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Meraki Festival 2026 returns to Artscape with Survive by Manacan. Experience powerful contemporary dance from 26 February to 7 March.

Home Art Feel It: Meraki Festival 2026 Invites You In

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Feel It: Meraki Festival 2026 Invites You In

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Venecia Valentine

Jazzart Dance Theatre’s Meraki Festival 2026 is not asking you to understand contemporary dance.

It is asking you to feel it.

When London-based choreographic duo Ciara Baldwin and Nathan Bartman of Manacan return to Cape Town to restage Survive, they bring more than a production. They bring a reminder. Dance is not about technical jargon or perfect lines. It is about stories.

This year’s theme, “Our Stories,” makes that clear.

Ciara speaks about South African dancers having something intangible. An X-factor that international companies immediately recognise.

“It’s not always the leg behind the head,” she says.

Nathan explains it simply. “When we celebrate, we dance. When we mourn, we dance. When we protest, we dance. It’s in the body.”

In Tanzania, audiences respond out loud. In London, appreciation is often quieter. In South Africa, the exchange is electric. Meraki thrives on that energy between performer and audience.

From Loss to Rising

At the heart of the programme is Survive, originally commissioned by Jazzart and now returning home after international tours. Created during COVID, the work was shaped by the loss of activist and artist Kirvan Fortuin. His final words during lockdown, “We’ll do what we need to do to survive,” became the pulse of the piece.

The choreography pushes bodies to exhaustion before shifting towards hope. It moves from grief to growth. From isolation to Ubuntu.

Audiences do not leave analysing technique. They leave feeling something shift inside.

“Contemporary dance can make you feel stupid,” Ciara admits. “Like you didn’t get it. But there is nothing to get.”

There is no wrong way to watch. No prerequisite knowledge required. Only presence.

Meraki is also exploring post-show conversations, not to intellectualise the work, but to deepen the connection. Dance is not about decoding meaning. It is about experiencing it.

When you sit in the theatre, you are not simply watching. You are completing the exchange.