New home for 'too colonial' Cape Town City Ballet

The acclaimed Cape Town City Ballet has found a new home‚ after it was kicked out of its base at the University of Cape Town for being “too colonial”.

The squash courts at the Rondebosch Sports Club will become the new base for the company's 26 professional dancers and six graduate programme students. They have been temporarily accommodated in a small studio in the back of the Artscape Theatre since #FeesMustFall protesters demanded that the ballet company be removed from UCT last year.

The university has been the company's home for more than 82 years. The ballet company’s executive director‚ Prof Elizabeth Triegaardt‚ who has been with the company for the past 50 years‚ said it was the “most stressful time in the company's history”. “We have managed to keep going thanks to Artscape‚ and we have managed to put on three productions during the Christmas season‚” she said.

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 “All three did fantastically well‚ but it's not the most convenient situation. We have dancers working from Artscape‚ I'm working from home‚ my secretary is at home without a computer‚ so it's not been easy."

Last year in an interview with The Times Triegaardt said she was told that a group of students told the dean “that they didn’t feel it was appropriate for a classical ballet company to be on the premises because it’s Eurocentric and colonial”. They had been negotiating with the City of Cape Town and the sports club since September last year to use the venue.

The wall between the two squash courts were broken down to form a bigger hall and Triegaardt said they would “make it their home”. “We now have an adequate studio‚ and we just have to make sure that it's ready within the next week or two because we have Swan Lake coming up in June.

That's just around the corner and I've got to have 32 swans jumping up and down‚” said Triegaardt.

She said they have had no further contact with UCT and as far as she is concerned their relationship was over.

“We're not going back to UCT and we're going to be very happy at Rondebosch club‚” she said. Last year when contacted for comment Pat Lucas‚ speaking on behalf of UCT‚ said the company's lease had ended and the university needed the rehearsal space and denied it was because the dance form is too colonial.

- TMG Digital/The Times