Review: We wear our wheels with pride by Robyn Orlin

I have arrived at the last of the four Van Cleef & Arpel Dance Reflection evenings I chose to review, and I am now wishing I had the energy and time see every show of this contemporary dance festival. It has been a wonderfully diverse showcase, and it seems I saved the most joyous for last.

The full title of this piece—WE WEAR OUR WHEELS WITH PRIDE AND SLAP YOUR STREET WITH COLOR... WE SAID “BONJOUR” TO SATAN IN 1820—is a homage to the rickshaw drivers of Durban by South African choreographer, Robyn Orlin. She likes a long title!  In a World Full of Butterflies, It takes Balls to Be a Caterpillar (2013), Oh Louis….We Move from the Ballroom to Hell While We Have to Tell Ourselves Stories at Night So That We Can Sleep (2017) and Daddy, I've seen this piece six times before and I still don't know why they're hurting each other (1999) which won the Laurence Olivier Award for the Most Outstanding Achievement of the Year.  

Robyn Orlin: We wear our wheels with pride. Image credit Jérôme Séron.

Orlin had her first encounter with the rickshaw drivers of Durban at the young age of five or six, an experience that left such a deep impression on her that she later sought to learn more about their fate. Rickshaws were first introduced to Durban in 1892, imported from Japan by sugar magnate Marshall Campbell. They quickly became an important mode of transport around the city and its docks.

Having grown up in Asia, I recall a time when I would occasionally still see rickshaws pulled by humans in places like Hong Kong—though primarily for tourist snapshots and brief rides around the block. Even then, I found it an unsettling sight.

By the end of the show, it is revealed the rickshaw pullers rarely lived past the age of 35. They received little recognition and, in all but name, were slaves to the colonials. It is a dark history. Yet, this performance transforms that past into a celebratory “rickshaw dance”, imbued with a vibrant, joyous thirst for life.

Over the years Orlin has combined various artistic expression to reveal the difficult and complex reality of her country’s history. Everybody brings something of themselves to the performance and Orlin marries it all together beautifully, shaping and evolving until we get something spectacular like the show we saw on Friday. Her talent for bringing exceptional artists to her projects and working in a collaborative way has resulted in her audiences always seeing something exciting and unique.

Robyn Orlin: We wear our wheels with pride. Image credit Jérôme Séron.

Here she has brought together six dancers from Zulu inspired dance company Moving Into Dance Mophatong, (Sunnyboy Motau, Oscar Buthelezi, Eugene Mashiane, Lesego Dihemo, Sabusiso Gumede and Teboho Letel), musicians Yogin Sullaphen and Anelisa Sturman who form the unique band Ukhoikhoi when not working with Orlin.

Orlin worked very closely with German designer, Birgit Neppl on costumes which are an eclectic mix of colours and patterns and created crochet horned headdresses, a nod to the original rickshaw driver’s attire. The stage was set up with technical kit on both sides of the stage which supports Eric Perroys’ video effects live on stage. Much evolves in real time – the music builds and is looped, and the Zulu cloths are assembled on stage by the dancers and video is filmed with added effects as well as single snapshots to be projected at the back of the stage.

The evening began with an injection of humour as the group huddles on stage. The lights coming on and off abruptly as they lament this (deliberate) error until it dims gently to their count to fifteen (not ten, because that would just be boring). A black square piece of the vinyl floor is then pulled back revealing the white underside and brought to the centre of the stage. Perhaps a deliberate and subtle way to show the clear lines between colonial power and the indigenous South Africans as well as recalling the roll up square mats used by breakdancers.

The audience was not going to get away with simply sitting back and watching. Almost immediately they are rallied to participate, humming, feet stomping, swaying and summoning ancestors as the performers contagious enthusiasm awakens the room setting the tone for what lies ahead.   “We are connected now!” they proclaim. Singer Anelisa Stuntman marvels from the moment she arrives on stage, a pocket rocket with a pure, powerful and at times operatic voice.  

The aesthetic and spirit of the work brings to mind South Africa’s nickname “Rainbow Nation”, a term popularised by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, for a country he wanted to embrace unity in diversity.  Orlin’s work projects a rainbow-coloured life force which draws you in as the performance progresses. Simple ideas are used with maximum effect. The stage was set with a long rainbow coloured pole nearly the width of the stage with matching dangling bottles which swung like a giant trapeze back and forth on the stage sometimes with a dancer riding it or the group ducking under it as it came at them. The motion was filmed live with special effects added to create a psychedelic moving backdrop. The backdrop is ever changing throughout the performance at the hands of Eric Perroys. The cameras and recording equipment were set to film from all different angles and perspectives including directly above the stage simultaneously giving two perspectives during the solo dance performances.

Robyn Orlin: We wear our wheels with pride. Image credit Jérôme Séron.

In the second half, one by one the dancers came forward showing who they are individually, reclaiming their identity and humanity. Before each of their dances a chosen cloth is laid on the floor with their headdress on top. With clever video work they eventually become a flag of sorts which is uniquely their own and is projected proudly behind them as they each perform their individual dances.

By the end it became hard to describe what we had just seen as it went beyond just “dance”. It felt like immersive art. They had us clapping, standing, moving and leaving with a smile on our faces. An exciting and engaging evening. This was my first time experiencing Robyn Orlin’s work. It won’t be my last!

Southbank Centre and Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels presented the UK Premiere of Robyn Orlin’s We Wear Our Wheels with Pride performed by Moving Into Dance Mophatong (Queen Elizabeth Hall, 21 – 22 March) as part of Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels.

Review by Natascha Milsom