Robyn Orlin：We wear our wheels with pride and slap your streets with color … we said ‘bonjour’ to satan in 1820...

Robyn Orlin
We wear our wheels with pride and slap your streets with color … we said ‘bonjour’ to satan in 1820…

The title pays homage to the rickshaw pullers in the streets of Durban, a colonial practice that thrived through apartheid South Africa. Kindled by their dance-like sprightly steps, flamboyant tunics and headdresses, the South African choreographer created a “rickshaw dance” with explosive colors and mesmerizing beats. Mischievous, exuberant and undaunted, We wear our wheels is a celebration of the pullers’ inventiveness and unyielding strengths to claim their dignity and identity in their fight for life.

Robyn Orlin has been confronting the truths and myths of South Africa’s complex history for the past twenty years with her provocative performance. The origin of the rickshaw, the destitute circumstances of their pullers and their art of subversion are energetically and humorously celebrated by young dancers from Moving into Dance Mophatong, one of the first historically “mixed” companies in South Africa.

Together with the breathtaking songs performed by the duo uKhoiKhoi and the ever-morphing video on stage, the piece sheds light on the Zulu rickshaws and the magnificent ox horns on the pullers’ heads—a token of power, as well as a symbol of their subjugation. As we rock with the spirited dancers forward and back, a journey unfolds into the struggle, resilience and beauty of the rickshaws.

© Jérôme Séron

Robyn Orlin, South Africa

Born in 1955 in Johannesburg, Robyn Orlin set out from childhood to develop her choreographic practice and culture in an environment hostile to all discrimination, including aesthetic discrimination: from Zulu dances to Merce Cunningham, from hip-hop to classical ballet... whatever they are and wherever they come from, all dances are favoured. And the aesthetic eclecticism she demonstrates, this "universalism" –choreographic and musical, cinematographic, plastic, literary...– has become one of the salient features of her writing.

Trained at the London School of Contemporary Dance (1975-1980), then at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1990-1995), Robyn Orlin began her career as a dancer, choreographer and teacher in South Africa, where she was quickly spotted, as much for the singularity of her writing, the chaos that reigns in her creations, as for her active commitment in the fight against apartheid.

At the turn of the millennium, her (multiple prize-winning) dance piece Daddy, I have seen this piece six times before and I still don’t know why they’re hurting each other, which mocks the difficulties and shortcomings of the young rainbow nation, but also classical ballet as a vector of discrimination, enabled her to tour in Europe and brought her international recognition. France has since become a creative territory for her: she made her first film, Hidden Beauties, Dirty Stories (Ina/Arte, 2004), her first opera, Handel’s L’Allegro, il penseroso ed il moderato (Opéra Garnier, Paris, 2007), numerous solos for performers from different backgrounds, and her first theatre production, Les Bonnes, by Jean Genet (Théâtre de la Bastille, Paris, 2019). At the same time, she continued to work in South Africa, where she created Still Life with homeless... for the Via Katlehong company (2007), Walking next to our shoes... with the singer-dancers of the Phuphuma Love Minus (2009), Beauty remained for just a moment... (2012) and we wear our wheels with pride... (2021) with the Moving into Dance company.

The universe of this prolific artist is trademarked, as we have said, by the mixture of forms, expressions and genres, by the joyful confusion that she creates on stage and in the audience of her shows, by her critical and political character, and by her strong plastic component. It is also recognisable by the presence of a few motifs that recur obsessively: tutus, for example, oranges, or, perhaps more mysteriously, ducks –alone or in groups and made of all kinds of materials, ducks of all kinds, sizes and colours.

Background to Moving into Dance Mophatong Organization

Moving into Dance Mophatong (MIDM) organization was founded by Sylvia ‘Magogo’ Glasser in 1978 as a non-racial dance company in the garage of her house in Johannesburg as a form of resistance to apartheid. In 2010 she was honoured by the Minister of Arts and Culture as one of South Africa’s female “living legends” in the Arts and Culture sector. MIDM has grown into a world class full-time professional dance company with a full-time training course and extensive outreach programmes. For 41 years, this company has been presenting a unique contemporary dance experience and has been praised nationally and internationally for its artistry, vitality and choreographic innovation. MIDM through its training programmes has provided bursaries to hundreds of underprivileged students who would not have had access to dance training or a career path. Many of the MIDM graduates have become successful performers and choreographers.

Moving into Dance Professional Dance Company

The MID Professional Dance Company brings fluency to the language of movement, and extends the limitations of the human body to produce inspired dance and beautiful movement narratives. Internationally recognised as an incubator producing a multitude of award winning and productive dancers, choreographers, arts administrators and teachers, MID has become recognised as a serious development organisation with the ultimate output of a highly acclaimed professional dance company. Wrapped in ribbons of rhythm this Contemporary African dance company produces work that is an original fusion of African movement, ritual and music with Western contemporary dance forms and music. MID aims to present work that is thought-provoking yet accessible, at the same time dynamic, energetic and exciting. MID continues to inspire, delight and challenge audiences across class, culture and age boundaries throughout South Africa as well as in performances for enthusiastic audiences throughout Africa, Malaysia, Europe, South America, Asia, Australia, the USA and Canada.

uKhoiKhoi

uKhoiKhoi is a live looping, musical performance art showpiece, encompassing multilingual expressions through opera, indigenous chants and praise poetry, using a variety of traditional and contemporary instruments to create their unique afro-futuristic sound that is rooted in the PAST, existing in the PRESENT and channeling the FUTURE of AFRICA. The “indigenous electro” act is a collaboration between musician & composer Yogin Sullaphen, alongside vocalist & performing artist Anelisa Stuurman. The duo is based in Johannesburg, South Africa, and they joined forces mid 2019. Their name is as an ode to their shared KhoiSan heritage, a tribe that was one of the original inhabitants of Southern Africa. The first single and video for “uKhoiKhoi (the praise)” is now available on SoundCloud and YouTube.