Dance conference a success

The UCT School of Dance hosted its fifth dance conference recently, to provide a platform for debate and discussion around the impact of urban dance and music forms on notions of mainstream theatre and performance.

The conference ran from 16 to 19 July, and was dubbed Confluence Five: high culture, mass culture, urban culture - whose dance?

Delegates from South Africa and the international dance community, including Brazil, the US, Germany, Nigeria and Norway, presented 18 academic papers and workshops.

The conference concluded with a concert followed by a jam session, which clearly transferred theoretical discussion into performance, says Gerald Samuel, director of the UCT School of Dance.

Professor Brenda Dixon-Gottschild of Temple University in the US said that the level of discourse at the Confluence conference was excellent, and the organising top-drawer.

"What was unusual for me was that hip-hop as a form, which is not usually given credence, was examined here like jazz was in the 60's in places like France," she said. "I was particularly encouraged by the interpolation of different dance forms - ballet, Spanish, pantsula and hip hop, all in a meaningful way, during the final night's concert."