Darkroom Contemporary Dance Theatre Will Perform AUTOPLAY in Cape Town Next Month

Following the success with ULTRA at the National Arts Festival, Darkroom Contemporary Dance Theatre will present a new, full-length work by Louise Coetzer.

autoplay is produced by multiple award-winning Darkroom Contemporary Dance Theatre and will be performed from 10 - 28 September at a uniquely transformed site within Longkloof Studios in Cape Town.

This production is made possible thanks to a grant from the National Lotteries Commission, The National Arts Council of South Africa, and The Western Cape Government Department of Cultural Affairs & Sport, in partnership with Dance For All SA. 

Staged in a secret location in central Cape Town, patrons are invited into a multi-faceted arena where the performance reimagines itself for every audience. The initial meeting point for patrons will be the fountain on Longkloof Square, within Longkloof Studios.

This hybrid work blends dance, Live Art performance, sound installation and digital art to bring dance theatre to a range of alternate dimensions.

autoplay is a surreal encounter between human and machine. The performance conjures a moving landscape that ebbs, shifts and transforms as it frames the experience, presenting a breathtaking and multi-discipline production, with the calibre for which Darkroom Contemporary have become renowned.

“We wanted to create an expressly contemporary experience, set in the heart of the city, that dovetails into our desire to present dance out of traditional spaces,” says Louise Coetzer, co-founder and Artistic Director of Darkroom Contemporary, and director of autoplay.   

“autoplay is a surreal encounter between human and machine. In this immersive performance, we confront traditional notions of identity and autonomy, in an era where our lives have become intricately woven into the fabric of a digital landscape. Through its interaction with Artificial Intelligence and machine learning, this charged game of musical chairs confronts questions of agency, autonomy, influence and the blurred boundaries between free will and manipulation in a digital age.”

“We use absurdity and satire to challenge the acceptance of our present, where others know more about ourselves than we do. By blending traditional and contemporary symbols of learning, autoplay imagines us learning to navigate a brave new world,” says Coetzer.

The performance features a new original score by renowned music artists Brydon Bolton (Benguela) and Njabulo Phungula, with vocalist Inge Beckmann (Lark, Beast).

Combining organic and manufactured soundscapes, the score fuses digital and analogue processing which invite the audience into this surreal game, while experimenting with the viewers' perception.

This production is made possible thanks to the grant from the National Lotteries Commission, The National Arts Council of South Africa, and The Western Cape Government Department of Cultural Affairs & Sport, in partnership with Artscape Theatre and Dance For All SA. 

Choreography, direction and set design are by Louise Coetzer. autoplay is performed by Bronwyn Craddock, Darion Adams, Vuyelwa Phota and Gabrielle Fairhead.

Bold and innovative, Darkroom Contemporary Dance Theatre is a leader in the production and distribution of distinctive contemporary works. Equally adept at creating for the stage, site responsive performance and film, Darkroom Contemporary's works by founders Louise Coetzer and Oscar O'Ryan have garnered global recognition. Recent awards include the Artist Award at POOL Movement Art Festival Berlin 2022, and the 2023 DCAS award for Most Innovative Contribution to Dance. 

Louise and Oscar's latest film, Blue Funk, is currently doing the rounds on the international film festival circuit, with recent screenings as Official Selection for Cinedans 2024 (Netherlands);  Dance Camera West 2024 (LA); and New York Buenos Aires Film Festival 2024 (Buenos Aires). Blue Funk is headed to Utah Dance Film Festival in Salt Lake City this August; Bucharest International Dance Film Festival in September.

Projects spearheaded by the founders Louise Coetzer and Oscar O'Ryan provide platforms to create opportunities for skills development and exchange among all artists involved. An emphasis on the use of New Technology and Digital Media frames their artistic approach, with a focus on three pillars of activation – Performance, Film and Development.

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