CV

2020.01 – current
Artistic Director
National Arts Festival
Makhanda (formally Grahamstown), South Africa
LINK

2021.01 – 2022.03
Member of Festival Programme Team
Theatrefestival Basel
Basel, Switzerland
LINK

2013.11 – 2020.12
Programme Manager for the Performing Arts (SADC region)
Pro Helvetia, The Swiss Arts Council
Johannesburg, South Africa
LINK

2004.10 – 2011.10
Artistic Director & Production Manager
Chimurenga
Cape Town, South Africa
LINK

2011
Principal recipient of the annual global Prince Claus Awards
Chimurenga
LINK

2001
National Diploma in Design
Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa

2021.12.01 – 2023.04.01 (Stage 1)
Portals Next
LINK

Project description:
Portals Next aims to become a sustained network of residency structures, connecting to expanding networks of artists and curators attentive to the local and the global. The 2-year project considers exchange, collaboration and presentation through residency formats within artist-led structures.

Project inception partners: 
Kaserne Basel (Switzerland); National Arts Festival (Makhanda, South Africa); camaguTshawe (Gqeberha, South Africa); Sahyande Theatre (Attappadi, India). Stage 1 is supported by Pro Helvetia, the Swiss Arts Council

Participating Artists & Practitioners: 
Maria Jose Cifuentes and Cecilia Checa (representing NAVE, Chile); Eisa Jocson (Philippines); Sandro Lunin (representing Kaserne, Switzerland); Venuri Perera (Sri Lanka); Bouchra Triki (Tunisia); Sankar Venkateswaran and Satoko Tsurudome (reprsenting Sahyande Theatre, India), Aurelien Zoukri and Marielise Aad (representing Hammana House, Lebanon), Matchume Zango (representing Nzango Artist Residency, Mozambique), Vusi Mdoyi (representing Impilo Mapantsula, South Africa); Boyzie Cekwana (representing camguTshawe, South Africa); Rucera Seethal (representing National Arts Festival, South Africa)

2022.01 – 2023.10
Listening Bodies

Project description:
Listening Bodies is a podcast series in which selected African artists from the field of dance and performance talk about their working methods, personal careers, references and the socio-political roots and potentialities of their art. Each artist featured runs institutions or companies on the continent and/or tours internationally.  The overall collection of podcasts provides the opportunity to consider the varying approaches, influences and orientations of these selected artists while giving insight into current trends in the performing arts in Africa.

Created as a resource for performing artists and professionals practicing in Africa as well as for arts professionals and audiences outside of Africa, the series is an attempt to analyse and discuss the performing arts in non-academic terms.  It is a proposition of knowledge based on different artistic positions; an examination of performance which expands the vocabulary for discussing African performing arts.  It seeks to enable a more sensitive and informed reception of productions from the African continent while also disseminating practice reference to African practitioners.

Project inception partners: 
Idea- Sarah Israel; Concept- Sarah Israel, Patrick Acogny, Rucera Seethal; Moderation- Patrick Acogny, Rucera Seethal; Production/Editing- Sarah Israel; Technical direction/Postproduction- Richard Aking Behin/Refuge Worldwide Radio; Funding- Goethe Institut Munich, Department of Dance and Theatre and the International Theatre Festival SPIELART

Selected Artists:
Fatou Cissé (Senegal), Serge Aimé Coulibaly (Burkina Faso), Julie Iarisoa (Madagascar), Edna Jaime (Mozambique), Ogutu Muraya (Kenya), Qudus Onikeku (Nigeria), Chuma Sopotela (South Africa), Snake Zobel Raul (Cameroon), tbc: Nadia Beugré (Côte Ivoire/France)

2021.12 – ongoing
Charter 

Project description:
Charter is a values-based framework of collective accountability, transparency and solidarity aimed at creating safer, more enabling conditions for women and lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer or questioning, intersex and non-binary (LGBTIQ) people in the South African arts sector. It aims to proactively challenge the current culture of Gender Based Violence (GBV) in the South African arts sector by enjoining individuals, collectives and organisations to adopt its five core principles: Transparency and Accountability; Challenging Unequal Power Relations; Recognition of Unique Vulnerabilities; Taking a Stand on Believability; Safe to Create Together.

By promoting proactive steps sector stakeholders can take, Charter is a self-regulatory frameworks that can pre-empt and inform legal developments within the largely unregulated environment of the South African arts sector, facilitating adoptees to develop their internal capacity to both prevent and effectively respond to GBV.

Project inception partners: 
The National Arts Festival (NAF); GALA Queer Archive; The Centre for the Study of Race, Gender & Class (RGC), University of Johannesburg; The Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa (ISLA)

Project working group:
Prof Victoria Collis-Buthelezi (RGC Director), Keval Harie (GALA Director), James Macdonald (RGC Research Coordinator), Naadira Patel (Designer & RGC affiliate), Sibongile Ndashe (ISLA Executive Director), Dr Ruth Nekura (ISLA Legal Director), Rucera Seethal (NAF Creative Director), Amie Soudien (Arts Writer & GALA affiliate).

