Books by Sarahleigh Castelyn
Cambridge Scholars Publishing , 2022
This book explores when and how, and to what effect, the body in South African contemporary dance... more This book explores when and how, and to what effect, the body in South African contemporary dance protests, subverts, or represents a site of the struggle against oppressive forces of power. It considers how the dancing body is choreographed, what meanings lie behind the movements it makes in space, the possible effect of these movements, how and why it is costumed, and its relationship to its setting and space. It examines a selection of contemporary South African dance works, including Flatfoot Dance Company’s Transmission: Mother to Child (2005), Siwela Sonke Dance Theatre’s Home (2003), Musa Hlatshwayo’s Umthombi (2004), Mlu Zondi’s Silhouette (2006), and Nelisiwe Xaba’s They Look at Me and That Is All They Think (2006).
Using both critical study of these works and the author’s own practice research, the book develops an understanding of the body in contemporary dance and its political and social meanings both in the chosen performance and within the broader context of South African society from 2003-2007. This provides a snapshot of the practice and concerns of contemporary dance in just over a decade from the first democratic national elections in 1994. It is through the study of these dance works that this moment in South African history is captured. Contemporary dance in South Africa tells the story of South Africa; its past, present, and possible future, and is therefore an enticing and evocative historical period to research a dance practice.
In Development by Sarahleigh Castelyn
Article on Forgotten Angle Theatre Collective and HIV and AIDS
Edited Collection on Archives and Contemporary Dance in Africa
Practice Research Working Project: Madness and Representation in Dance
Book Chapters and Articles by Sarahleigh Castelyn
Castelyn, S. (2019) ‘Saartjie Baartman, Nelisiwe Xaba, and me: The Politics of Looking at South African Bodies’, South African Theatre Journal, 32 (3), pp.285-299. https://doi.org/10.1080/10137548.2018.1553625
South African Theatre Journal, 2019
Castelyn, S. (2019) ‘We All are Makwerekwere: Xenophobia, Nationality, Dance and South Africa’, Conversations Across the Field of Dance Studies. XXXIX, pp. 38-41. (https://dancestudiesassociation.org/publications/conversations-across-the-filed-of-dance-studies/dance-under-the-shadow-of-the-nation)
Conversations Across the Field of Dance Studies, 2019
Castelyn S. (2018) ‘Why I Am Not a Fan of the Lion King’: Ethically Informed Approaches to the Teaching and Learning of South African Dance Forms in Higher Education in the United Kingdom. In: Akinleye A. (eds) Narratives in Black British Dance. Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 115-129
Narratives in Black British Dance: Embodied Practices,, 2018
Castelyn S. (2018) Choreographing HIV and AIDS in Contemporary Dance in South Africa. In: Campbell A., Gindt D. (eds) Viral Dramaturgies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham: pp. 215-233.
Viral Dramaturgies: HIV and AIDS in Performance in the Twenty-First Century, 2018
Castelyn, S. (2019) ‘Spotlight on Kendra Horsburgh and BirdGang LTD’ HOTFOOT (Spring 2019)
HOTFOOT, 2019
Castelyn, S. (2013) ‘“Why I am not a fan of the Lion King”: Ethically-Informed Approaches to the Teaching and Learning of South African Dance Forms in Higher Education in the United Kingdom’, South African Dance Journal, 2 (1), pp. 1 – 19. ISSN2223-8425
South African Dance Journal, 2013
This version of how particular ethical approaches inform my teaching of South African Dance Forms... more This version of how particular ethical approaches inform my teaching of South African Dance Forms in British Higher Education.
African Performance Review, 2013
Siwela Sonke Dance Theatre are a successful South African dance company, based in Durban, Kwa-Zul... more Siwela Sonke Dance Theatre are a successful South African dance company, based in Durban, Kwa-Zulu-Natal, that developed in 1994 out of a dance education and training initiative led by a state-funded arts organisation. This article offers a close reading of Siwela Sonke Dance Theatre’s Home (2003) in order to uncover how this dance piece explores the correlation between the construction of black South African gendered identities and the home. The National Arts Festival - the annual major South African arts festival - originally commissioned Siwela Sonke Dance Theatre’s Home for performance at the festival in Grahamstown, Eastern Cape in 2003. The performance was next installed at the Durban Art Gallery in late 2003. Both performances, installed in a large built-up environment, took place in various ‘rooms’ of a home and included Jay Pather (as choreographer) collaborating with South African artists such as Jo Ractliffe, Greg Streak, Milijana Babic, Thando Mama, and Angela Buckland. I analyse two key sections of Siwela Sonke Dance Theatre’s Home (2003) - ‘Hostel’ and ‘Kitchen’ - in order to uncover how Siwela Sonke Dance Theatre explore black South African gendered identities and the experience of home.
