#42

Puma Social Club

Before I make any sort of review, take note: getting to this spot any time past 8pm means standing in line outside for up to two hours before being able to get into the club. Be forewarned.

Puma Social Club - epitome of sports, fashion and arts entertainment. Entered into from an obscure door in a wall along De Korte Street (a door that blends into the plaster around it) it is found only by the queue that extends around the block and the two bulky bouncers guarding the door.

And the luminous purple lights glowing above.

Each Friday night you will walk into a different crime scene - House Head, Ghetto Gangsters, Hip Hoppers, Alternative Hipsters, RnB Soulsters and such. Live music, table tennis, photo booth.

Tip: arrive at 6, party til morning

#43

Magnolia Dell

It's a little park somewhere in Brooklyn, Pretoria. It is small and so very busy. There is a community vibe bustling in this little park that makes anyone and everyone want to join in with any form of dancing happening. I recently had a capoeira workshop in this park. The children loved it (and afterwards, the parents thanked us for providing so much entertainment for the children). Capoeira is a Brazilian martial arts, that includes maculele (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hCWpyyISxc&feature=related) and samba de roda (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFD6oyeYqag). The children joined us for our capoeira roda as well as the maculele.

That is dancing in public spaces for you.

Dancing in public spaces

So my mission is as follows:

a) To get hold of Joburg City Parks, Sappi or any other body corporate (such as Sappi, who does 'community outreach' by looking after some of the city parks)

b) to get some form of permission/go ahead/yes yes, we know you will be there so we don't get arrested to start playing capoeira in the CBD.

Sigh... permissions... I am tempted not to even bother... But me getting in trouble is one thing; the whole of Case da Capoeira getting in trouble is probably not the best decision to make in my life at the moment.

My target parks are the following:

- Joubert Park
- the park outside Joburg Theatre
- Pieter Roos Park
- the park along Rissik Street

There is already one dormant inner city capoeira project; the kids used to train in the Hillbrow Theatre. Hmmmmm, so the concept of capoeira is not completely foreign to all the city residents. At least I know this for sure, even if I know nothing else at the start of this project.

I will be posting the link to the project website shortly. This will also form part of my MA. I want to see the extent of website and blog interaction throughout an ethnographic study and if it in anyway affects the process.

My core question is this:

~To investigate the use of space in a city block in Johannesburg, with specific reference as to how the use of space influences and is influenced by the inhabitants of the space. This investigation will also look at the role of urban dance in public spaces in creating an identity for this city space and how this further affects the identity of the users of the public and private city space.~

I will be looking specifically for the extent to which dance is or is not visible in the city spaces. I will be running, concurrent to the theoretical research, experimentation into spaces in the city that could be used for public displays of dance. Hmmm, public displays of dance - PDD. PD2. P2D. This could get catchy!

Peace out public dancers of all shapes, ages and forms

#44

Arts of Main Rooftop Salsa

Ah my gosh! If I was doing a count down to the number one place to dance in Gauteng, this would most definitely be the top. Well, I am jumping ahead of the other 44 places still to be discovered - so it would be in the top of the top selection at least.

On the roof top, on the top of Johannesburg, in the sun, with a cold beer and the hip swaying rhythms of salsa tunes getting your feet a-jiving.

Every Sunday from 12noon until about 5pm. Before this you can browse through the Arts of Main market from 10am, drinking Ethiopian coffee, eating hard bitter sweet Ecuadorian chocolate and, to line your stomach before the beer arrives, Indian curry, schwarmas or Ethiopian Injera.

Here is a link to one of the videos of the salsa afternoon sessions:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpV4ThCgi-g&feature=youtu.be

~Where there is dance, there is life~

Red Bull Beat Battle

 I have never been to a dance battle.

I have watched them on television. I have seen them in movies. I am a dancer and in our small inexperienced ways, my friends and I have had dance battles. I have played imaginary dance battles across my closed eyes at night, trying to feel what it must feel like to be in the space.

Never before, however, have I actually been in the cypha[1], cheering, watching and appreciating the dancers in front of us. 

On the 26^th of May 2012 I went to my first dance battle. And like the first ballet that I ever watched, the catalyst for me to study dance, I will remember it always – the emotions, the colours, the sounds, the dancers names, the feeling of being their physically and emotionally.

I have studied dance, I have theorised dance, and I have written a thesis on break dancing, the body and the use of the body to identify oneself as an entity. No words however, can really do justice to what the body does when confronted with music. 

Artificial Intelligence (AI), the winners of last year’s battle, took to the stage to defend their title. Added to the mix, Vintage (semi-finalists on eTV’s Step Up or Step Out), Phly Nation (the only All-bgirl/freestyle crew and the only representation from Pretoria), Ninja Turtles (old skool bboy’s from Cape Town), two Patsula crews representing old skool Mzanzi, iSbujwa and many other freesyle, krumping, pop ‘n locking and hip hop. There were eight crews in total, battling for one prize – the top crew, and a spot in the Red Bull Beat Battle finals in Brazil.

Not at any moment throughout the night was the audience disappointed, or bored, or uninvolved with the event. Crews brought their A-game, with Vintage knocking AI out of the running for this year’s title. Reptilz, fairly consistent in their performances, blew the roof off in the final. Or it could have been the fairly disappointing  performance of Vintage. Strong throughout the battle, Vintage gave it their all in their battle against AI, yet their final piece could not hold against Reptilz. In the end it was “Reptilz!” that was being chanted by the crowd. 

