LIFESTYLE36 MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2014 Movies & Music Dancers with the Joburg Ballet prepare on September 17, 2014 in Johannesburg before a A dancer of the Joburg Ballet warms up before a full dress rehearsal of the “Nutcracker Re- full dress rehearsal of the “Nutcracker Re-Imagined”. —AFP photos Imagined”. South Africa sets ‘Nutcracker’ in the Kalahari Desert t’s danced to Tchaikovsky’s famous South African setting and in summer.” Angela Revie, who plays Clara. Kitty melody, but it’s not your traditional “The Nutcracker Reimagined” was first Phetla, a soloist at the Joburg Ballet, IChristmas Nutcracker: the Joburg created in 2008 by the Joburg Ballet’s who plays the role of the Sugar Plum Ballet has set it in the Kalahari desert forerunner. It is on show again this year- Fairy-which in this case is a sangoma- among ancient Bushmen paintings. The from September 19 through 27. “This finds the latest version of the dance winter theme has been replaced with one is very, very different,” says dancer “more dangerous”. sun, sand and baobab trees. The role of Keke Chele, who plays the butler. “It’s more sculptured, rather than the Sugar Plum Fairy is instead played being classical, it’s exciting, it’s quick,” by a sangoma or traditional healer, and It’s a lot of fun she says. Choreographer Adele Blank, the famous “Russian Dance” is per- “Like a traditional Xmas party when admits that adaptation did not initially formed in overalls and gumboots. that uncle that you haven’t seen in a flow smoothly because many of the “The Nutcracker Reimagined” comes long time comes to visit, those are the dancers are not from South Africa and with the original music and story line of kind of characters that we get to have already played in the classical France’s famous ballet dancer and cho- explore and it’s a lot of fun,” he said. It is Nutcraker. “So they look at us as if we reographer Marius Petipa-during set in a magical world of South Africa’s have lost the plot,” said Blank. Christmas night. And a little girl named sangomas, baobab trees, the gumboot For several years, the Joburg Ballet- Clara experiences a magical adventure. dance - an invention of black miners- previously known as Mzansi But with no snowflakes or tutus, Clara is and would not be complete without Productions and South African Ballet led by a sangoma through the Kalahari koeksisters, a traditional local sweet Theatre-has tried to rebrand itself and Desert, where the cave paintings come treat.The choreography is based on clas- reach out beyond its predominantly to life. And a baobab is all there is for a sic and contemporary inspiration and is white audience. “We are trying to sus- Christmas tree. sometimes strikingly pictorial. tain the existing audience, but grow a Christmas in the southern hemi- But the 2014 version of the ballet very new South African audience, par- sphere comes around midsummer so adds circus performances, with some ticularly a young and black and exciting “trying to pretend that it’s winter out- characters travelling to a magical world audience,” said Badenhorst. This per- side, is a little bit ridiculous,” said Dirk suspended from ropes. Performers find formance “is one of the ways we are try- Badenhorst, CEO of the Joburg Ballet. some of those aerial tricks a bit ing to achieve that.” The first production “So the idea was to create a South demanding. “The most challenging for of The Nutcracker took place at the Kitty Phetla, senior soloist of the Joburg Ballet pauses during a full African Nutcracker that would tell the me is probably the new circus stuff that Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in St normal story of The Nutcracker, but in a we’re doing, it’s quite difficult,” says Petersburg, Russia in 1892. —AFP dress rehearsal of the “Nutcracker Re-Imagined”. Lauryn Hill comeback gets off to rocky start in London auryn Hill’s five shows in Britain this album she has made, and delving into pop nonplussed by some of her song choices. month were billed as a rare treat for and rock territory. Songs from “The Score”, “The former Fugees star Lauryn Hill gave us Lfans of the elusive singer-songwriter, another award-winning album Hill recorded bafflingly obscure reinterpretations of her coming less than a year after she was as part of the Fugees in 1996, were left best songs,” James Hall wrote for The released from US federal prison where she largely untouched, along with a number of Telegraph. served three months for tax evasion. But a tracks from her 2002 MTV Unplugged 2.0 The Guardian