I’ve always loved gumboot dancing since the first time I saw it as a newcomer to South Africa.
It seems to sum up the country perfectly: young, loud and lively, full of rhythm and with the ability to take the little you have and make something special from it.
After no live productions during the tortuous Covid lockdown, it was great to go back to the theatre and see that spirit fill the stage again in Rhythms - The Gumboot Show.
It’s playing for an ultra-short run at the Lyric Theatre in Gold Reef City, which isn’t a natural choice of venue for the city’s usual theatre-going crowd. But hopefully a different clientele will arrive, craving live entertainment after months of mind-numbing nothingness.
The show starts with a Zulu dance scene, as a narrative explains how the men migrated to Johannesburg to earn a living in the deep, dangerous gold mines. Six musicians are arranged on various heights around the down-in-a-coal-mine stage set, while the nine dancers are fabulously fit, and brimming with verve and good humour. They build a little railway for the wagons to travel on, and make striking rhythms with their hammers and chisels.
It’s not flawless, with a pace that’s slightly too slow to instantly grab you at the start, but once the more energetic gumboot dancing begins, the smiles and exuberance of the cast have you hooked.
Then the storyline fades away and it’s all about the dancing. The most exuberant scene is where they all egg each other on to take the spotlight, each allowing their personality to dictate their moves. The range of tones made by slapping and tapping their boots in different places and stamping their feet make a delightful music of its own.
The Zulu and Xhosa singing is moving, even if you don’t understand the words, especially when one of the musicians sings a melancholy song of lament.
There weren’t any programmes on the night I went to list the songs or tell us who the dancers and musicians are, possibly as part of the Covid-induced cutbacks. The cast is introduced by each other at too fast a speed to catch them all, but by then you’ve already picked your favourites.
One of the most noticeable dancers is also the choreographer, Mduduzi Magagula, and musical director Vincent Ncabashe wanders among them sometimes, playing the guitar and singing.
It’s great to see a thoroughly African show blazing back onto the stage at last.
Rhythms - The Gumboot Show is on today, Friday November 13 at 5pm and 8pm and on Saturday at 2pm and 8pm. Tickets from R150 at Computicket
If you want travel & leisure writing that's sassy - but classy you've come to the right place. After 12 years as the IT Editor for Business Day I quit to follow my passion for writing opinionated pieces for any publication bold enough to run them. Contact me or read more.
