jesse Kramer)</div>
When the play was originally staged in 1959, the audience also included Nelson Mandela and his wife Winnie. King Kong toured South Africa for two years, and was seen by 200,000 South Africans, playing to record-breaking multiracial audiences, this as apartheid began to take shape in South Africa. King Kong in part, launched the international careers of Makeba and Hugh Masekela, among many others.
But, it was at this time that King Kong moved to London. The celebration of what had been deemed South Africa’s greatest play was short-lived because of the Sharpeville Massacre of March 21, 1960.
But in a fitting tribute to the art form and the local talent the country boasts today, Nomvete says: “I think South African theater is of an outstanding caliber and more people should be coming into our country to watch our shows; King Kong is testament enough of how well professionals in the performing arts are doing their thing and they are doing it well.”
The Fugard Theatre’s King Kong, directed by Jonathan Munby, was also staged at the Fugard Theatre in Cape Town before its Johannesburg outing.
“I do think that Mariam Makeba and Todd Matshikiza and the entire original creative team who may no longer be with us are smiling down from heaven and are proud of the steps we have taken and how we have pushed the story and the production forward and caused it to evolve. We are proudly and graciously carrying the torch they originally lit,” concludes Tembe.
The standing ovation the play received more than confirmed that. &#8211; Written by Rofhiwa Madzena

The King Kong Of Musicals

Ask Beverley Joffe what the secret to belly-dance is and her answer might surprise you.
“It’s just decorated walking,” she says, perhaps because the art of moving has always come so naturally to her.
“Since I was little, I was aware that dance was a meeting point between musical expression and the exploration of movement. It has always been a personal discipline as well as a path of surrender. Dance is more than just my love and passion. For me is it an inseparable part of life and an expression of it,” Joffe tells FORBES WOMAN AFRICA.
Joffe began ballet when she was three and made her first stage appearance a year later. She soon progressed to modern dance and jazz and as a young adult trained in London’s West End before heading east to study yoga and Oriental dance. At the time, she was preparing for a career on the stage. Now, as the owner of Babylon Theatre Cafe in Claremont, Cape Town, she owns the stage.
The restaurant is a Mediterranean-fusion, vegetarian, non-alcoholic, Arabic shisha (hubbly-bubbly) establishment and is an embodiment of all Joffe has become. She has not eaten meat for 25 years and not consumed alcohol for a decade-and-a-half as she sought to nourish her body, and the results are self-evident.
Joffe mastered several dance forms including the Indian classical dance Bharatanatyam, worked as a soloist in the United Kingdom and performed with the international Planet Egypt events before returning home to Cape Town to care for her aging mother.
Since being back in South Africa, she has established her own studio, Al-Masrah Academy in Sea Point, and has now branched out into the hospitality industry, where she intends to share all she has learned.
“There is one thing I know without question: when you stand by your truth you will succeed. As an artist I know I can only create from what I know, and what I draw towards me. To many on the outside, it looked like a crazy gamble, but to me the only thing that made sense was to open a vegetarian, non-alcoholic theater restaurant,” says Joffe.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-31612 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/B22-199x300.jpg" alt="" width="199" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/B22-199x300.jpg 199w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/B22-300x453.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/B22-600x906.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/B22.jpg 678w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 199px) 100vw, 199px" />
“Food is the key to healthy body maintenance and physical cell regeneration. We should be eating nutrients and energy. I can’t serve what I would not eat myself.”
Her philosophy starts with her staff, an all-female crew who she has handpicked and trained. Joffe hopes to empower them to become entrepreneurs of their own one day.
“Far from running my staff as a business machine, I train them as I would an athletic team. Feeding them on a vegetarian diet is a power unto itself and I pay very close attention to their health and performance. I see my success for the restaurant alongside their success in skill development and reaching greater standards in life,” she says.
However, the main attraction at Babylon Theatre Cafe is neither the organic, locally-sourced foods and freshly-squeezed juices nor the card games, but the shows on Saturday nights. From 8PM to 11.30PM every week, the restaurant turns into a theater with performers ranging from professionals in the industry to students from Joffe’s studio, who have acquired the expertise to put on their own show.
Joffe continues to teach classes, with the intention of helping women find their inner voice. Her students start as young as nine and she has no age limit on who she opens her doors to. Anyone, at any stage of life, with any or even no level of dance experience is welcomed at Al-Masrah. Classes cost R80 ($6) a session.
“I have never run my studio as a commercial profiteering venture. I offer small group classes and lots of personal growth space for everyone. This created a haven for so many women who needed to unshackle and blossom, learning yoga, bellydance and gaining back their natural confidence and joy,” she explains.
When she is not teaching or working in the restaurant, Joffe has one more project occupying her time. In October 2016, she started the Theatrical Oriental Dance Festival, a three-day event of intense dance workshops and performances across a range of genres. Joffe invited international guests from as far afield as France to teach master-classes and take part in a gala evening. Her intention is to run the festival annually for dancers to “come together and share their work”.
According to Joffe, the magic of art is as much in the creating as it in the sharing, which is why she keeps giving so much.
“Art can only grow and evolve with display, interaction and training, so platforms like this are essential for healthy artistry and inspiration. It’s a mammoth task, but worth every drop of sweat,” she says.

