Innovative Dance Works Commissioned for JOMBA! EDGE Platform at Dance Festival

Innovative Dance Works Commissioned for JOMBA! EDGE Platform at Festival

Three KwaZulu-Natal dance-makers have been commissioned to create works for this year’s JOMBA! EDGE platform, as part of the JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience taking place from 30 August at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre in Durban.

JOMBA! which is presented by the Centre for Creative Arts at the University of KwaZulu-Natal has a long history of supporting Durban and KZN-based dance-makers and has offered grants to three choreographers/dancers to help push their creation of new local work. In the JOMBA! EDGE mentored platform, Sandile Mkhize (Durban), Tegan Peacock (Pietermaritzburg) and Pavishen Paideya (Durban) will present their work on Friday, 2 September at 7pm and Saturday, 3 September at 2.30pm.

The same programme will be presented by JOMBA! and Rerouting Arts at the Old Mushroom Farm in Howick on 17 September at 6pm.

“All three have displayed an uncanny survival instinct and despite so much lost time for dance over the COVID shut down, all three have continued to make meaningful work over this time,” says JOMBA!’s Artistic Director Lliane Loots. “We are delighted to honour them in our 2022 festival and have asked to respond to the curatorial provocation of this year’s festival – the (im)possibility of home.”

Sandile Mkhize

Co-founder and Artistic Director of Phakama Dance Theatre Sandile Mkhize will premiere TAKE ME BACK HOME, a duet that begins to rethink notions of black masculinity and brotherhood. He takes us on a journey to what home means for the body – a place of self-discovery and self-interrogation.

Pavishen Paideya

Accomplished dancer and choreographer and artistic director of Rudra Dance Theatre, an Indian dance company, Pavishen Paideya presents SAMSARA - an honest and culturally magnificent dance journey into Diaspora Indian South African identity and ideas of home and belonging.

Tegan Peacock

Performance artist and creator and founder of Rerouting Arts, a collaborative arts organisation, Tegan Peacock present HEAD_SPACE as she attempts to trace the internal conversations of the body and the mind in turmoil. It is a mapping of patterns, pressures and struggles, a performative cartography of self and belonging that works with live music.

The festival offers a 13 day feast of contemporary dance, and includes performances and dance talks at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre with a Youth Open Horizons event at the Stable Theatre and select online offerings, as well as workshops, and an extensive online blog.

The Festival takes place from 30 August to 11 September. Tickets for performances at the Sneddon Theatre are R80, and R65 for students, scholars and pensioners through Computicket (https://tickets.computicket.com/). All other events are free.

(Tickets for the programme in Howick on 17 September at 6pm are R80 and can be booked through https://bit.ly/BookJombaReroutingHowick

For more information follow on social media or go to the website: https://jomba.ukzn.ac.za/

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UKZN’s CCA & JOMBA! presents JOMBA! 2021 Masihambisane Dialogues

The University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Centre for Creative Arts and the

JOMBA! CONTEMPORARY DANCE EXPERIENCE presents

JOMBA! 2021 Masihambisane Dialogues

2 – 4 June 2021

An open three-day dance colloquium hosted by the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Centre for Creative Arts and the JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Festival with support funding from the NIHSS, on Youtube, will focus on new ways of engaging dance/performance scholarship, practice, and practice-led research in innovative, provocative and interesting ways from 2 to 4 June 2021.

JOMBA! Masihambisane Dialogues aims to support South African and African (and Diaspora) dance and performance scholarship and research in an accessible and community-driven manner. An international community of dance/performance scholars have curated what promises to be an engaging dialogue around dance.

This year’s curatorial committee include Mr. David Thatanelo April - University of Pretoria (SA), Ms. Clare Craighead - Durban University of Technology (SA), Mr. Gift Marovatsanga - University of Zululand (SA), Dr. Lliane Loots - University of KwaZulu-Natal CCA (SA) [chair and organiser], Dr. Sarahleigh Castelyn - University of East London (UK), Ms. Thobile Maphanga - Centre for Creative Arts (UKZN - SA)[postgraduate student representative and colloquium administrator] and Dr. Yvette Hutchison - Warwick University (UK).

Keynote speakers include award-winning and prolific South African choreographers Boyzie Cekwana, Nelisiwe Xaba and PJ Sabbagha. Sessions includes prepared papers as well as conversations, a workshop and performances. 

A panel entitled BOXED and Its Inspirations for the Future, based on Dr. Anita Ratnam (Chennai, India) 2020 work Boxed, which was created during COVID and has become a template of how an existing crisis can inspire original dance art. Panelists include  Dr. Ratnam, Producer/Presenter, Chitra Sundaram, Series Consultant .

