Lucille Davie
1 August 2003
The ballerina is beautiful. She is six feet tall - six feet 2 inches (1.88m) en pointe - and she's black. So are her tutu and ballet shoes. Her name is Kitty Phetla. She is 18, and has been dancing with dance company Ballet Theatre Afrikan for the past eight years.
Phetla danced the three-minute Dying Swan in November 2002 in Holland, and again in the company's Season of Dance at the Civic Theatre in June 2002.
It's easy to see why she was chosen to dance the Dying Swan. Martin Schönberg, artistic director of the company, explains: "She is a large, majestic, exotic being. She has a fabulous neckline, and her long arms suggest wonderful wing expanse - she's very regal and very swan."
Ballet Theatre Afrikan has been training dancers in Johannesburg since 1996, and is the only ballet school in the country producing black dancers of world-class standard. The company has eight professional dancers, two of them men, with three aspirant dancers in the wings, working very hard to achieve professional status.
How do they achieve world-class standards? They are not only classically trained, but are able to dance contemporary, jazz, Spanish and Afrofusion, a mix of traditional African dance and other styles. This means that choreographers - both local and international - ask to work with the dancers because they are so versatile.
All dancers have a sound background in classical ballet, which, says Schönberg, renders the body soft and pliable. Ballet is the starting point, from which dancers "are capable of doing anything", giving them the possibility of exploring new techniques, and choosing their own pieces.
The dancers that make it are exceptional. "It takes diligence, sensitivity, persistence and commitment to be a ballet dancer. A hole needs filling and ballet helps to fill that hole for the dancers. They must have a burning need to fill that hole, something in their soul that glows," says Schönberg.
What distinguishes Kitty Phetla, he says, is that she has artistic instinct, which refers to "impeccable timing, phrasing, and a mutual combustion with the audience, where they fire off each other".
Those with this talent have the ability to persevere, never miss classes and take all the opportunities given them and use them to the fullest. "She is the most hard-working person I can think of," adds Schönberg.
Phetla has something else as well: she is very charming and well liked by her fellow dancers.
Black ballerinas in the past, says Schönberg, haven't had the benefit of lengthy, superior training which is needed to make a world-class dancer. "They can do ballet, but just haven't been given the opportunity to reach these standards."
Phetla is a "first generation free South African" whose parents did everything to give her the best. Although brought up in Alexandra township, she was sent to a multiracial model D school, Orange Grove Primary, and matriculated last year at the National School of the Arts. She still lives in Alexandra with her mother.
Her parents, although divorced, did the simple things that mean a lot to a child - go to school meetings, attend every show, and bring friends and relatives to see her on stage.
Competitions and awards
Phetla is one of four principal dancers at the company; the other three are Yolandi Olckers, Lorna Maseku and Thoriso Magongwa, and their record is impressive.
Olckers, who is 19, won a one-year scholarship to the National Ballet School of Canada in 2000. She has danced the principal role of Giselle at the State Theatre in Pretoria.
Olckers and Phetla won through to the finals of the Cecchetti International Dance Competition in Melbourne, Australia, in July 2001. Olckers won the "Most Promising Dancer" award. In December 2000 she was the South African Cecchetti society's regional winner.
In May 2001 both girls competed in the Helsinki International Ballet Competition in Finland, two of only 95 dancers worldwide who made it through the initial selection process.
Lorna Maseku has danced as a principal dancer around South Africa in major productions, and has won several dancing awards as well as dancing in Switzerland where she won through to the quarterfinals in 2001.
Thoriso Magongwa has also toured the country as a principal dancer with major productions like Debut, Cinderella, Voila and the Adventures of Alice. He too has won local awards and was eventually placed 16th among 150 of the world's best dancers at a competition in Switzerland. He has also danced in Austria and Holland.
Although ballroom dancing is popular in the townships, there are no ballet teachers there. Paula Kelly, administrative director, says they actively recruit black dancers by offering classes in schools that are almost exclusively black. Three in particular are Saxonwold Primary School, the Chinese School and the HA Jack School. They have 80 pupils in these schools.
The company also runs a Youth Company of 16- to 18-year-olds, with eight pupils.
Schönberg says that he doesn't consider the company to be his company alone. "It is my vision but our company, the dancers are investments in the company, and I listen to them." This means that the dancers are loyal to the company. "When they want to go, they can, but they don't leave."
When asked what she does when she feels tired during rehearsals, Kitty Phetla says: "This is what I choose to do, this is what it means to be a dancer."
She's obviously filling that hole from something that glows in her soul.
Source: City of Johannesburg website
