#BALLETMUSTFALL

My very first production: #BalletMustFall: A 60-minute Dance-Play-Satire like a one of those political cartoons one finds in newspapers. 
Scripted & Choreographed by Jared Musiker feat. contributions by Londiwe Khoza, Asisipho Malunga, & Ipeleng Merafe

Everything that Degas could not paint is sketched by this performance. #BalletMustFall permits the audience a peak beneath the tutu of South African Classical dance to witness how “ballerina pink” must be hand-dyed to match a different time and place.

The boys who dance here do so at their own risk, unless they present the hypermasculine and enhance their abdominals with make-up.Those exclusions become holes inside the fabric of the play which are dedicated to the rare sound of the ballerina’s voice.

The rest is a satirical cartoon, a protest, and a dancer’s manifesto, like the something found in newspapers hidden between sensational headlines.

The following images by Jared Musiker formed part of the promotional and inspirational material used during the creative process and marketing of the show.

Performances:
-(Premier) Alexander Bar Theatre, Cape Town, South Africa. (Jan 2016) (Sold out)
-Cape Town Fringe Festival (Sept 2016)

Awards:
Silver Fresh Fringe Production. (Sept 2016) Cape Town Fringe Festival

Write ups about #BalletMustFall

• Rainy Consuelo Demerson (June, 2020)
  "Decolonial Moves: Re-Membering Black Women in South African Contemporary Dance"
  Doctoral Dissertation in Critical Dance Studies, University of California Riverside. pp 64-68
  https://escholarship.org/content/qt17m163bd/qt17m163bd_noSplash_e796a0d0c5c4f7327332d8414fe0a08c.pdf?t=qeow7e

• Shirley-Anne Bezuidenhout (2016)
  Review: #BalletMustFall

  What's On in Cape Town

  https://www.whatsonincapetown.com/post/review-balletmustfall/​

IMPROMPTU, UNFINISHED VOL. 7

As part of the Cape Town based Darkroom Contemporary’s “Unfinished Vol. 7”

I was invited to present an unfinished/ spontaneous work-in-progress.

As a working title, I called the impromptu performance “Folie-a-deux” representing the kind of intimate exchanges that happen between two bodies sharing some common madness.

In this case, myself and the audience, both curious about one another.

(Video available on request)

Youngblood Gallery, Cape Town

January 2019

I, II, & III

Moments from Impromptu Performance, Unfinished Vol.7 (2019)

Jared Musiker in performance.

Photography by Oscar O’ Ryan

מִרְכֶּבֶת /MERKAVAH‎ (2019)

In September of 2019 I travelled to the small Italian village of Domicella, near Naples, for an artist residency with Kultursciok’s “Kulturfactory” Program.

During that time was the festival of the regional saint, San Gennaro and I thought about the technology of prayer in a digital age. It is believed that technology can advance all areas of our lives.

GIF files loop onto themselves thus automating my prayers. This is my prayer profile, each little square represents a plea, penance, trance, mortification, or a gratitude.

I wanted to incorporate this technology as part of my process, to make it more efficient for whomever is watching.