JOMBA! Digital Open Horizons Pick Of The Platform Announced

The 26th JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience, which is currently running in Durban, announced its JOMBA! Digital Open Horizons “pick of the platform” awards for 2024 on Wednesday 28 August. The programme was screened on the festival’s YouTube Channel and is available for the remainder of the festival until 8 September here

The Digital Open Horizons platform invites digital submissions of original works from new and established dance-makers across Africa. These works which last 3 to 8 minutes, were reviewed by an independent jury and seven selected for this platform at the festival: Lacuna by Louise Coetzer (South Africa, Darkroom Contemporary), Echoes by Femi Adebajo (Nigeria), As the Mountain Stood Still by Dave Gardner/Jacques Batista (South Africa), Internal Struggles by Diana Gaya (Kenya), Yolk by Skyla Buchanan (SA/Cyprus),Moments by Marcia Mzindle (South Africa) and Blue Funk by Louise Coetzer (South Africa, Darkroom Contemporary)

The jury selected Yolk in first place, Echoes in second and Lacuna in third as the “picks of the platform”.

Yolk by Skyla Buchanan (SA/Cyprus)

Yolk was selected in first place for its “innovation, beautiful cinematography and interesting settings as well as its subject matter”. Filmed by Beatrice Mariani, and choreographed, performed, directed and edited by Skyla Buchanan a contemporary trained dancer, practitioner and choreographer working with a multidisciplinary approach to performance. 

Yolk is set against the oppressive heat of summer, and explores the link between womanhood and fertility - where the sense of being a woman is derived from a "bioessentialised" maternal instinct: “A woman with no children is a wasted potential of a womb, wasted space, wasted time, wasted life- the wasted yolk of a fresh egg.”

Echoes by Femi Adebajo (Nigeria),

Nigeria’s Femi Adebajo’s Echoes, performed by Adebajo and Janed Aduayom was awarded second place. This work was selected for its “interesting pace and rhythm as well as its use of location and space and his creation of tension and suspense.”

Adebajo is a creative multidisciplinary artist who focuses on exploring art as a medium of connection to the human mind. 

Echoes provides a creative representation of the concept of pressure and its influence on both the physical bodies and mental states of individuals. It aims to offer a powerful and artistic insight into the human experience, highlighting the effects of pressure and its significance in our lives.

Lacuna choreographed and performed by Mthuthuzeil November, directed by Louise Coetzer

In third place selected for its “wonderful play between dark and light, its use of slow motion and its cinematic sets” was Lacuna choreographed and performed by Mthuthuzeil November, directed by Louise Coetzer with videography: Oscar O'Ryan, and produced by Darkroom Contemporary.

Coetzer is a versatile dance artist also renowned for her multidisciplinary approach to performance art. Lacuna traces the unfilled spaces of the brutalist architecture enveloping the dancer. It is a cinematic study of light and shade, seen and unseen

The Festival offers a range of workshops, talks and performances and runs until 8 September. Tickets are available through Computicket.

All festival information is available on the festival website:  https://jomba.ukzn.ac.za/

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South African Online Contemporary Dance Conference Attracts Global Participation

The annual online South African contemporary dance conference JOMBA! MASIHAMBISANE DIALOGUES, hosted by the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Centre for Creative Arts’ JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience, taking place from 22 to 24 May, 2024, has attracted significant participation from around the globe.

This conference or academic colloquium, is now in its fourth edition and will feature dance-makers, academics, dancers, educators, and researchers from 11 countries including Brazil, Canada, Cape Verde, France, Germany, South Africa, UK, USA, and Zimbabwe. The theme or “provocation” this year is (RE)TURN TO THE DRUM? looking at contemporary dance’s engagements with traditions, cultures, memory, hybridity, and contested identities.

The conference which is free and open to all interested, features keynote addresses, panel discussions, as well as “abstracts or papers” presented by participants.  An opening keynote address will be made by steering committee member Dr Mbongeni Mtshali, a performance-maker, scholar, artist, and teacher based at the University of Cape Town,  in dialogue with the rest of the steering committee that includes dance-focussed academics, researchers, and practitioners: Clare Craighead (lecturer at the Durban University of Technology), David Thatanelo April (director, teacher, choreographer, and dance lobbyist), Gift Marovatsanga (CEO and Facilitator at Refined Images Studio), Dr Lliane Loots (lecturer at the University of KwaZulu-Natal), Dr Sarahleigh Castelyn (Associate Professor/Reader University of East London UK), Thobile Maphanga (dance practitioner, scholar, creative collaborator, reading for her MA at UKZN) and Prof Yvette Hutchison (South African Reader/Associate Professor at the University of Warwick UK).

