Loots says, “at a time in our collective histories as South Africans, where so much seems impossible, we decided as a company to create a new dance work that really celebrates the power of how we connect (and maybe disconnect?) and that finds strength in the bonds we share as human beings. Love is explored through bonds of friendship, intimate partners, as well as the social connection we share as community. “LOVE SONG” collaboratively created by the full company (Sifiso Khumalo, Jabu Siphika, Zinhle Nzama, Sbonga Ndlovu, Siseko Duba and Ndumiso Dube) under the choreographic direction of Lliane Loots, is a mesmerising journey into the heartland of the workings of the heart and how we love. Performances take place on Friday 31 March and Saturday 1 April at 6.30pm. Machine Listener Episode 1: Dr.“LOVE SONG” is FLATFOOT DANCE COMPANY’s first performance offering of 2023 in which they partner with the KZNSA Gallery to offer – for two performances only - a site responsive and intimate dance experience that is sure to ignite passion and beauty. It will play out as a People’s Tribunal where the issue will be discussed drawing on courtroom protocols such as shared testimonials, expert witnesses, a collective deliberation and the formulation of a verdict. This Is Not A Love Song is not a love song. 'The artist is easily understood as a paradigm for the ideal worker: passionate about what they do and willing to forgo material wealth for the love of it'.1 In this respect while precarious conditions are particularly poignant in the creative field the discussion will tie into a more general debate on the changing conditions of work and life in an increasingly flexible, deregulated and privatized landscape that forces many more professional occupations into the liberal perspective of a more open relationship that confuses wage and love, freedom and risk. This day aims to collectively diagnose how those working conditions promote the merits of individualistic behavior and competition over those of collectivity and solidarity - a model that is formulated as the blueprint for the future worker based on the artist’s capacity to rely on him or herself. Precarious labor is the predominant working condition in the creative industries, often translating into unpaid work, short-term contracts or no-contract work or internships, insecure and unstable work and life conditions, individual competition, deprivation of rights and status, reinforced inequalities (class, ethnicity, gender, sexuality) - while promoting an insecure or flexible way of life as the privilege and freedom of making your own choices. It addresses precarious work and life conditions within the arts and beyond in light of current neoliberal tendencies that inform today's highly flexible, insecure and meritocratic employment model, the logic of which is particularly present in the Netherlands. This Is Not A Love Song is a People's Tribunal addressing those issues, taking place on October 11th in Amsterdam. Work in the creative field requires to invest yourself personally - to love what you do, to seduce, to adapt, and to rely on yourself. The work we do is based on our capacity as individuals and on an independent status, making professional relations often tied to an emotional context where the boundaries between life and profession are blurred. As artists, designers, authors and other cultural workers we have to deal with a lot of flexibility in our everyday life.
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