Oh, what a night!

Alfred Hinkel

Organised to boost award-winning South African dancer/choreographer Christopher Kindo emotionally, spiritually and financially in his fight against cancer, there was the added incentive of seeing original Jazzart Dance Theatre training through the generations - and the company's legendary former artistic director Alfred Hinkel on stage again for the first time in about 40 years. It was an occasion not to be missed.

Tickets were sold out that morning, but fans slow to book in advance refused to be deterred from making their contribution. They queued at the box office until they gained permission to pay to sit in the aisles.

The programme began with a visual tribute to Kindo, with excerpts drawn from Betamax tapes found in the Jazzart archives dating back to 1979. Among them was an extract from Sue Parker's Bagged. There was also footage of Kindo's Throw me a Line and Me, a piece that explored his own cultural and artistic influences by combining contemporary and classical dance vocabulary with Indian movement, and showcasing his technical brilliance. Me became his signature piece and won him the 1991 FNB Vita Award for Outstanding Male Dancer and Contemporary Choreography. Many in the audience may also have recognised the coverage of Adele Blank's choreography, featuring Kindo, at the 1994 Miss World pageant at Sun City.

Alfred Hinkel and Debbie Goodman-Bhyat

Remembered for years to come

Those special memories were the basis for a performance that will be remembered for years to come. Rust Coloured Skirt is an incredible piece of dance theatre that not only satisfied a local audience starved of Hinkel's dramatic touch, but gave those unfamiliar with his style flair insight into an incredible theatre-dance skill set. Every action has meaning; each gaze a purpose. Developed from completely natural movement, the physical outcome goes beyond the aesthetic. An arm lifts to support or balance; toes point to emphasise direction; bodies float in suspension. Hinkel's ability to tap into the very essence of a human being, who is filled with an inherent passion and talent for dance, and extract a viable story for the stage is unique. The dancers he trains who get it (or get him) go on to become highly successful professionals in their own right.

Rust Coloured Skirt sees Debbie Goodman-Bhyat, Byron Klassen and Adelaide Majoor baring their souls, alongside Hinkel, as they reflect on the journeys that brought them all together. And because of Kindo, this work, on this night, reunited hundreds of estranged dance and theatre fans, colleagues and former Jazzart company members whose excitement endured long past the final bows.

Byron Klaasen and Adelaide Majoor

Rust Coloured Skirt is the fourth work that Hinkel has produced with his creative and life partner, John Linden, under the Dance Garage dispensation. Credit goes to Linden and Heinrich Reisenhoffer for their direction, the cast for choreography with choreographic investigation by Jenny van Papendorp, Benever Arendse for lighting design, and Marquen Carstens for design and creation.

* Christopher Kindo fled South Africa's separatist laws, which stunted local artistic development, to train at the Boston Ballet and MJT Dance Company in North America. He returned after 1978 and began to dance and choreograph for many of South Africa's professional dance companies.

Cape Town City Ballet's Keith MacKintosh, artistic executive and director: operations, remembers him being an "established and respected member of the Capab Ballet company for several years, dancing many parts, which included the leading role of Romeo in Romeo and Juliet and soloist roles in Veronica Paeper's Spartacus and George Balanchine's Four Temperaments.

Kindo's work has won numerous accolades. He also served on the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees committee and as a judge on kykNET's reality dance competition Dans! Dans! Dans!

* For more information about how you can offer your "gift of support", please call Di Fincham on +27 (0)83 270 7883 or email az.oc.adteht@id

Photography by Val Adamson