Manhattan has been eulogised by Woody Allen; Paris's seamy underbelly has been immortalised by Toulouse Lautrec; Joburg, cultural quirks and all, is being flaunted to the world by Robyn Orlin.
This comparison is not too far fetched, because Orlin, who has a burgeoning international reputation as a conceptual director and choreographer, continues to be obsessed with the city of her birth, even though she has been based in Berlin for the past five years.
Johannesburg is a leading protagonist in the 2007 biography Robyn Orlin fantaisiste rebelle (whimsical rebel), by Olivier Hespel, and her interview in Sabine Cessou's recently published Johannesburg - La fin de l'apartheid: et apres?
The city, its ethos, architecture and people, has been central in works such as that dream, that sleep (1984, a trio with Lucky Diale and a northern suburbs garden boy's spade); Have you seen the countryside around Johannesburg lately? (1988, with Chris Pretorius); The Polka Dot Lives On! (1995 for Soweto Dance Theatre featuring plastic plates used by sidewalk vendors); and the celebrated daddy, I have seen this piece six times before and I still don't know why they are hurting each other (1998).
Last year, Philippe Laine's extensive footage of downtown and Newtown appeared in two acts of Handel's L'Allegro, Il Penseroso ed il Moderato, commissioned by the Paris Opera Ballet.
In June, Egoli makes its debut at the Opera Comique with Orlin's production of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, with an African-American cast.
Her last South African premiere was her first operatic venture, When I take off my skin and touch the sky with my nose, only then I can I see little voices at the Market in 2005. During that trip she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Throughout the treatment the indefatigable dancemaker kept creating work and commuting to Paris for her residency at the Centre National de la Danse.
Returning this week to the Market (where she began her prolific career as a solo artist in 1984) with two works for the 20th anniversary of Dance Umbrella is doubly significant for the dance theatre innovator who was influenced by Market co-founder, Barney Simon, since she was 14 years old.
Orlin participated in the inaugural Umbrella, at The Wits Theatre in 1989, with the aggro Alive ½ Dead, which she and her City Theatre and Dance Group dancers performed in Doc Marten boots. The piece, featuring cut-out chickens by Chris Pretorius, ended with the performers munching Kentucky Fried Chicken side stage.
Her preoccupation with poultry reappears in her other Umbrella 2008 entry, Still life with homeless heaven and urban wounds (Even Bananas have bones), in which the Via Katlehong pantsulas transform into vuvuzela-honking ducks.
"It must be my Jewish genes," she laughs. "I come from a family of Lithuanian farmers". And Joburg dance teachers. And men's outfitters. That's where her world premiere dressed to kill kill to dress comes in. Her memories of walking from Poppy Frames's ballet studio on Saturday mornings in the 1960s to her uncle's shop, Kay's, in Market Street, triggered her collaboration with the swenkas. Recollections of these finely dressed men from the hostels fingering the cloth of suits fuelled her fascination for this sub-culture.
The auditions took the form of an isicathamiya and swenka competition last September in The Market Theatre Laboratory. Selected for dressed to kill ... were newspaper vendor Adolpheus Mbuyiswa, who happens to be the chairman of the Iphimbio Sicathamiya Music Association; fitter and turner Simon Khoza (the association's secretary); Mcebo Zondo, a Katlehong-based taxi owner and chicken seller, and air conditioning technician Vusumuzi Kunene.
During the creation process, in Newtown, the men with the elegant moves are joined in a formal dance class by trained dancers Ignatius van Heerden (whom the swenkas are hoping will join their exclusive fraterinity) and Nhalanhla Mahlangu, ex-Moving into Dance Mophatong; Orlin divas, Toni Morkel and Ann Masina and French performer, Rafael Linares.
Robyn Orlin's penchant for working with "real" people, which began with museum guards in her Babysitting series, initiated in 2004, is driven by her aversion to play acting and quest for extracting authentic texture from her performers as she rigorously investigates her subject matter.
"It is something I learned from Barney and studying performance art at the Art Institute in Chicago."
- And from listening to the heartbeats and puncturing the dreamscapes of greater Johannesburg.