MC for the night, AKA, kept the crowd entertained during and between rounds, and the various DJs and performers, including Pro, had us dance, dance, dancing to their sounds. After the show, who takes over the stage but TKZEE, keeping us jamming until long into the early morning.

The next step? Brazil!

I could not have asked for a better first dance battle experience as I got that night.

---

[1] The Hip Hop/street/dance work for a circle of people who form around either a dance battle or a beat/rap battle.

 PS - pictures to follow shortly, thanks for all the interest and demand to see the pics - camera malfunction soon to be remedied.

Attention all lovers of dance: this is a link to watch a video of the night - take a gander, it gives you a good idea of the vibe of the night, and then talent of the dancers:
 
http://mg.co.za/multimedia/2012-05-31-centre-stage-urban-beats

#44

Baseline

Well this one is a bit of a cheat but it can count none-the-less.


I went to a dance battle called Red Bull Beat Battle, held at Baseline in Newtown. So we were spoilt not only with the amazing dancing, we also had A.K.A as MC, Pro and other amazing SA acts (I can't remember off hand who was all there) and then after the show, Tkzee performed.

In between dance rounds we danced, danced, danced to the beats of great rappers and DJs.




As a friend told me, "Any event at Baseline is a good event".

So get yourself there.

Footnote** Baseline is found in the Newtown Precinct, one of the spaces in Johannesburg CBD that was redone as part of the urban rejuvenation project of Jo'burg City Council. The statue outside Baseline is of Brenda Fassie, also known as Ma Brrrr - Kwaito diva extrodinairre of South Africa who died of a drug overdose in her thirties.

All across Newtown you will see similar public art sculptures in memory of great South African artists.

#45

Great Danes

Bar-cum-dance hall-cum-hipster hangout, this is a well nice place to hang out with friends. Whiskey is cheep(ish), music is good(ish) and much fun can be had. It is next door to Kitcheners. But you have to pay entrance at Kitcheners

Plus it stays open later that 2am - the time most bars and clubs seem to close in Gauteng.

For Rhodents, it is like Friars but with class.

For the rest of you, it is in Braamforntein, not Newtown, so it is a different vibe and different music. If I understand correctly, the vibe changes with each new concert or event held there - as each event brings with it different music.

Also, there is a password that you need to be able to enter. It changes all the time. When we went it was Bobocop.

#46

...of the top fifty dance spaces in Gauteng... And in this post we shall tackles the top places not to go and dance.

Tiger Tiger/Billy the Bum in Garsfontein area.

This was the type of dance place that I was first introduced to when I was a wee one and I now look back and realise just why I did not like to "go out" for the night.

Who ever, I wonder, thought that it would be a good idea to make people dance to the music that was playing? Throughout the whole night, three good songs were played: Nena 99 Red Balloons, MJ The Way You Make Me Feel, and then just as I was leaving, a god hip hop song thumped invitingly over the speakers.

The music is quite un-dance-able, so you end up swaying awkwardly in a corner. The other option is to get severely drunk and then stumble about everywhere, meaning you have eliminated the need to attempt to dance to the music or in some other way pass the time.

We all went to said establishment as part of a farewell to a dear capoeira crew member. So myself and some other good-music-lovers sacrificed our ears to spend time with him. And it was a good evening.

I will just not be going there again.

My final poke of fun at Tiger Tiger: I think this poster advertising a promotion speaks volumes as to the type of place it was... (http://www.billythebums.co.za/home.php)

#47

Rust

Apparently also sometimes called Crust...? An outdoor-vibe of a bar-cum-dance floor place. Rather difficult to classify this one. Unless you go with good friends, the place could be a bit boring.

But add in the right amount of silly and a drink or three and suddenly the music (drum and base, sometimes really good, sometimes no so much) has you jiving on the dance floor as if you were born on a dance floor.

A nice mix of a more quite outside and a dance floor, if you find yourself in Pretoria East side of the world (in other words, you have crossed the boerewors curtain) check out Rust.

#48

Capoeira Meia Lua

Milk Street, Scout Hall.

Capoeira angola, benguela and regional. The best 2-2, 5 hours of dancing and martial arts you can have. Every Tuesday and Thursday evening 6:30-8:30. Beginners class first Tuesday of every month and from there on, beginners join class as normal (slowly slowly at first).

Clothes needed - stretchy pants, semi-loose top (just not too loose so that you get stuck in it when you move).

Come enter the world of capoeira.

Click on this link to see a video of the crew http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl8saprbKKo

#49

Stones, Hatfield

Good music + good friends + a great student hangout in the centre of a student hangout. A good mix of all sorts of music (no "Oldies" however, when I was there). Urban nightlife at it's best.

http://www.whatson.co.za/venue.php?venue=259&name=Stones%20Hatfield

#50

Ko'spotong...
...hip hop, Kwaito, house, RnB, rock, drum and base, dubstep. All in the arty farty space of Newtown. Do yo'self a favour and go dancing there at least once.

http://blogs.timeslive.co.za/pendock/2010/06/30/strongbow-synchronicity/