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Over the summer of 2014 Hinged Dance Co. with support from Arts Council England brought together professional dancers, musicians and theatre practitioners together with new talent from the OC London community in Kings Cross, to create Prisoner 466 a new contemporary dance work about Nelson Mandela's 27 year imprisonment and the international anti-apartheid campaign his imprisonment inspired.
In London's Parliament Square, stand 9 statues - each a hero of Britain's once vast Empire. Once, all were white men... bar one. And that man, was not even British.
His name and face, have become so seared on international consciousness as a symbol of freedom that it is easy to forget he was once considered - a terrorist. How does a man turn around and forgive those who sent him to jail and threw away the key, for the colour of his skin? How do you you tell a story of a lifetime - the real drama of which was a change in hearts and minds over a generation? PRISONER 466 is a ballet like no other. The multi-racial cast play both guards and inmates, Apartheid leaders, and ANC bombers - removing the visual prejudice of colour - here only movements will bind. This is the story of Nelson Mandela's 27 year confinement, told through the eyes of Desomond Tutu the man who would become his closest friend. - it tells the fight of the international campaign, of blacks and whites - who just would not give up. This is the 9,365 days of prisoner 466/64. |