STAGE: Shall We Dance – Playhouse Opera, Durban
Final performances are at 1pm and 5pm today (Saturday, September 14) and 11am and 3pm tomorrow (Sunday, September 15).
REVIEW BY BILLY SUTER
TIME flies … can you believe Durban’s longest running annual stage show, Shall We Dance, is having its 30th annual production this weekend at Durban’s grand Playhouse Opera theatre?
Hearty back slaps, for a job well done, for hard-working directors Caryl Cusens and Neville Letard, who have been associated with this yearly production since the start. And long may this shimmery showcase for professional and amateur dance continue!
Presented by the KwaZulu-Natal branch of the South African Dance Teachers’ Association, Shall We Dance once again offers everything from ballroom, ballet and Bollywood to Flamenco and feathery showgirls. Tap and Celtic dance also feature and the music choices range from Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars and Elvis Presley to Michael Buble, Abba, Eva Cassidy, Randy Crawford and Michael Jackson.
Once again the show, performed against a changing backdrop of fabrics and sparkling drops, is a colourful, slick and charming crowd-pleaser, with ever-amiable Marion Loudon acting as MC for the third consecutive year and also singing two songs, I Wanna Be Loved By You and Chiquitita.
The highlights of the show this year are sassy newcomers to Shall We Dance, Latin American specialists Egor Kondratenko (Russia) and standout Mie Funch (Denmark). This dynamic duo represented Denmark in the European and World Championships and was a semi-finalist in the 2023 Grand Slam. Sexy, sharp and beautifully costumed, all five of their routines are a treat. Let’s hope they return to the show next year!
Also from abroad and offering many elegant flourishes are seven-times Professional Danish Champions, Nicolai Bouet (Denmark) and Anna Shagalina (Ukraine), who were in Shall We Dance in 2015 and 2016.
With dozens of local dance school members rubbing shoulders with the pros, the show is the usual glitzy lucky dip of styles and degrees of proficiency, but is, as always, much fun and a feast for the eyes.
Truly delightful are two routines by expressive local tiny tots Asiphile and Slindile, while my favourite local dance troupe, as it was last year, is Durban’s gorgeously costumed Rudra Dance Theatre, whose two energetic Bollywood routines drew loud whoops. The team is led by the versatile Pavishen Paideya, who also performs ballet and a tap/Spanish fusion with the Young Dancers Project.
The show opens, as usual, with the full cast in a spectacular, feathery routine, and this year’s finale has everyone performing to a souped-up, feverishly paced variation of Beyonce’s Texas Hold ’em.
Tickets for Shall We Dance range in price from R120 to R180, but cost only R120 throughout for Sunday’s 11am performance. Booking is at Webtickets.
.....SoSuterBill..... 