Choreographing violence and intimacies: exploring choreography, screendance and scenography as artistic mediums for choreographing intimacies through a performance lecture titled In the shadow of his fist, is the paper to be presented by Kamogelo Molobye, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, SA

Tammy Ballantyne Webber (Johannesburg, SA), Ntshadi Mofokeng (Johannesburg, SA), Thobile Maphanga (Durban, SA); with contribution from Kivithra Naicker (Seoul/Durban, KOREA/SA) join a conversation around “the role of the dance writer as dance goes digital”.

Dr. Sarahleigh Castelyn, University of East London, United Kingdom presents a paper entitled Intimacy as a Political Act: Contemporary Dance in South Africa 

[DE]TACH presented by Lucky Karabo Moeketsi (Gauteng, SA), explores the environmental habits that became a Black society’s norm against the spectre of the COVID pandemic and the required social distancing.

Hannah Ma (Luxembourg, Germany)  presents Why intimacy is the sphere where embodiment and integration becomes evident in the evolution of humankind in a globalised, capitalist world with contributions by respondents Nai Ni Chen (New Jersey, USA) and Nora Amin (Cairo, Egypt).

Digital Dance and domesticity: the work of female East African choreographers in a time of COVID is the paper presented by Charlie Ely (University of Leeds, UK) which looks at how the new realities of the pandemic have shaped the work of female East African choreographers, including Diana Gaya, Catherine Nakawesa and Pili Maguzo.

Mlondiwethu Dubazane (Cape Town, SA) and Nomcebisi Moyikwa (Durban, SA - University of KwaZulu-Natal) present Language is a breathable place: “that words must get out of the way for something else to come through’’ (Klonaris, 2011) in which they re-think ideas around language and the embodied self.

A workshop and paper entitled ‘When I slam my body into a wall, I know that it’s there’ authored and facilitated by  Kristina Johnstone (University of Pretoria & WITS, Gauteng, SA) reflects on the facilitation of embodied practice in a virtual space of teaching, learning and creation, specifically looking at ways of facilitating touch and the importance of creating moments of synchronicity (shared time). 

JC Zondi (China/South Africa) and Simphiwe "Fiddy" Ngcobo (Durban, SA) present Performing Uncertainties which open discussion around the relationship of film to dance making and, significantly the role of the audience/viewer in all of this.

Lorin Sookool (Cape Town, SA) in conversation with Thobile Maphanga (Durban, SA) speaks around her experience of creating her work Prayer Room (2020). She will discuss the processes and possibilities of engagement in art making during the times of COVID-19 in a session titled De-Snubbing the ‘Jack of All Trades’.

The full programme can be accessed on this link:  http://bit.ly/JombaColloquiumProgramme

It will be livestreamed to the JOMBA! YouTube Chanel and can be accessed free of charge on www.YouTube.com/Jomba_Dance  

The Dialogues will also have a closed ZOOM link for direct participants and for those who wish to apply to join and be present in the “room”.  Access to this is limited and participants need to apply to Thobile Maphanga on thobimaphanga@gmail.com.

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JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience Call for Submissions for New Digital Platform - “Open Horizons”

JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience

Call for Submissions for New Digital Platform - “Open Horizons”

The Centre for Creative Arts (UKZN) presents the 2021 JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience as a virtual event with performance, workshops, and online engagements from 24 August to 5 September. Applications are now open for JOMBA! “Open Horizons”, formerly known as the “Fringe”, which now offers a long and a short form platform for the submission of screen dance/digital dance work.

From the 2019 Something's not right choreographed by Carla Mostert and Rafe Green pictured here

“This remains an open access platform for any and all contemporary dance makers to apply and showcase their work at the festival,” explains Lliane Loots, Artistic Director of the Festival. “We invite professional, experimental, and young choreographers, dancers and dance companies to apply for participation on either (or both) with digital dance or screen dance work.”

The festival is looking for work that is located within the broad spectrum of contemporary dance, with preference being given to South African and African submissions. 

The Long Form welcome works between 5 and 8 minutes long, which will be streamed on the JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience’s YouTube channel.

The Short Form welcomes works that are 1 to 3 minutes long and will be streamed on Youtube as well as its social media channels, in a lower res format, to enable wider accessibility, and can be shared across various social media platforms.

For both these platforms a panel will select three “Pick of the Open Horizons” which sees three Long Form dance-makers being awarded after the festival, R3 500, R2 500, and R1 500 respectively, and three Short Form being awarded R2 000, R1 500 and R1 000 respectively.

All criteria and information about submissions as well as application forms can be found on this link: https://jomba.ukzn.ac.za/open-horizons/

Submission closes on Friday 9 July at 4pm (SAST).

