Ace Dance South Africa Blog (3)

PERFORMANCE

08-07-2008

Digbeth-based dance company Ace has been representing Birmingham at South Africa's Grahamstown Dance Festival. As performance time approaches, the tension builds for project manager Megan Nelsey.

It was taking the form of a jigsaw puzzle. We arrived at the theatre on the Saturday evening to view the progress of our set build and it looked far from recognisable. The technicians seemed to be building our set off-plan. There was confusion in the air and Ian, Gail, Luyanda, Thoko and I only seemed to add to their confusion. All hands were placed ‘on deck’ and my newly found skills as a builder were blossoming.

Having corrected the men’s hard work, and may I reiterate, hard work, we left the theatre at 2:30am. Our feet and hands were experiencing frost bite and our anxiety was rocketing. We all had a sleepless night and were itching to get back in to the theatre in the early hours of Sunday morning to get things completed.

By Sunday night, after numerous interviews with radio and television companies, we had preview press waiting with baited breath to film our tech run and at 9:00pm, the dancers finally started rehearsing in their performance space.

Come performance time the next day, Ian and I felt sick. The nerves we were experiencing were far greater than previous performances and the theatre was buzzing. The chair of our board, Paul and I settled ourselves into our seats and Ian took place in the wings; he can never watch the performance from where the audience sit, and I wouldn’t wish him to. As soon as Elena began her opening monologue, my nerves settled and I knew the dancers were going to pull something special out of the bag.

And they were marvellous. The show was a sell-out (350 seats) and the audience seemed to whoop with excitement. I thought about joining them in the whooping extravaganza but decided it best to watch with pride and admiration; this was going to be an experience that would stay with me for years to come.

The two Tuesday performances were also played to a sell out house; the excitement from the night before seemed to ripple throughout Grahamstown and the atmosphere in the theatre was electric. ACE dance and music had conquered South Africa and we had achieved something very special. I felt overcome with pride and found the whole experience quite moving. We showed our appreciation to the technicians by supplying them with cold beer and hand-shakes and this was perfect.

Post-show we settled into an area of the ‘Long Table’ (remember, the coolest place in town) and graced the room with our presence. We sipped on wine, ate delicious home-cooked food and congratulated one another on what we had accomplished. This moment was joyous.

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