Cape Town – Jazzart Dance Theatre’s Meraki Festival 2026 is not asking you to understand contemporary dance. It is asking you to feel it.
And feeling, as it turns out, is something we in Africa do instinctively.
When I sat down with London-based choreographic duo Ciara Baldwin and Nathan Bartman of Manacan – fresh from touring Italy and Tanzania and now back in Cape Town to restage Survive – what unfolded was less an interview and more a reminder of what dance really is.
It is not about perfect lines or technical jargon.
It is not about knowing the difference between release technique and neoclassical phrasing.
It is about stories. And this year’s Meraki theme – “Our Stories” – could not be more apt.
The African X-Factor
Ciara speaks about South African dancers having something “intangible” – that elusive X-factor that makes international companies take notice. “It’s not necessarily always the leg behind the head,” she laughs. Nathan added, “It’s the energy. When we celebrate, we dance. When we mourn, we dance. When we protest, we dance. It’s in the body.”
In Tanzania, audiences respond vocally, instinctively – energy feeding energy. In London, the same piece may be met with polite stillness. Not because it isn’t loved – but because cultures engage differently.
Here in South Africa, the exchange is electric. And that electricity is what the Meraki Festival captures so well.
Survive: From Grief to Hope
At the heart of this year’s festival dance programme is Survive, a work originally commissioned by Jazzart and now returning home after international tours.
The piece was born during the COVID years – and from the devastating loss of a friend and fellow community activist, Kirvan Fortuin. His final words to Nathan during lockdown were simple: “We’ll do what we need to do to survive.”
He tragically died only weeks later.
That loss became the seed of a work that asks a brutal question: Why do communities sometimes destroy the very people trying to lift them?
The choreography moves from relentless labour – bodies driving themselves to exhaustion – into a metaphoric crossroads between life and death. And then, something shifts.
The final act does not dwell in despair. It rises. From survival to thriving. From isolation to Ubuntu.
Audiences leave feeling something – and that is the point. As one woman said after an earlier performance: “I feel closer to my culture now than I did before I walked in.”
You Don’t Need to “Get It”
One of the most honest admissions in our conversation was this:
“Contemporary dance can make you feel stupid,” Ciara says. “Like you didn’t get it.”
But here’s the truth: There is no wrong way to watch contemporary dance.
You don’t need a manual. You don’t need prior knowledge, and you don’t need to decode symbolism. You simply need to be present.
In fact, Meraki is actively exploring post-show discussions – the kind common in Europe – where audiences can stay, ask questions, unpack what they’ve just experienced. Not to intellectualise it, but to deepen the connection.
Because dance is not steps. It is stories. And every story holds power.
From Steps to Stories
When I asked how contemporary dance bridges cultures, Ciara said something that stayed with me: “You can speak Swahili, Italian, Zulu, Xhosa – but when you move together, I feel your language.” Movement collapses difference. Sweat builds connection. Shared rhythm dissolves ego.
Manacan’s work is created using nothing more glamorous than GarageBand, iPhones, percussion, voices and field recordings – guinea fowl in Botswana, breath, bodies, instinct for example. It is raw, honest and deeply human.
And that humanity is precisely why the Meraki Festival matters now.
Why You Should Be There
Across Africa, Italy and the UK, contemporary companies face the same challenge: how to fill theatres, how to build audiences, how to make people understand that art is not a luxury – it is oxygen.
Attendance is a form of currency, where presence is participation. When you sit in that theatre, you are not just watching. You are completing the exchange.
Even in a half-empty theatre, dancers perform as if for one – because changing one life is enough. But imagine the power of a full house…
Meraki is not exclusive. It is not elitist. It is not “for dancers only.”
It is for anyone who has ever felt joy. Or grief, frustration, or hope.
It is for anyone who understands that our world feels fractured – and that perhaps the body knows how to repair what language cannot.
A Glimpse of the Future
There is a bigger dream quietly forming: An interconnected contemporary dance exchange across Africa and beyond – Tanzania, Italy, South Africa – rubbing shoulders, sharing stages, telling shared stories. No gatekeeping. No ego. Just an abundance mindset.
As Ciara put it: “If we run out of ideas, we retire.”
That spirit – generous, collaborative, curious – is what Meraki celebrates.
Come As You Are – You do not need to know anything about dance. You need only curiosity.
And perhaps the willingness to feel. Meraki 2026 invites you not to understand contemporary dance – but to experience it.
From steps to stories to something shared.
And perhaps, in the dark of the theatre, you will find a piece of your own story reflected back at you.
Festival Dates: 26 February – 7 March 2026
Venue: Artscape