agreed. “‘Ex-Factor’, her late start, angry tweets and poor reviews album. Hill also performed covers of “Bang soulful dissing of former Fugee and ex-lover marred her first sell-out gig at the Brixton Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)” by Nancy Wyclef Jean, deserves better than to be Academy in London. The 39-year-old singer, Sinatra, The Flamingos’ “I Only Have Eyes for reduced to a funk-metal workout,” Ian famous for her 1998 album “The You” and a few Bob Marley classics, includ- Gittins wrote. “When Hill does an acoustic Miseducation of Lauryn Hill”, arrived on ing “Soul Rebel”, “Jammin’” and “Is This Love”. guitar for relatively sensitive readings of stage with a five-piece band and three MTV album songs such as ‘Mr Intentional’, backing singers at 9:58 pm on Friday. ‘Disappointing’ you wish she’d apply the same courtesy to The show, with tickets selling for 55 After the show, a number of fans took to her better material.” But some fans defend- pounds ($90), had been advertised to start Twitter to complain. Yuichi Miyama, a 31- ed the singer’s performance, saying it at 9 pm, with doors opening at 7 pm. year-old paralegal from London, said on showed her growth as an artist. Rukea This April 21, 2012 file photo shows US actress Management of the 4,900-seater venue Twitter: “Lauryn Hill is the most disappoint- Azougaye, a 24-year-old student from Polly Bergen attending “Struck By Lightning” took to Twitter a few minutes before her ing concert I have ever been to. That’s heart- London, told Reuters: “It was beautiful. It Premiere during the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival at arrival to apologize to disgruntled fans, breaking.” He explained to Reuters at the was more than I expected because it was the Borough of Manhattan Community College in some of whom had started booing before concert that he didn’t recognize a lot of the everything I hoped for. I’m just blown away New York City. —AP her arrival. “We apologize for the delay songs Hill performed. “The bottom line is that I got everything that I wanted from it.” which is out of our control,” read a state- Lauryn Hill is a singer and there are a lot of Hill follows up her weekend London ment on Twitter. “Lauryn Hill will be on songs on that album that she sings certain shows with a performance in Birmingham stage very soon.” things in such a beautiful way,” he said. “And on September 23 before heading to Polly Bergen, ‘Cape Fear’ When she arrived, Hill spent 80 minutes I felt I didn’t catch any of it in anything she Manchester on September 25. Her brief tour performing a combination of re-worked hits sang. And a lot of the songs were so far wraps up with two more London shows at actress, dies at 84 from her debut album, the only solo studio away from the original.” Critics also were the end of the month. —Reuters Lauryn Hill ctress and singer Polly Bergen, who’s best known for her role in the original “Cape Fear” opposite AGregory Peck, died at her home in Connecticut on Box Office: ‘Maze Runner’ sprints Saturday. She was 84. Bergen had battled emphysema in the late 1990s. “It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of legendary actress and long-time friend and past Neeson with $32.5 Million client, Polly Bergen,” her publicist Judy Katz said in a state- ment. “She died peacefully at her home in Southbury, Conn. this morning at 11:10 am, surrounded by her family, he Maze Runner” showed that sometimes the battling nasty creatures in a nasty labyrinth into a fran- weekend. Despite boasting Liam Neeson’s name above the long-time personal manager, Jan McCormack and close weekend box office is a marathon, not a sprint. chise. title, the story of an ex-cop searching for a drug dealer’s friends.” “TTwentieth Century Fox’s adaptation of James It also allowed the film to jet ahead of Universal’s “A kidnapped wife may have been hurt by its darker subject Aside from a thriving acting career on film, TV and Dashner post-apocalyptic novel took a while to build up a Walk Among the Tombstones” and Warner Bros.’ “This Is matter and hard-R rating. Neeson’s action hits such as Broadway, she was also a prolific songstress, self help head of steam, but found its core audience by the week- Where I Leave You,” which racked up $13.1 million on 2,712 “Non-Stop” and “Taken” have earned PG-13 ratings. Cross author and businesswoman, having launched a successful end’s midpoint. It debuted to $32.5 million from 3,604 loca- screens and $11.9 million on 2,868 screens, respectively. Creek put up the high $20 million budget.