Dada Masilo

Keynote dialogues will be held with Dada Masilo, South African dancer and choreographer, known for her unique and innovative interpretations of classical ballets; SA-born, now France-based Robyn Orlin an internationally celebrated contemporary dance-maker, dancer and teacher; Mamela Nyamza award-winning choreographer and dancer who is known globally for her innovative and deeply intersectional and political dance-making; Vincent Sekwati Mantsoe, winner of international and national awards in performance and choreography, demonstrates that to be successfully integrated into the performance arena as a contemporary artist, one does not have to disavow one’s cultural heritage; Moeketsi Koena professional dancer, teacher and choreographer, and co-founder of newly incorporated Itrotra Art X Connection - a newly registered arts platform.

Additionally, Canadian Dena Davida introduces TURBA, a new journal that negotiates histories of the study and practice of live arts curation, and Thobile Maphanga chairs a fascinating panel with Albert Ibokwe Khoza (South Africa), Djam Neguin (Cape Verde) and Lorin Sookool (South Africa) titled where they will interrogate a possible common zeitgeist that is calling these contemporary artists from Africa, to dig up ‘past’ narratives and re-present them in the bold ways that they are.

Papers, digital engagements, and further dialogues open up important discussions around contemporary identity and how it relates to imagined and real histories as they intersect with culture and tradition in dance-making. The “(re)turn to the drum” is set up as both a question and as a tipping point to think about our futures.

Some of these  papers and engagements will be presented by:

Alexandra Gonçalves Dias,

Alexandra Gonçalves Dias, dance artist and Professor at UFPEL in Brazil, with a dedicated focus on decolonising narratives;

Claude Jansen, part of Dancing Instruments - In Conversation with Looted oBjeCts – a long-term journey with a team of Namibian and German curators, healers, artists and (O)Ngoma Drums;

Fabrice Mazliah, a choreographer and performer/dancer based in Germany/Switzerland, who has initiated long-term research into embodied knowledge and the heritage inscribed into dance practitioners;

Francesca Matthys, a South African Interdisciplinary dance artist, writer, facilitator and Kundalini yoga teacher based in London;

Kristi-Leigh Gresse

Kristi-Leigh Gresse, a South African dancer and choreographer known for her transformative impact on the arts.

Lara Barzon, an EUTOPIA co-tutelle PhD fellow with a joint PhD between Theatre and Performance Studies (University of Warwick) and Cultural Studies (University of Ljubljana);

Marcia Mzindle, a freelance writer, drama, and performance tutor at the University of KwaZulu Natal (Howard College), choreographer, and dancer;

Onalenna Sellwane, a writer, theatre maker, and digital marketing creative based in Johannesburg;

Rainy Demerson, a dance artist and scholar invested in global intersectional feminism and decolonial embodiments;

Saranya Devan, recognised for her versatility in drama, dance performance, and choreography and holds a Masters in Bharathanatyam from the University of Madras and a Masters in Dance from the UCT;

Moving into Dance

Sylvia “Magogo” Glasser, a cultural activist, teacher, choreographer, mentor, anthropologist, and writer, who founded Moving into Dance in 1978 as a non-racial dance company and training organisation and was director until 2013;

Tatenda Kanengoni, a Zimbabwean writer, researcher, and multimedia storyteller.

 The conference will be streamed live on YouTube on the following link https://www.youtube.com/jomba_dance. Participants will present on Zoom, and those who wish to apply to join in the “Zoom Room”, can contact Thobile Maphanga at thobimaphanga@gmail.com

For more information and news, as well as the schedule – go to:

https://jomba.ukzn.ac.za/masihambisane-dialogues/ 

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JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience Announces International Guests for 25th Edition

This year, the JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience presented by the Centre for Creative Arts (UKZN) celebrates its 25th anniversary, offering dance fans a 13-day treat of world-class contemporary dance that will see both local and international dance makers converge on Durban from 29 August to 10 September.

Alongside the very best that South Africa has to offer JOMBA! will feature international guests from Mozambique, Switzerland, Netherlands, Madagascar, Uganda, Romania, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Brazil. This 25th edition offers not only a powerhouse of performances but workshops, residencies, talks, panel discussions, and virtual screen dance.

The theme for this year is “(in)tangible heritages”. Curator and Artistic Director, Dr Lliane Loots elaborates: “In curating this year’s festival, we have invited dance makers to reimagine their – and our – relationship with ideas of belonging and our varying (in)tangible heritages. The 25th JOMBA! is honouring artists who, through their work and their moving bodies, generate a new sense of belonging that questions who we are at this critical moment in our history”. 

Mozambique’s award-winning dancer/choreographer Pak Ndjamena

Mozambique’s award-winning dancer/choreographer Pak Ndjamena presents his arresting solo work, DEUS NOS ACUDI / GOD HELPS US, that interrogates contemporary African male identity and pulls no punches in its message. 

Thobi Maphanga in hannahmadance’s INVASION(S) (Germany)

Two dance companies from Germany will feature: Hannah Ma’s hannahmadance performs a work that links with South African performers Thobi Maphanga and Jabu Siphika.  INVASION(S) analyses the act of invasion as the act of violently entering a (political, physical, biological) territory from a feminist, and post-migrant perspective. Helge Letonja and his company Of Curious Nature – made up of artists from all over the world presents UN-ZEIT which creates hypnotic images where the perception of time seems to fray and dancing bodies search for support. 

