Performing Arts

Performing Arts and Visual Arts are closely linked. What would a theatre production be without the costumes and props, the coloured lighting, the make-up...?

I had the great privelege last weekend to attend Review Minimax at the State Threatre. Review Minimax is the brain-child of Sunet Wagner. She has a passion for the stage and has created this awesome platform where children at all levels can come and showcase their talents on a real stage, with a real audience and a very real production crew made up of some of the finest, most dedicated people in the entertainment industry.

More than 1300 students spilled across the stage in two days to present reviews, drama, dance, singing, comedy and acrobatics. Primary schools and high schools participated. Everybody is welcome. There is an Eistedford segment where the reviews are given advice by a team of Advisors and awarded trophies for the best performances. Then there is the Open Stage where anybody can perform in any way and just have fun. Kids came on for solo performances and others sang and danced in massive groups.

At the end, they all came on stage to do the Dance4Life dance. Dance4Life is a global organisation that is raising awareness about HIV and AIDS through dance interventions with the youth.

Learn more about these amazing organisations at

www.minimax.org.za

www.dance4life.com

Have a great day in full colour!

Kind regards

Melanie

+27835689150

Crafts Bring Hope To Vulnerable Communities!

The CDP Trust is an NGO in Bertrams, Johannesburg. Charlotte and her tireless crew are helping abused women and refugees to change their lives and find hope of a better future.

The trainers at CDP use visual arts to stimulate victims to talk about their situations and face their realities. The creative experience promotes healing as they speak about what has happened to them.

The images that they create are used further as the basis for the Arts For Advocacy programme. The evocative images are far more powerful than any that any design agency could come up with to convey their message. From these artworks, CDP generates slogans for T-shirts and artwork for posters and brochures that are used by organisations such as POWA to plead their case to Government.

Do you know that many female refugees who flee their homes for fear of their lives, only reach South Africa to be raped by the very people to whom they have turned for help?

Sitting in meetings talking about the plight of these people does little to alleviate their suffering in the real world. Many of the women who come to the centre are financially dependent on their abusive spouses and are not able to extricate themselves from the financial trap they are in.

This is where handcrafts bring hope. A woman can go out, gather a few basic raw materials, make product with her handwork and sell it for money. She can go through the whole cycle in a matter of days. Imagine how empowering a few hundred Rand can be for somebody in such a situation?

I trained at CDP Trust in 2008. In 2009 they were short on budget and I was not called in again to teach. I felt it would be a pity to allow the thing I had begun to fizzle out just because somebody told me there is a recession. I invited one of their trainers to a refresher course, on me, to keep the momentum going.

Nirupa invited me to their year end function to see what she did with that knowledge and how she passed it on to forty more women. I started sobbing when I walked into the wall-to-wall display of dyed garments and fabric. I cannot even begin to describe how I felt when I met a lady called Grace, who in a few weeks had gone from being unemployed, to being self-employed! She arrived at the event with a sack full of dyed T-shirts and fabrics that she had made. She is selling them in the community and she is feeling a new sense of empowerment. She says her children are particularly proud of her.

I am grateful that my work has led me to such an amazing life experience. Thank you Nirupa and Charlotte for doing such an amazing job.

Have a great day in full colour!

Kind regards

Melanie

Cultivating Visual Arts In South African Schools

I am very excited to finally be working on a product for South African schools! Minimax is an amazing company run by Sunet Wagner, a passionate social entrepreneur and performing artist, and Jackie Skeen, her "uber-efficient" right hand.

They run intensive workshops for school teachers to teach them about all the ins and outs of presenting a school stage production. They unpack the process step-by-step to help teachers to know where to start, through to final production. They talk about a wide range of topics like choreography, basic styles, staging and lighting, costume design and planning.

Are you a school teacher? Would you like to upskill yourself in the visual arts? Visit http://www.minimax.org.za/ today and learn more.

In 2010, Minimax is including some of my techniques and offerings as part of their DAC Workshop offering. You might ask yourself what fabric dye and prints have to do with theatre productions? What about sets and costumes? My fabric dye and print techniques can be utilised to create stunning sets, props and costumes on a shoestring budget. Slipstream and Minimax are aware of the challenges facing teachers in today's world and we are customising products to suit those specific needs.

I have always loved the theatre and I still feel like a child when I sit down in a seat in the theatre and wait with baited breath for the production to begin. The culture is slowly disappearing from schools under financial and social pressures and I would hate to see it disappear completely from the school curriculum.

Ironically, I belive that the arts have huge potential to heal both our social and our economic ills, if we could cultivate a strong national culture.

Theatre productions help children to develop self-confidence as they are encouraged to project themselves to the world. They learn presentation skills that they can use as adults in business. They learn about their relationship with the world. They learn that sometimes it can be a good thing to be in the spotlight. They learn about relationships and people as they work together to make the production work. They enjoy positive feedback when the audience engages with them. Some will pursue it further and become part of the economy as actors. Others will have some fun.

It is a great privelege to be working with such an amazing company and I am looking forward to the work we are going to be doing next year!

Have a great day in full colour!

Kind regards

Melanie