The spotlight warms the dance mats/The dancer begins walking with her arms stretched out to the s... more The spotlight warms the dance mats/The dancer begins walking with her arms stretched out to the side/Her hand moves backwards then forwards slicing the space around her/The sound of a slap/Her torso moves up and down/She stops/She stands still/She slides her arms open and out again to the side/She bends her body backwards/She curls over and unfolds/Sinking into a deep bend, she rocks to open her arms/She moves to close her arms/Fast/She balances/She rocks her body, gently playing with her weight/On the ground she opens and closes her body in the foetal position/The voiceover changes its voice/Another dancer begins to shift. 1
Castelyn, S. (2006)'JOMBA! A Festival Diary', Dance Theatre Journal, 21 (3), pp. 40 - 44. ISSN 0264-9160
Conference Presentations by Sarahleigh Castelyn
Castelyn, S. 2023. “We need to talk about Giselle". JOMBA! Masihambisane Dialogues: 2023. Online and South Africa 24 - 26 May 2023 The Centre for Creative Arts, University of KwaZulu-Natal. https://jomba.ukzn.ac.za/masihambisane-dialogues/issue-3/
JOMBA! Masihambisane Dialogues, 2023
The ballet Giselle, premiered in 1841, choreographed by Marius Petipa after Jean Coralli and Jule... more The ballet Giselle, premiered in 1841, choreographed by Marius Petipa after Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot, is a key work in ballet repertory with choreographers such as Dada Masilo, Akram Khan, and Mats Ek, and dance companies, namely Joburg Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, and Dance Theatre of Harlem staging the work. This is a ballet that has reviews of productions stating that ‘[t]he work in itself is bipolar. The first act begins with two lovers prancing around a sunny village and ends with betrayal, a psychotic meltdown and Giselle’s death; Act 2 is danced at her gravesite’ (San Francisco Examiner, 2014) or ‘her descent into madness is one of terrible stillness followed by desperate jumps’ (Crompton, 2021). As a person with Bipolar, I am extremely frustrated with portrayals of and reference to madness or crazy, especially in dance. From the choreographer to the reviewer, we are all responsible and accountable for the proliferation of negative stereotypes of madness and thereby adding to the stigma of mental illnesses, such as Bipolar.
Recent campaigns have raised awareness of hidden disabilities and the importance of mental health care is stressed in the popular media, however disabilities such as Bipolar and Schizophrenia are still side-lined. There is very little recognition and understanding of the complexities of these disabilities. There are a few choreographers and/or dancers who live/lived with Bipolar, for example Alvin Ailey, and/or have created work about Bipolar, for example Welcome to Barrio Ataxia (2020) by Omar Román De Jesús, and there are Bipolar ambassadors, such as Emma Belle describing living with this disability as a dance. There is a ‘long and complicated relationship between madness and performance (Harpin and Foster, 2014: 4), and although recent productions of Giselle do approach the hetero-normative narrative and disrupt it with decolonial and feminist choreographic tactics, further ‘bodily analysis’ (Desmond, 1997: 33) in which the ‘ways of holding the body, gesturing, moving in relation to time, and using space (taking a lot, using a little, moving with large sweeping motions, or small contained ones, and so forth)’ (Desmond, 1997: 33) reveals how madness is perceived. In talking about Giselle, I must ask, what if Giselle is me?
Castelyn, S. 2022. Choreographing the Archive of a White Female South African . JOMBA! Masihambisane Dialogues: 2022. Durban, South Africa 25 - 27 May 2022 The Centre for Creative Arts, University of KwaZulu-Natal.
JOMBA! Masihambisane Dialogues Proceedings, 2022
My body is an archive of a history of South Africa. I am the embodiment of the history of colonia... more My body is an archive of a history of South Africa. I am the embodiment of the history of colonialism and apartheid. I have the body of the coloniser. Although I actively commit to anti-racism and to accept accountability and take responsibility for colonialism and apartheid, my white South African body remains a coloniser due to white privilege. My white body is ‘both the questioner and the question’ (Atkins, 2004:345).
Castelyn, S. (2021) ‘Intimacy as a Political Act: Contemporary Dance in South Africa’ MASIHAMBISANE DIALOGUES ISSUE #1 2021 – https://jomba.ukzn.ac.za/masihambisane-dialogues/intimacy-as-a-political-act/
MASIHAMBISANE DIALOGUES, 2021
2012 'Why I am not a fan of the Lion King': ReGenerations Conference, Association of Dance of the African Diaspora: The Place, London, United Kingdom
2011 Guest Seminar at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
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Books by Sarahleigh Castelyn
Using both critical study of these works and the author’s own practice research, the book develops an understanding of the body in contemporary dance and its political and social meanings both in the chosen performance and within the broader context of South African society from 2003-2007. This provides a snapshot of the practice and concerns of contemporary dance in just over a decade from the first democratic national elections in 1994. It is through the study of these dance works that this moment in South African history is captured. Contemporary dance in South Africa tells the story of South Africa; its past, present, and possible future, and is therefore an enticing and evocative historical period to research a dance practice.
In Development by Sarahleigh Castelyn
Book Chapters and Articles by Sarahleigh Castelyn
Conference Presentations by Sarahleigh Castelyn
Recent campaigns have raised awareness of hidden disabilities and the importance of mental health care is stressed in the popular media, however disabilities such as Bipolar and Schizophrenia are still side-lined. There is very little recognition and understanding of the complexities of these disabilities. There are a few choreographers and/or dancers who live/lived with Bipolar, for example Alvin Ailey, and/or have created work about Bipolar, for example Welcome to Barrio Ataxia (2020) by Omar Román De Jesús, and there are Bipolar ambassadors, such as Emma Belle describing living with this disability as a dance. There is a ‘long and complicated relationship between madness and performance (Harpin and Foster, 2014: 4), and although recent productions of Giselle do approach the hetero-normative narrative and disrupt it with decolonial and feminist choreographic tactics, further ‘bodily analysis’ (Desmond, 1997: 33) in which the ‘ways of holding the body, gesturing, moving in relation to time, and using space (taking a lot, using a little, moving with large sweeping motions, or small contained ones, and so forth)’ (Desmond, 1997: 33) reveals how madness is perceived. In talking about Giselle, I must ask, what if Giselle is me?