Virva Talonen (Finland)

FLATFOOT DANCE COMPANY in Portable Home Project (Finland /SA)

With support from the Finnish Embassy (Pretoria), Virva Talonen presents a work in collaboration with Durban’s FLATFOOT DANCE COMPANY. Her Portable Home Project is a contemporary dance performance series that delves into a concept of home and its various definitions. The Portable Home Project is co-created by Finnish Lighting Designer Nanni Vapaavuori. 

ACE dance and music (UK)

Birmingham (UK) based ACE dance and music features in a spectacular double bill – UNKNOWN REALMS – with choreography by Burkina Faso’s Serge Aimé Coulibaly and South Africa’s Vincent Sekwati Mantsoe. Coulibaly’s THE NIGHT BEFORE TOMORROW is a metaphorical night where people try to do their last dance before an uncertain tomorrow. Mantsoe’s MANA – THE POWER WITHIN engages the sacred, ritualistic and shamanic. 

Ramanenjana (Romania/Madagascar)

JOMBA! partners again with Rerouting Arts at St Anne’s (Hilton) to share a collaboration between Romania and Madagascar. Ramanenjana is a docufiction performance about a dance that made history. The work examines dance’s societal role and how colonialism spread misconceptions about this extraordinary moment in history. Ramanenjana will also be performed for audiences in Durban. 

Unmute Dance Theatre (SA)

JOMBA! continues to open up access to work that makes visible intersections around dance and disability. JOMBA! 2023 DANCEABILITY FOCUS features dance-makers who are shifting global perceptions around disability: Joseph Tebandeke (Uganda), Unmute Dance Theatre (Cape Town, South Africa), and an inclusive programme from Introdans (Netherlands).

Joseph Tebandeke (Uganda)

Introdans (Netherlands)

In partnership with ASSITEJ, JOMBA! offers the new JOMBA! FOR YOUTH FOCUS aimed at younger audiences, to help grow youth audiences for dance.

Switzerland’s Joshua Monten’s GAME THEORY 

Artists from Switzerland and the Netherlands feature in a new JOMBA! programme that travels to schools and also offers public performances. Switzerland’s Joshua Monten, brings a delightful engrossing work called GAME THEORY that will travel to two schools. This work looks at some of the building blocks of play: freedom and rules. Dutch Dance company de Stilte, focuses on developing productions and performing for children. They bring FLYING COW choreographed by Jack Timmermans which is the story of two girls and a boy who embark on a stand-off, flying on the wings of their imagination.

FLYING COW choreographed by Jack Timmermans (Netherlands)

Other features of the 25th Anniversary festival include two major South African works, the JOMBA! Youth Open Horizons, JOMBA! ON THE EDGE, after performance talks, an engaging dialogue with dance-makers, the launch of the 25th-anniversary book, a series of free workshops and masterclasses, a lighting workshop, a screen dance residency, a dance writers residency, and a smaller curated festival at The Market Theatre in Johannesburg.

Tickets are R80 or R50 (students, scholars, pensioners) or R350 – once off FULL festival pass to see everything.

Booking through COMPUTICKET

For more information go to https://jomba.ukzn.ac.za/

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JOMBA! celebrates historic new partnership with The Market Theatre in Johannesburg

In 2023, the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Centre for Creative Art’s JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience reaches its 25th anniversary year and as part of celebrating this longevity as South Africa’s longest-running dance festival has formed a partnership with the Market Theatre to collaborate in sharing, a smaller and carefully curated “JOMBA! @ THE MARKET” following the Durban festival which takes place from 29 August - 10 September 2023.

Mamela Nyamza, who has been named the JOMBA! 2023 Legacy Artist

Selected local and international dance companies will travel onto Johannesburg and the Market Theatre and will feature in a week-long celebration of some of the world’s most profound and provoking dance makers and dance companies. Gauteng and Market Theatre audiences will have an opportunity to revel in the performance excellence of this carefully curated contemporary dance platform between 12 – 17 September 2023. The 2023 JOMBA! festival curatorial theme (or provocation) is “(in)tangible heritages” and of special interest will be new work by Mamela Nyamza, who has been named the JOMBA! 2023 Legacy Artist.

JOMBA! curator, Dr Lliane Loots says, “Nyamza’s cutting edge and deeply interrogated dance work spans over two decades of dance making in South Africa and internationally, and as JOMBA! hits its iconic 25th year, we can think of no better artist to celebrate as our JOMBA! Legacy Artist. We celebrate Mamela for her vision and practice, and for significantly contributing to our country's rich critical contemporary dance history and legacy”. 

Alongside a fascinating special bouquet of dance work on offer, “JOMBA! @ THE MARKET” will also be offering a series of workshops and masterclasses that will be offered to support dance skills development and training, and will include a special focus on workshops/masterclasses for lighting dance. 

For more information about JOMBA! go to https://jomba.ukzn.ac.za/

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