All The Right Moves

More than 60 years ago, brutal authorities choked the life and jazz out of a vibrant corner of Africa.
They called it Sophiatown – the Chicago of Africa – a free-wheeling, musical, multiracial community close to the heart of Johannesburg and the birthplace of many an African musician. Too close, according to the apartheid authorities.
“We won’t move!” was written on the walls. Police made sure people did on a February morning in 1955. Before sunrise, they drove out 110 families with nothing but hastily packed belongings. This foreshadowed almost two decades of forced removals of thousands throughout South Africa.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-5548" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/DSC_0019aaa-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />
One of them was 14-year-old Don ‘Bra Don’ Thinane who had grown up with Indian and Chinese neighbors – “a mixed bag” he says. He recalls his father leaving to search for a new home two days before the trucks and bulldozers arrived to take him away. “He knew that in about a day or two days they are going to demolish the place,” says Bra Don, who found himself dumped in Meadowlands, Soweto, with his grandmother and uncle, because of his race.
We go for a drive in search of memories from 60 years ago. Bra Don tells me this was his playground where he used to rollerskate: we are on 5th avenue heading towards Sophiatown. “Hey! Isn’t that Xuma’s place,” he exclaims as we pass the home of the first black South African to become a medical doctor, former ANC President A.B. Xuma. One of few places that survived the nationalist government’s wrecking ball.
We drive on looking for Gerty Street, where Bra Don used to live. I spot the name, barely visible, worn and stencilled in black. We turn right into the street, immediately the mood in the car changes, and so does Bra Don’s face; his eyes widen and light up as nostalgia washes over.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-5547" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/DSC_0879-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />
“I used to scale this wall,” says Bra Don when we get to the barrier that stretches from Gerty into the Melville Koppies, a place where he spent his afternoons, and one of the few things left. “There’s nothing that can show me our house here! They literally broke it down,” he says as we carry on looking for anything familiar.
It was also in Sophiatown that he found the discipline of boxing, under the strict coach Harry Mikela. In playing the trumpet, he learned from the elder brother of Stompie Manana, one of the fathers of African jazz. It helped him escape the rough streets and in 1980, through study, he became a lawyer. Now, at the age of 71, he is one of the best known black advocates in the land.
Bra Don is one of many happy to see Sophiatown back on the map. The apartheid administration renamed it Triomf – meaning triumph in Afrikaans. In 2006, it was rechristened Sophiatown.
The jazz that died under the ugly din of bulldozers, removal trucks and police batons, is also back.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-5544" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/DSC_0336-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />

