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Ballet in South Africa

Gwen Herat

South Africa has produced some of the most talented dancers who eventually joined foreign ballet companies. They are nationally and internationally accepted as great dancers and have captured the imagination of choreographers and ballet-lovers.

Ballet is vibrant in South Africa though not as popular like in Britain or Russia. But South Africa is determined to hold to her scintillating reputation and keep producing more and more dancers. Outside South Africa, very few people will associate ballet or performing arts with this country which has long-suffered racial problems.

When I visited South Africa, I was amazed at is development, her people and how they get about their daily life. I missed seeing a live ballet but African art intrigued me when I visited a couple of museums.

Their performing arts have been slow-moving but not so with visual arts and for a country that is more famous for cricket, I never found tension among people. I bet everyone knows who Brian Lara is but how many would know who Nadia Nerins (ballerina) is?

Dancing can be traced back to a period which the historians cite as pre-history. Then, Greeks and Romans danced. Israelites and Egyptians danced. Red Indians and even the South Sea Islanders too danced.

Some people still believe that ballet is still in the cradle though its story begins in 1881 with the founding of Academic de la Dance by Louise XIV. It took centuries for ballet to be what it is today no matter to which school it belongs. The sucess of ballet is in its syllabus which is the same in any part of the world.

Whether in Britain, London, Russia, Sri Lanka, South Africa etc. the students are governed by the same syllabus. They dance the same steps in any school around the world. South Africa picked ballet much later than many countries.

South Africa holds a very important place in the ballet world because over the years many of their great dancers and choreographers have graced the international stage.

Among them Merle Park, Vyvyan Lorrayne, Deanne Bergsma, Alexis Rasine, Alfred Rodriguez, Desmond Doyle, Patricia Miller, Maryon Lnae, Loise Godfrey, David Poole, Frank Staff and the very famous Nadia Nerina and John Crank.

At one time or the other all these dancers and choreographers left South Africa only to return again. The country stepped in to arrest this situation to stop her dancers leaving the country. Since then the situation had harsh effects on South Africa as well as to the rest of the world where the dancers gradually diminished, detrimental to the ballet scene.

So, many of the dancers returned home, among them was David Poole who produced and taught and later was the choreographer to the Capab Ballet at Cape Town University.

Patricia Miller with husband, Dudley Davies were the directors to the Napac Ballet. While Louise Godfrey became its artistic director as well as to the Pact Ballet. Frank Staff who died later, was the director to the Pacofs Ballet.

South Africa has four provinces which have their own ballet companies. The principal companies are the ones in Johannesburg which is the PACT Ballet (The Performing Arts Council of Transvall) in Cape Town.

There is also the Capab cape Performing Arts Board). In the Orange Free State the Pacops Ballet (Performing Arts Council of the Orange Free State) and in Natal, the Napac Ballet (Natal Performing Arts Council.)

Today, South Africa remains a very close-knit and homogeneous art form. It strives hard do maintain its own local identity that is normally associated with English and Soviet Ballet. Nadia Nerina - A Cape Town Ballet product, Nadinne Judd chose the stage name Nadia

Nerina after a flower that grows on the slopes of Table Mountain in Cape Town. Nadia gegan her studies in South Africa but her heart was set on England. She passaged her way in a boat immediately after the war and arrived in London.

She registered herself at the Rambert School and the first professional ballet she saw was Les Sylphides. Nadia was emotionally moved by its beauty that she wept throughout the performance. From Rambert, she went over to the Royal Ballet School and soon procured a place in the Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet.

There was no looking back for Nadia Nerina because overnight this teenager had become sensational. After a bribed appearance in Mardi Grass, Nadia was acknowledged as a charming young soubrette. She danced tirelessly until she graduated to the Covent Garden appearing in all major roles. In 1960, Sir Frederick Ashton created especially for her the leading part in La Fille Mal Gardie.

Nadia became the technically irreproachable virtuoso dancer that was all choreographers' dream. Her easy execution of tremendously difficult steps that were rare among British dancers and her sensational jump, simple awed one and all.

Nadia Nerina became the star of South African ballet with her glorious dancing as every choreographer exploited her brilliant virtuosity. She danced in all the leading ballet companies with all leading male dancers that included Rudolf Nureyev.

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