Carlani Dance Studio

Carlani Dance Studio – Lesta Erasmus & Ilani Wessels – produced a “Double Bill” at the Theatre on Pointe, Pretoria from 25 to 30 September 2017.

“A full week of theatre where we had the chance to ingrain the ethics of formal theatre and teach theatre etiquette! Taking into account the personalities and physical capabilities of our students the decision was made to present a “double bill” with Tales from Beatrix Potter for the young ones and “Le Corsair” for the Major students.

Beatrix Potter characters included, The Mouse Waltz with Mrs Tittle Mouse and Johnny Town Mouse, Tales of Mrs Tiggy Winkle, Pigling Bland, Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddle Duck & Fox and Mr Jeremy Fisher. The make-up artist Ashleigh Pritchard is world class with many feathers in her cap. She ensured that every face was recognisable but in character.”

“Breaking away from the 19th Century classical repertoire my main aim was to produce a ballet with an oriental flavour, but without slipping into cliché. The dramatic music of Corsair was a big inspiration and we finally decided on the score by David Coleman. The chosen music weaved a dramatic effect through the production as a whole. Our costumier, Marie Robinson (Coetzee) from Durban flew in for our final dress rehearsal and stayed for 3 days to see that every dancer looked her best.”