STYLE & STORIES PORTRAIT PORTFOLIO: Gisela

BY ERIKA

Graceful as a gazelle, gentle as a breeze and beautifully brainy is Gisela ‘Dancer’ Iles.

When not dancing for The Psychedelic Theatre performance art group she can be found in front of her books as a Stellenbosch University student.

We first met Gisela as part of the poi or fire eating team we photographed a few years ago.

Over the years we met up again for photo shoots and recently for the Save The Tie, Save a Child fashion show in which she participated as performer and model for Saskia Wicomb’s IEMAND label.

The same qualities that makes her an exceptional dancer, helped create these beautiful studio images of Gisela.

STYLE & STORIES PORTRAIT PORTFOLIO: Lanel

BY ERIKA

Dancer by night (or day) and business woman by day (or night).

Always enthusiastic, innovative beyond belief but at the same time well-prepared and professional, Lanel Van der Kolff very successfully juggles being the ringmaster as well as performer with The Psychedelic Theatre, a performance arts group from Stellenbosch.

And I think, it is exactly this combination of passion and poise that Martin’s studio portraits of Lanel captured.

We have been fortunate to work with Lanel and her team of dancers, fire dancers, stilt walkers, mimes, puppet masters, magicians, jugglers and physical theatre performers on a few occasions. And we will again at fashion show gala event for the Save the Tie, Save a Child project at the end of June.

Lanel who trained with contact improvisation dancer Sam Pienaar at the University of Stellenbosch founded The Psychedelic Theatre around 2009 with actor Marvin-Lee Beukes.

Since then they have danced their way to trance parties, raves, street festivals, corporate gigs, weddings and birthday parties as well as a full-length theatre show! At the end of 2012 The Psychedelic Theatre even presented Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Taal Monument in Paarl, complete with fire dancing, narration and spectacular costumes. 

To book The Psychedelic Theatre for an event, festival or party, call Lanel Van Der Kolff at 079 148 1933 or email her at psychedelictheatre@yahoo.com or visit their Facebook page.

MAKE-UP ARTIST: Candice Harker http://www.mobilemakeupartist.co.za/ 

SIGHT, SHIFT & PSYCHEDELIA - Land n Sand Digital Magazine Ed 3 Nov 2013

Cover image for Land n Sand Digital Magazine Nov 2013

Images by Martin Van Niekerk and text by Erika Kruger for article on Stellenbosch-based performance art group The Psychedelic Theatre and UV artist Martin Labotski of LoveUV 

Martin Labotski of LoveUV (Image: Erika Kruger)

Studio on Blaauwklippen Road (Image: Erika Kruger)

Martin Labotski preparing Zen's body art for the shoot. (Image: Erika Kruger)

STILT WALKING & FIRE EATING

Earlier this year we met the most amazing group of people on a shoot for another client. 

The Psychedelic Theatre performance art company from Stellenbosch brainchild of performance artist and actor Lanel Van der Kolff positively sizzle with energy, colour and creativity. 

They dance and they jiggle; they dress up and they jump up; they twirl and they twist. They hula with hoops and they play with poi.

Stilt walking steampunk actors, Anton and Claire Van Der Vyver of Gordons Bay manage to perform these physical manoeuvres on 1,5 m high poles!

Take a look at these images as well as the previous blog post.

For more information about this fascinating couple, see an article on them in Sept / Oct 2013 edition of the digital magazine Land n Sand.