The popular Infecting the City festival takes on a new format this year when cutting-edge dance, performance and visual art will be presented over four sessions that will take place in the Cape Town city centre, Delft and Khayelitsha starting next week. 

This city-wide arts event sees thousands of audience members watching hundreds of performers each year.

Art and the City

‘Infecting the City shifts artworks out of theatres and reinvents the notion of how we use and interact with our public spaces. This year’s sessions bring the stage to the people using some of the city’s most recognisable spaces.

‘The City of Cape Town is proud to be a sponsor of these sessions. The unique activation of our public spaces is a platform for freedom of expression and because many of the productions invite audience participation, it promotes a greater inclusivity in the arts. This year’s format encourages more engagement with the audience and will introduce many to new art forms,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Tourism, Events and Economic Development, Councillor Garreth Bloor.

Performance sessions

The Africa Centre, in collaboration with the Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts, is bringing the sessions into the public sphere, infecting the city with their own exploratory and exuberant energy.

The sessions are as follows:

• ​Session 1: 29 and 30 March 2016 – Cape Town Station from 17:00 (programme repeats both days)
• Session 2: 12 and 13 April 2016 – St George’s Mall from 11:00 (programme repeats both days)
• Session 3: 23 April 2016– Delft Suburban Spar Shopping Centre to Black Box Theatre from 14:00 – 18:00 (programme repeats in Session 4)
• Session 4: 30 April 2016– Khayelitsha Mall to Harare Police Station (via Ntlazane Road) from 14:00 –18:00

In Session 1, the Cape Town Station will flash to life with a range of powerful and thought-provoking work that includes:

• ​​​the iNdoni Arts and Leadership Academy’s spectacular dance performance of youthful power, Inkululeko
• a playful portrait exchange with performance artist Anthea Moys
• Ratib al-haddad: a rendition of a traditional Cape Gathering of Remembrance; hosted by Hasan and Husain Essop (presented once only, on Wednesday 30 March)
• an electrifying dance performance, Le Kombi, by choreographer and dancer Jeannot Kumbonyeki from the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Session 2 will travel up the length of St George’s Mall and includes:

• ​​a new collaboration between two of South Africa’s most exciting performance artists, Buhlebezwe Siwani and Chuma Sopotela, who will deconstruct the representation of female bodies in music videos
• an invitation to a 60-second encounter with a stranger in Tamryn Pelser’s intimate work
• the vibrant signature choreography of Sibonelo Dance
• an intriguing performance installation made with shape-shifting mosquito netting created by the Angolan artist Cristiano Mangovo

Sessions 3 and 4 weave through the streets of Delft and Khayelitsha, bringing rising stars in dance, music, visual art and performance to the public. These sessions will include:

• ​​Elvis Sibeko’s new work, Black Tears, which puts healing in motion through potent choreography
• visual artists Anathi Tyawa and Cinga Samson’s compelling artworks which will be exhibited in public space
• dynamic dance theatre from Melisa Peter that tracks the journey of a black woman navigating the standards of the modern world
• the Addis Ababa Assembly performing an innovative lekgothla, in which matters of Africa are discussed through music, poetry and song.