Concept, Direction, Choreography: Louise Coetzer

Music by Brydon Bolton, Njabulo Phungula, Inge Beckmann

Presented by: Darkroom Contemporary

Performers: Gemma Trehearn, Rian Jansen, Tamsyn Pretorius, Anna van den Bergh, Inge

Beckmann, Wayne Simpson, Gala Winkler

Technical Design: Oscar O’Ryan

Rehearsal Directors: Darion Adams, Natalie Fisher, Yarisha Singh

This production is made possible through support from the National Lotteries Commission, the National Arts Council of South Africa, The Christian Ludolph Marais Trust and The Western Cape Government Department of Cultural Affairs & Sport.

LOUISE COETZER is an award - winning dance and film maker. Her creations are experiential, experimental, and place interdisciplinary approaches at their core, while grappling with the tensions between the physical and psychological. Coetzer’s works research the use of New Technologies and Media Applications as presentation tools.

Her most recent project, ULTRA, was commissioned by the South African State Theatre, and included in the Woordfees and the National Arts Festival curated programmes. Her screen dance work Blue Funk was the first South African entry selected for Cinedans Festival in the Netherlands, and earned awards for Best Choreography and Performance at the Utah Dance Film Festival in the USA. Coetzer excels in blending dance theatre with site-specific and immersive installation experiences, combining elements from various genres to challenge perceptions. She received the Artist Award for 2022 at the POOL Movement Art Festival in Berlin, and the Most Innovative Contribution to Dance Award for her work with Darkroom Contemporary at the DCAS 2023 Cultural Affairs Awards.

PERFORMANCE

Recent commissions include new works for the Pan African Telematic Art Project, featured at Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria), Vrystaat Kunstefees, The Creative Exchange, and Fak’ugesi Festival of African Digital Innovation; CREATIVATE at the virtual National Arts Festival; Zeitz MOCAA, and the Iziko Planetarium Under The Dome Festival. Her Live Art Performance Installations have been showcased at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, the Centre For The Less Good Idea, Dance Umbrella, Kucheza Afrika Festival, Baxter Dance Festival, the National Arts Festival, and the Norval Foundation.

FILM

Coetzer’s Screen Dance works have been presented at festivals worldwide. Awards  include the Best of Festival Award at Third Coast Dance Film Festival (Nevada, USA); Best Dance Film at Berlin Shorts (Germany), Best Film Award at Under The Dome Festival (SA); and Jury Awards at Denton Black Film Festival (Texas, USA); and Danceador Videodance Festival (USA). Her Film works have been presented by Bucharest International Dance Film Festival, Boston Dance Festival (USA), London Global Film Festival (UK),Video Art Miden (Greece), 40 North Festival (Calif. USA), Foreign Exchange (Paris, France), Ubumuntu Arts Festival (Kigali,Rwanda), Agite Y Sirva (Oaxaca, Mexico), The British Film Institute (London, UK) and Global Art & Moving Images (Pinsio, Finland).

BRYDON BOLTON is an accomplished composer and performer. He has toured extensively and has composed music for many award winning plays, documentaries and dance works. His influences are diverse and he writes and plays everything from classical, jazz and world music to glitch and trance.

INGE BECKMANN is a multi-hyphenated artist, recognised for her contributions to music, film, and the creative arts. She laid a strong groundwork for her early career by mastering different dance styles and working as a professional singer on stage and in the studio. Today, Inge’s vocals feature on local and international TV & Film soundtracks. Her notable achievements include winning a SAMA Award for her role as a Singer/Songwriter in the Alt-Electro band, LARK, and serving as the lead vocalist for the bass-driven sludge supergroup, BEAST. Later, Inge’s career developed to include acting in both film and television, with a focus on bringing unconventional and complex characters to life.

NJABULO PHUNGULA is a composer from Durban, South Africa. Drawing on his engagement with literature, film, the visual arts, his music documents the exploration of convoluted forms, inspired by the concepts of time, memory, gesture, and the creative process itself.

His works have been performed in South Africa, Germany, the USA, and UK. He was a JACK Studio Artist from 2020-2022 and a Postcolonial Recherche Fellow (with ensemble recherche and the Goethe-Institut) from 2021-2022. He was named as a laureate of the impuls Composers Competition for 2025, received Henri Lazar of International Commission Prize from Brandeis University, as well as the lst prize at the inaugural SASE Composers Competition for his work Bound objects.

He holds a BA Hons degree from the University of KwaZulu-Natal where he studied composition under the supervision of Jürgen Bräuninger, and later with Clare Loveday.