Dancing across President Street

Geoff Sifrin

Taking Issue

An inspiring picture was late last year when renowned choreographer Sylvia Glasser was “danced” by a joyous band of young black protégés across President Street in Johannesburg’s CBD, after a farewell tribute to her at the Dance Factory in Newtown.

She had retired at age 75 after nearly four decades of her career during which she nurtured several generations of the country’s best dancers who won almost every award there is. Many are now also working in other countries across the world.

In the 1970s during the height of apartheid, Glasser started the company Moving into Dance Mophatong in her garage in “white” and “privileged” Victory Park, to train dancers of all races when it was illegal for blacks and whites to share a performance stage.

 She ignored this restriction, then led MDM to become the premier contemporary dance company in South Africa.

It’s a pity this celebratory scene for her in President Street wasn’t filmed and aired a thousand times countrywide as an antidote to the negativity about white and black relationships.

One good thing to emerge from the acrimonious race-fest kicked off by former estate agent Penny Sparrow’s gaffe about blacks being “monkeys”, is that it has opened the simmering debate about racial attitudes. But it has also produced gloom among some who feel the issues are unresolvable and the trajectory of the country is downward.

Accusations of white privilege and mobility really do sting when contrasted with the abysmal poverty and inertia in which most of the citizens live.

In some communities, it has revived the question of staying or going. You hear more about it among Jews than a few years ago. It is an uncomfortable topic.

One memorable thing the late Chief Rabbi Cyril Harris – it is 10 years since his passing – stressed was that Jews should be “enthusiastically” South African. They should not be living here just because they happened to be born here, but because they believe in the country.

But he led SA Jewry when there was still the euphoria of the Mandela era, when that was a popular slogan. South Africa was the darling of the world and everything seemed possible.

That enthusiasm is not so easy to find today, as the country approaches junk status economically and a sense of failure is all around. Inspired leadership of the Mandela and Harris brand is desperately lacking, in the Jewish community and the country.

The apartheid mindset is repeating itself as Jews – and other white minorities – keep their bags packed, ready for the day everything collapses around them. The community divides into three: the majority who withdraw into a shtetl and carry on with their lives hoping things will turn out okay, since they don’t have financial resources or the desire to do otherwise; those who have given up on the country and are actively seeking other places to live for themselves or their children; and those who still see South Africa as their home and involve themselves in the issues. The latter group seems, sadly, to be on the decline.

There are still many “Sylvia Glassers” out there today, however, working away creatively, undeterred by the surrounding negativity. Sadly, many come from the margins of the mainstream Jewish community, which barely acknowledged Glasser throughout her career right until the end.

Citizenship is conferred by birth in a country. But is also something which should be earned. Instead of complaining about the state of affairs, Jews should be getting involved.  

Read Geoff Sifrin’s regular columns on his blog sifrintakingissue.wordpress.com