Back To The  Future In The Streets Of Soul

A Creative Power

When Warren Adams danced his way through his first ballet class, he had little idea he would one day perform on the most prestigious stages on earth. Like Billy Elliot, he would pirouette his way through adversity to a professional career in ballet.
Adams grew up in a township in East London, South Africa, and like most boys his age, preferred sport to dancing.
<div id="attachment_1876" style="width: 189px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1876" class="size-medium wp-image-1876" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Warren1-179x300.jpg" alt="" width="179" height="300" />Warren Adams (age 10, 1986) Greenpoint Stadium, Cape Town at the International Highland Festival</div>
“I was six years old attending my first year of primary school. A woman called Gwen-Mary Wells came by and asked us who wanted to do ballet. A pretty girl in the class put up her hand, so my three buddies and I decided to do the same. They gave us these forms to give to our parents for their signatures, but my three friends’ parents declined to give their approval stating that ballet was only for girls. My parents did not object and a few weeks later my dad took me to my first ballet class,” says Adams.
He says that although his parents knew what ballet was, they had no idea how tough the road would be for their son.
“Society perceived it as an effeminate art form, so as a result I faced plenty of verbal abuse. However, for every negative word thrown at me, I received 100 words of encouragement from family, friends and strangers. My school friends would pick me up at ballet, and we would run to the track, tennis court or soccer field. I was a competitor, and they loved that. Dance was just something I happened to do.”
Decades later Adams is traveling the world as a sought-after ballet dancer and choreographer; right now, he is co-choreographing the Broadway production Motown: The Musical. It is the tale of the iconic record label founded by music mogul Berry Gordy Jr. in 1960 that nurtured musical greats, from Diana Ross to Marvin Gaye.
The show has a cast of 40 dancers, singers and actors and grossed more than $1.03 million on Broadway in a mere seven days of previews.
“Normally, when researching such a prolific story, I would have to use Google, YouTube or books. However, every day I can simply turn to Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown and ask him specific questions about Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, The Tops, Smokey Robinson, The Supremes and more,” Adams says.
<div id="attachment_1877" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1877" class="size-medium wp-image-1877" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/166649532_10-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" />NEW YORK, NY &#8211; APRIL 14: Warren Adams attends the Broadway opening night for &#8220;Motown: The Musical&#8221; at Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on April 14, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)</div>
He went to great lengths to impress the show’s musical director by insisting on doing a live presentation of one of the songs from the show as part of his audition.
“He liked my idea a lot and suggested I do the iconic ‘Dancing in the Street’. I hired several performers and a week later I did my presentation and the rest, as the saying goes, is history,” says Adams.
The show opened in April.
Glitz and glamor is nothing new to Adams. He has worked on other big productions such as The Lion King and choreographed for several theatre companies, Disney, operas, film and television.
Adams was the first recipient of the Mandela/Sainsbury scholarship to study ballet in London. While ballet led to his current career, he found that it restricted his creativity as an artist.
“By the age of 21, I became frustrated with my situation in the UK. I felt like artists were being boxed into a specific genre without having the ability to explore other art, dance or theater freely. New York City intrigued me because American artists were taking greater risks.New York City allows me to work in dance, theater, opera, film and TV as a director, choreographer and dancer. I am also a Professor at New York University and Princeton University in the Theater Department,” he says.
Adams has not forgotten his roots though and goes back to South Africa, with his younger brother who is also a dancer, to work with up-and-coming students of dance.
“South African dance has always maintained a great standard, particularly the European genres like classical ballet. Post-apartheid was a challenging time, because choreographers wanted to have their own voice, and not just regurgitate works by American and European artists. I believe these artists have been very successful in accomplishing this. The biggest challenge the dance community faces is the lack of funding to arts organizations,” he says.
South Africa and the rest of the continent have a talented pool of dancers, who have, as he puts it, found their own voices. But many more are forced to leave the country to find work, and African stages seldom play host to big productions of the continent’s own tales.
“It’s not because of a lack of creativity on the artists’ part. It has to do with economics. Big productions require big audiences to cover costs and to provide profits for producers. New York City had 51 million visitors in 2012 and that is one of the main reasons why Broadway can produce 20 new multimillion productions each year. Big productions can be done in Africa, but the longevity of a production run can never be guaranteed,” says Adams.

Tag: Musical

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

The Musician Who is Conducting Inspiration Even During Covid

The King Kong Of Musicals

All The Right Moves

Back To The Future In The Streets Of Soul

A Creative Power

The Billy Elliot Of Africa Finds His Feet On Broadway