We Wear Our Wheels With Pride...

Name: We Wear Our Wheels With Pride...
Start: 2027-01-14 19:00:00+11:00
End: 2027-01-15 19:00:00+11:00
Location: Sydney Opera House

Robyn Orlin

South Africa

A rickshaw ride you’ll never forget. 

Description

Australian Exclusive

Colour arrives first. Then rhythm. Then bodies in constant motion. In this exuberant work by celebrated South African choreographer Robyn Orlin, dancers from Moving Into Dance Mophatong draw on the extraordinary history of Durban's Zulu rickshaw pullers, who transformed everyday labour into acts of style, performance and resistance.  

Towering headdresses, vibrant costumes and projected colour fill the stage as traditional movement meets hip hop, electronic music, spoken word and Afro-fusion. Every step carries traces of a history shaped by colonialism, while refusing to be defined by it. 

Joyful, playful and politically charged, We Wear Our Wheels with Pride and you’re your streets with colour...we said ‘bonjour’ to Satan in 1820... celebrates the power of creativity to reclaim dignity, a work of healing made to “lay the old spirits to rest”.  

We Wear our Wheels with Pride... is part of the Dance Reflections by Van Cleef and Arpels program. Discover more here.

★★★★ “Exuberant, eccentric and affectionate homage to the rickshaw pullers of Durban”

THE STAGE UK

Music Dance

Robyn Orlin

South Africa

Robyn Orlin was born in 1955 in Johannesburg. Known in South Africa as "the permanent irritation," through her work she reveals the difficult and complex reality of her country. She combines various artistic expressions (text, video, plastic arts...) to explore a certain theatricality that is reflected in her choreographic vocabulary. Her work includes Daddy, I've seen this piece six times before and I still don't know why they're hurting each other (1999), which won the Laurence Olivier Award for the Most Outstanding Achievement of the Year, and Beauty remained for just a moment then returned gently to her starting position... (2012), the opening performance of the South African season in France in 2013.

In April 2018, Robyn Orlin returned to stage Rameau's Pygmalion, as resident director at the Dijon Opera, in collaboration with Emmanuelle Haïm as the musical conductor. In co-production with the INA and ARTE, she directed her first film Hidden beauties, dirty histories in October 2004. Robyn Orlin was named Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Mérite in 2009 and Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2015 and Commandeur in 2022.

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