#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.

A walk on the lighter side of life. And Jo'burg

In the streets of Johannesburg...

Fig. 1: insert ballet barres, ballet rehearsal space.

I went for a walk the other day, a walk through Braamfontein. I had taken the Gautrain from Centurion to Park Station and I was on my way to a meeting with my supervisor-to-be at Wits (I'm starting my MA there next year 2013).

My project is going to deal with public urban space, how it is used, how it can be adapted and reclaimed.

I went for a walk the other day, a walk through Braamfontein and I saw so much public space that can be used to fill the city with little pockets of vibrant activity.

Fig 2: break dancing?

Fig 3: Parkour/urban freerunning

Fig 4: parkour and break dancing. Maybe even capoeira?

Fig 5: The roof, the roof, what can be done on the roof? Ballet, capoeira, break dancing.

Fig 6: ballet, capoeira, break dancing

Fig 7: capoeira, capoeira, capoeira

Fig 8: using public space; true space

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.

The Midrand Creative Base

The new project begins...with a Face Book page. Honestly though, how easy is it to create a web presence for yourself without having to register domains or set up websites?

So I am beginning to create a web presence for the Midrand Freelancer's Creative Base. Maybe the name is too long. Brownie points to anyone who can come up with a better name? Seriously, we will have a plaque with your name on it installed in the building...?

So I am asking a question or three...

The urban space have three important functions:

1. a source of community
2. a source of economic opportunities
3. a way to link people across countries
 

1) what makes a community strong, 2) give old and new ways of embracing these economic opportunities and 3) how can a city inspire us and keep us linked?

If you feel inclined to answer here you may. Or email me info@easyofficesuites.co.za. or better yet, join the Face Book Page and join the conversation... https://www.facebook.com/groups/254684527969836/

 Or read this blog, don't do anything and the world will continue on its merry way.

 But I dare you to participate. To borrow from a Checkers advert - "It may not change the world. But it may change the way we live in it."

 And in my view,that will change the world. 

 

A change of space

I am now working at a property development company.

How random is that? Yet I fit in more here than at the advertising company? Why? Because the company deals with space and I am obsessed with space. Yes Whiz Property is concerned with building buildings and selling the space, and I am concerned with the use of space and how it affects our social lives.

But the two have married in my latest experiment: assessing the changing use and need of space in the urban environment.

Hello new love affair!

The need for space and the use thereof is changing. Just as the internet, two years ago, did not know that a single "like" button on a face book page could revolutionise the spread of information, so space and place in the urban context has speedily generated a need for us to think differently.

 Exhibit number one: the freelancer. The free one, the no boss one, the 4pm-and-still-in-your-pajamas one, the obsessed-with-contents-of-fridge one.

San Francisco has come to the rescue, in the form of a Writers' Grotto. It is not being acknowledged that it is not only corporate business people who require the structure and motivation of working hours in a working only space. Writers, freelancers and other people and their dogs are beginning to realise that even us bohemian artistic, creative, writing and philosophising types need structure, schedules and other such 'corporate' motivations in our lives.

And to the Writer's Grotto was born.

This is a niche market that, it appears, does not exist (at least in profusion) in South Africa.

So the space begins to change.

Office space is no longer going to be for the clock-inners and outers, the eight to fivers and the CC owners. Now it will be for people like me, or Luntu or Kylene, who take some writing here, a design job there, some film editing next door, but end up cleaning the top of the top cupboard a day before deadline.

If anybody who reading this (very witty and informative) post finds themselves in the Gauteng province experiencing just such a scenario of freelance work and rabid spring cleaning then comment on this post and we will hook you up dawg!


Culture is made in the physical space. I want to create a culture of creative, enterprising, networking individuals who will take the Gauteng province by storm. The physical space says a lot about us - why we choose to live in a space, how we react to a space, what we get from a space.


So now it is time for me to build a city. Of space. And begin to explore the these spaces as cities of creative collaborations.


That is all.