Ballroom Bliss Handover (Soweto)

We have been working towards  this project for more than two years. At a time when sustainability,  community and participation are widely discussed, yet cultural and  funding policies are constantly shifting and increasingly make  sustainable ways of working difficult, our transcontinental  collaboration as a collective faced numerous challenges – and none of  our funding applications were successful. This makes it all the more  meaningful that, through joint efforts and with the support of the  export funding programme of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, we were  ultimately able to realise Ballroom Bliss as a performance and  community project in Soweto.

Together with Moeketsi Koena, Gaby Saranouffi, Thabiso Pule, Welcome  Mlindzeleni Maphalala, Caroline Hlatshwayo, Lena Berger, our children  Simon and Moritz, the wonderful team of I’Trotra ART X Connection NPC,  and many helping hands from the Soweto community, something truly  special came into being. We would also like to extend our sincere thanks  to the Goethe-Institut Johannesburg, which hosted a workshop as part of  the project.

Ballroom Bliss became an extraordinary, emotional and high-energy event –  one in which we ourselves were guests, supported and carried by the  local community in Soweto.

Out of this shared work, the film RONA emerged. RONA is a collective  film by deufert&plischke, created in close collaboration with  Moeketsi Koena, Gaby Saranouffi and Thabiso Heccius Pule. Structured  around the artist portraits of Gaby Saranouffi and Moeketsi Koena, the  film moves between everyday life in Yeoville (Johannesburg) and the  ballroom in Soweto.

At its core are collaboration, shared experience and voices that are  often overlooked – particularly those of women, children and families,  set against the backdrop of increasing gender-based violence.

The film was produced by deufert&plischke and I’Trotra ART X Connection NPC,
co-produced with the Pina Bausch Zentrum, and realised with the support of the Goethe-Institut Johannesburg.

Premiere:
RONA will celebrate its first public screening on 7 March at the Bapedi Hall.
The film will not be available online and will be shown exclusively at festivals.