Queries can be submitted via email to jombafestival@gmail.com.

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JOMBA! Goes Digital and Global ! 25 August - 6 September 2020

The Centre for Creative Arts (University of KwaZulu-Natal)

presents

22nd (DIGITAL) JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience

25 August - 6 September 2020

South Africa’s benchmark dance festival, the JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience, presented by the Centre for Creative Arts, University of KwaZulu-Natal, celebrates its 22nd year with its first-ever digital edition, which will go online, and be available free to a global audience from 25 August to 6 September 2020.

“It is clear that we will not be able to deliver a festival in the same manner as previous years,” explains Artistic Director Dr Lliane Loots. “COVID-19 has shifted the arts world very significantly and in this fragile environment, dance - still defined as a full-contact ‘sport’ – remains separated from rehearsal spaces, from theatre venues, and various sites. The somatic, visceral body is absent right now we believe - as a holding block for future embodied work – that they can still offer dance-makers, dance-lovers, and audiences space to engage serious, beautiful, and important new dance making via a re-visioned JOMBA! 2020.”

This year’s JOMBA! is a carefully curated explosion of dance and conversions about dance-making, offering both a look back at some iconic dance works and dance makers, but it also significantly looks forward to exploring what dance can be in a digital space and a digital time. 

2020 JOMBA! offers 7 vibrant platforms for audiences to engage:

The JOMBA! Legacy (celebrating 21years of JOMBA!) programme features nine key dance-makers from all over the globe who have had a significant impact on making JOMBA! the premier contemporary dance festival in Africa. This is a rare opportunity to look back for a moment and to celebrate some of the world’s most iconic dance-makers who have shared their work on JOMBA! stages: From South Africa Gregory Maqoma and Musa Hlatshwayo are featured; dissenting and remarkable Robyn Orlin shares work she has made with Johannesburg- based Moving into Dance Mophatong; Africa’s two most illustrious voices Nigeria’s Adedayo Liadi and Senegal's Germaine Acogny who is often quoted as the ‘Mother of African contemporary dance’ shares an incredible and definitive solo work (“somewhere at the beginning”) danced at the age of 73. And the exquisite feminist artistry of India’s Anita Ratnam is featured in her challenging revision of Indian mythology. 

Long time JOMBA! guests, INTRODANS from The Netherlands, grace the festival with neo-classical work made before lockdown that never quite had a life on stage. In an on-going partnership with the US Consulate, two remarkable American dance companies that have had a huge impact on JOMBA! over the years are also featured; both hailing from Durban’s twin cities of Chicago and New Orleans. Deeply Rooted Dance Theatre from Chicago and Leslie Scott’s New Orleans BODYART Dance Company. 

The JOMBA! Digital Edge has provided grants to nine Durban dance-makers who continue to make waves on the local dance scene, to create short dance films that will premiere on the opening night of the festival, and will be available to view on the JOMBA! website for the duration of the festival.

The dance-makers were asked to work loosely around the theme of “Intimacies of Isolation” and there were interesting differences in modalities of filming, from cell phone to cameras. Feature choreographers are, Jabu Siphika, Kristi-Leigh Gresse, Leagan Peffer, Nomcebisi Moyikwa, Sandile Mkhize, Sifiso Kitsona Khumalo, Tegan Peacock, Tshediso Kabulu, and Zinhle Nzama

Continuing its partnership with the USA, JOMBA! has invited guest US-based curators Lauren Warnecke, Peter Chu, Rachel Miller, and Tara Aisha Willis to put together a collection of “Dance on Screen” films in an inspired and poetic one hour package of short dance films that explore the length and breadth of film dance in the USA. 

The Digital JOMBA! Fringe showcases 18 African-based dance-makers work from an open application process. JOMBA! will award prizes to the top three dance films in this section. 

Four globally significant dance-makers who have embraced digital dance making under lockdown will host a live conversation around their work and what it means to have made this shift in a programme called Conversations…Dance in a Digital Age. Featured choreographers/dancers are Vincent Mantsoe (South Africa/France), Jürg Koch (Switzerland), Themba Mbui (South Africa), and Ongiege Matthew (Kenya). Both Mbuli and Matthew will offer the world premiere of their new ‘lockdown’ dance works on this JOMBA! platform. 

Once again the JOMBA! blog and digital newspaper - JOMBA! KHULUMA - will involve the on-going support of dance writing and dance criticism through a series of closed webinars/seminars for graduate dance students. 

