“She does a lot of labour around the house: Fetches water, does a lot of cleaning, that sort of thing. I imagine that she is an innocent: carefree, trusting, playful and yet to be deflowered. “That way, as in the classical ballet, she is a country girl. “I have chosen to set my version of Giselle in rural South Africa,” she said by email, on the road after becoming the 2018 Next Generation Laureate, an award from the Dutch government. Masilo performs as Giselle herself and sets her in a country of high grasslands, mountain zebra and blue cranes. She has toured Europe and America and has worked with the internationally known South African artist William Kentridge and composer Philip Miller, who created the music for her new work. Artist in residence at the Dance Factory in her native Johannesburg, she formed her own company in 2008. Rachel Chanoff, director of programming for the CenterSeries at the ’62 Center, recognized Masilo as one of the best choreographers she has ever seen. Masilo has already won international recognition.
South African choreographer and dancer Dada Masilo introduces a new Giselle to the ’62 Center of Theatre and Dance at Williams College - and infuses it and challenges it with the movement and percussion of her own country. Myrtha, the queen of the Wilis, flexes firm shoulders and extends a bare foot. Myrtha appears in the 19th-century French ballet Giselle, but on this stage he / she is a Sangoma, a healer and a diviner among the Tswana people.
A lithe figure in red strikes the ground with an itshoba, a wooden rod whisking the tail of a cow or an ox.
Low strings advance to a beat like incoming thunder.
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