The Cape Town City Ballet (CTCB), which has been housed at the University of Cape Town for more than 82 years, has now moved to the Rondebosch Sports Club. During the #FeesMustFall movement at UCT last year, protesters called for the removal of the company who they saw as being ‘too colonial’. Since then, CTCB has been operating from a small studio in the back of the Artscape Theatre.
However, contrary to reports that the company was forced to leave the campus, Channel24 reports that UCT spokesperson Pat Lucas has refuted these claims. ‘The University of Cape Town’s lease agreement with Cape Town City Ballet (CTCB) for studio space expire[d] on 31 December 2016 … The lease has been under discussion for the last two years, as UCT was already taking in large numbers in our dance courses.’
Lucas went on to say that UCT took proactive steps to arrange the possible use of an alternate venue for CTCB with the Cape Town municipality, and that the School of Dance had to be closed for one day due to protests but that CTCB was not the target of these protests.
Professor Elizabeth Triegaardt, the CTCB’s executive director for the past 50 years, says the company’s relationship with UCT is over. ‘We’re not going back to UCT and we’re going to be very happy at Rondebosch club,’ she told The Sunday Times.
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