Swingtime: Bringing Back Big Band with Cape Town City Ballet

After a sold-out run at the Maynardville Festival earlier this year, Cape Town City Ballet brings back their production of Sean Bovim’s bombastic ballet Swingtime.

Moving away from the traditional, slow and more intimate ballet experience, Swingtime offers viewers an energetic, exuberant show that’s shorter, sweeter, and just as memorable.

Premiering in 2003, Swingtime, choreographed by Sean Bovim, takes the audience on a nostalgic journey through the Big Band Era. The story centres around the charismatic Mr Bojangles, the owner of the Swing Club where it all happened. Bojangles’ journey takes the audience back in time, where romance was the order of the day, and dancing was a way of life for the young and young-at-heart. Throughout the show, the audience accompanies Bojangles on his trip down memory lane, where he remembers his past loves and the shenanigans during his time at the Swing Club.

The show features a number of exhilarating solos, captivating duets, elegant pas de deux and dynamic ensemble numbers, set to the lively, jazzy rhythms of the swing era. Think the velvety tones and glittering instrumentals of Doris Day, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, and Duke Ellington.

With a first performance in the Winelands, this production gives Stellenbosch audiences a chance to experience one of South Africa’s leading dance companies in a joyful, theatrical celebration of iconic music and classical dance. Previous productions have been praised for their intricate choreography and dazzling costumes.

Cape Town City Ballet is an internationally renowned ballet company with over 90 years in the business, having started as UCT’s Ballet Company. The troupe is one of the most acclaimed in all of South Africa, having brought audiences to the Gothic atmosphere of Dracula and bedazzled them with the comedic Orpheus in the Underworld in 2026, with Velvet Feathers and The Nutcracker still on the horizon.