'DARLING IS THE SORT OF GENTLE CHOREOGRAPHY YOU RARELY SEE. SUBTLE AND FULL OF POETRY...' (De Standaard)

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Darling is a contemporary dance piece which testifies of an encounter between two personalities, two countries and two stories : South Africa (apartheid) and Belarus (mainly affected by the Chernobyl disaster).

This poetic and touching duet has been invited to the Dance Umbrella Festival in Johannesburg. Which takes place this September 2014. The proposed fee covers almost all the costs except for the travels there. We managed to add some more dates in Cape Town but we will need more fundings to get there.

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The two dancers, Moya Michael (Johannesburg, South Africa) and Igor Shyshko (Gomel, Belarus) met in 1997 at Parts (the Brussels Dance School by Anne Theresa De Keersmaker). They come from totally different backgrounds (politically, historically, socially,...) and despite these differences they became best friends. They each went their own artistic paths but also worked together for some big companies and toured the world together. They shared all their experiences and were astonished as to how different yet similar histories they shared. This shared timeline revealed similarities with the major influences that marked their lives; for example the one coming of age in apartheid South Africa, and the other one in Belarus in the wake of the Chernobyl disaster.

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Conversations on their respective homelands emerged as the starting point.

Retracing and reinterpreting histories gave way to a unique and human form, the result is this dance duet.

With unmediated physicality, DARLING sublimates the double-edged dialogue of how to cherish what is dear and protest the unbearable. 'Darling' as a term of endearment between the two became the title of this work which premiered in January 2013.

This piece was produced by the arts center Stuk and is coproduced by the South-African Zelda Productions and Dance Umbrella Johannesburg. They received funding from the Flemish Authorities for the creation of the piece as well. The duet has been shown in Belgium and now gets a chance to tour in Cape Town and Johannesburg. Sadly the fee of the festival doesn't cover the travel costs. It covers the performance fee, the accommodation and food cost in Johannesburg. The theatre rent in Johannesburg is taken care of. For Cape Town we will have to rent the theatre and its crew and pay for the promotion of the performances. The costs of this should in part be covered by the sales of the tickets. Our South African partners are helping us to find the finances for this part of the project.

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