Chiffonnade is a dance performance specifically made for toddlers and young children. The piece is created by established French choreographer Michelle Dhallu of Carré Blanc Cie and has toured extensively in Europe and to acclaimed festivals around the globe receiving glowing reviews.
Chiffonnade unfolds with fabrics as its raw materials – fabrics
you can touch, crumple up, feel and fold, fabrics you can wear or disguise
yourself in and which condition the way other people see us. But Chiffonnade
also evokes emancipation, with the chrysalis of a child growing and growing until
they becomes an adult.
As Mary Brennan Dance critic says ‘THE HURLY burly of the Fringe (Edinburgh) doesn’t always feel a welcoming habitat for very young children, nonetheless there are wee gems for early years theatre-goers. Chiffonade is one of them… A ginormous squishy ball of many colours sits alone on the stage. It’s actually the patchwork house of a mercurial sprite who gives the sphere lively legs, turns it into a snail-shell home, and finally wriggles out of it into the Big World.’
The Dance piece is given new life as Dhallu partners with ASSITEJ SA and acclaimed Vuyani Dance Theatre performer Lulu Mhlangeni to provide a unique South African take on the work. Working together at the UJ Arts Centre, Dhallu, Mhangeni and French dancer Suzel Barbaroux are currently relaunching this dance adventure which will premiere at the University of Johannesburg’s Con Cowan Theatre on the 27th and 28th March at 10am. This intercultural collaboration is an extension of the work that was done for Cradle of Creativity, the 19th ASSITEJ World Congress and Performing Arts Festival, which ASSITEJ SA hosted in Cape Town in 2017 – the first time the event has been hosted on the African continent.