2022.08
WITS Young Artist Award Jury member
WITS University School of Arts, Johannesburg, South Africa
LINK

2021.05
Horizon – Performance Created in England, International Reviewer, second round
Horizon showcase of performing arts situated within the Edinburgh Festivals, funded by Arts Council England
LINK

2020.08
Goethe-Institut Project Space (GPS) Grant Jury member
Goethe-Institut Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa
LINK

2020.08
Pan-African Telematic Art Project Grant Jury member
Vrysaat Kunstefees, Ars Electronica, Fakugesi digital arts festival
Bloemfontein, South Africa
LINK

2016.09
ZKB Patronage Prize and Acknowledgement Prize Jury member
International festival Theatre Spektakel, Zurich, Switzerland
LINK

• ArtsAbility Festival, Cape Town, South Africa (2015, 2016, 2018)
• Ba re ne re Festival, Maseru, Lesotho (2013)
• Chale Wote Festival, Jamestown, Ghana (2018)
• Fari Foni Waati, Bamako, Mali (2018)
• Festival d’Art Urbaine, Antananarivo, Madagascar (2015)
• Harare International Festival of Arts, Harare, Zimbabwe (2014)
• Ice Hot Nordic dance, Helsinki, Finland (2022 Invitation, unfulfilled re mobility restrictions)
• Kinani Contemporary Dance Platform, Maputo, Mozambique (2015, 2017, 2019, 2021)
• Mapas Mercado Cultural professional performing arts market, Canary Islands, Spain (2021 Invitation, unfulfilled due to mobility restrictions)
• Live Art Workshop, Cape Town, South Africa (2019)
• My Body My Space, Machadasdorp, South Africa (2018)
• National Arts Festival, Makhanda, South Africa (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018)
• Qdance Gathering, Lagos, Nigeria (2019)
• Rerouting Festival, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa (2018, 2019)
• Ruhrtriennale, Essen, Germany (2018) Invitation: NRW KULTURsekretariat LINK
• Shared Space Meeting, Durban, South Africa (2016)
• Spielart festival, Munich, Germany (2017, 2019) Invitation: International Spielart Festival LINK
• Terms of Engagement Gathering, Johannesburg, South Africa (2018)
• Theatre Spektakel, Zurich, Switzerland (2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2022)
• Theatre Festival Basel, Basel, Switzerland (2022)
• TPAM, Yokohama, Japan (2018) Invitation: The Japan Foundation Asia Centre Invitation Programme LINK
• Vrystaat Kunstefees, Bloemfontein, South Africa (2018)

2022.08.12
Panel participation:
The Essential Work of Arts Managers in the Music Community and the Important Contributions of Women in the Administration of South African Music
Playhouse Company, Durban, South Africa
LINK

2022.08.
Panel participation:
The State of The Performing Arts 3.0
Physical Festival, Chicago, USA
LINK

2021.11.05
Panel moderation:
Moving Without Bodies – A panel on how concepts and ideas travel
Spielart Festival, Munich, Germany
LINK

2021.09.30
Curated conversation participation:
Patterns of Connection
A Drama School of Mumbai, Unrehearsed Futures series, Mumbai, India
LINK

2021.08.25
Panel participation:
International Festivals: How we work now
A British Council event as part of Edinburgh Fringe, Edinburgh, Scotland
LINK no longer available

2021.08.01
Panel participation:
The State of The Performing Arts 2.0
Physical Festival, Chicago, USA
LINK

2021.01
Invitation to contribute to Goethe Institut ‘Power Talks’ research
Johannesburg, South Africa
Closed interview, no public link

2020.12
Panel participation:
Perspectives of the creation and circulation of the performing arts. Reality and virtuality
Seminario Internacional El Pauer / Circulart – Conferencias Artes Escénicas
Medellín, Colombia
LINK and LINK

2020.08.29
Panel participation:
“The Digital Divide Problems + Solutions”
Currents New Media Festival, Santa Fe NM, USA
LINK

2020.08.28
Lecture to Post Graduate Diploma Heritage Management Students
Rhodes University, Makhanda [formally Grahamstown], South Africa
Closed interview, no public link

2020.08.27
Panel participation:
“Performance, Publics and the Pandemic”, As part of “How to be Together” digital conference
Zürcher Theater Spektakel, Zurich, Switzerland
LINK

2020.08.13
Panel participation:
“Intersections”
The Culture Summit and the Edinburgh International Festival, Edinburgh, Scotland
LINK

2020.07.17
Panel participation:
“The Future of the Performing Arts”
Physical Festival, Chicago, USA
LINK

2020.05.03
Panel participation:
“International Working and Sustainability”
Gateshead International Festival of Theatre, Gateshead, England
LINK

2020.04.23
Panel participation:
“Back to Live: Programming in the Era of Physical Distancing”
The Festival Academy, Brussels, Belgium
LINK

2022.06
Written interview with Rucera Seethal
Creative Feel Magazine
LINK

2021.05
“Recognising and Extending the Role of the Arts in Society”
by Rucera Seethal
LINK

2020.04
“The Artistic Director of the National Arts Festival envisions a virtual event under lockdown”
by Rucera Seethal
LINK