After years of photographing JOMBA, the fest photographer  Val Adamson will share her work in an exhibition - 21 Years of JOMBA! Through The Lens. This not only honours her extraordinary photographic eye, but it is also a moment of visually remembering the festival’s history through her evocative capturing of dance on stage with her Nikon cameras. 

Digital JOMBA! 2020 runs from 25 August to 6 September off the website, jomba.ukzn.ac.za. All platforms for 2020 are free of charge and a full programme is available via the website. 

For more information and updates on the programme visit Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Dancing in a Digital Space - JOMBA 2020

Media Release

Dancing in a Digital Space

JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience Calls for Fringe Applications

For its 2020 Online Edition

In the wake of the COVID-19 global upheaval and its impact on live performance, the much-loved JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience, hosted by the Centre for Creative Arts, University of KwaZulu-Natal, calls for Fringe Applications as it announces its move online for its 2020 edition in August/September.

“It is clear that we will not be able to deliver JOMBA! in the same manner as previous years,” says JOMBA’s Artistic Director Lliane Loots. “COVID-19 has shifted the arts world very significantly and we will remain one of the hardest hit sectors both now and even post COVID-19.  But as an artistic entity, which offers a time and space for artists to engage in serious and important new art and dance-making for audiences, we believe we must continue with our work and so have begun planning in an environment of fragile uncertainty for a re-visioned digital JOMBA! 2020. “

Loots goes on to explain, “The idea is to imagine JOMBA! to be a benchmark of what a dance festival could possibly be or become at this zeitgeist in our history. As we began to curate what will be a fascinating programme, we would like to reach out for digital submissions for the JOMBA! Fringe 2020.”

Professional, experimental and up-coming choreographers, dancers and dance companies are invited to apply for participation on the JOMBA! Digital Fringe platform.

As JOMBA! is a contemporary dance festival, works that are located within the broad spectrum of contemporary dance will be considered, and preference will be given to South African and African submissions. 

For the JOMBA! Digital Fringe, works that are specifically conceived, and created for film and for a  digital platfom, and that develop interesting dynamics between dance and screen/digital/film disciplines will be considered.

A panel of experts (local and international) will adjudicate the works presented as part of the JOMBA! Digital Fringe, and our “Pick-of-the-Fringe” works will be announced publically.   

Application forms which outline all the submission criteria can be requested via e-mail from jombafestival@gmail.com with the subject line “Request for 2020 JOMBA fringe application form .

Applications close at 4pm on Friday 10 July 2020.

Maritzburg Dance-Makers honoured with 2019 JOMBA! Eric Shabalala Dance Champion Award

Media Release

Maritzburg Dance-Makers honoured with 2019 JOMBA! Eric Shabalala Dance Champion Award

The 2019 JOMBA! Eric Shabalala Dance Champion Award, in honour of the memory of Eric Mshengu Shabalala who tragically passed away in 2011, was given to two Pietermaritzburg dance-makers Bonwa Mbontsi and Tegan Peacock, at the 21st JOMBA!Contemporary Dance Experience on 5 September.

Speaking at the award hand-over, Artistc Director of JOMBA! Lliane Loots said, “ The award is given not only in recognitions of performance or choreographic excellence, but also more profoundly and more importantly, it is given in recognition of dance practitioners who have worked tirelessly to help grow a culture of dance and dance training in KwaZulu-Natal – who have supported the growth of dance as an art form at both community and regional level.”

“This year the award is being given to two incredible dance champions. These amazing individuals work have spent dedicated years of there still young lives being part of an incredible re-surgence and re-growth of dance in Maritzburg, being a powerful nexus for contemporary dance in KZN. Most significantly that have not done this only in their own work, but have found a way to create a bigger sense of community and of sharing spaces and resources to grow dance – this is what this award is honouring.”

Bonwa is a graduate of UKZN, Pietermaritzburg, where he obtained a BA degree in Psychology and Drama & Performance Studies, with a specific focus on dance performance and choreography. He has worked with choreographers and dancers, PJ Sabbagha, Fana Tshabalala, Shanell Winlock and Craig Morris, taught at Maritzburg College for four years and co-founded ReRouted Dance Theatre.

Specifically to the award, he runs an outreach youth development work in Pietermaritzburg and Melmoth in association with J.A.W. (Justice and Women). In 2018 he founded the Bonwa Dance Company, which has strong outreach and dance development programme called the Super Troupers that prides itself on its integrative approach to dance education, performance opportunities and youth empowerment.

Tegan started her dance training in Classical Ballet and a BMus (dance) degree at the UCT’s School of Dance. In 2013 she relocated to Pietermaritzburg where she helped to co-found contemporary dance company, ReRouted Dance Theatre. Both individually and with her collaborators, they have choreographed and performed on numerous arts platforms around the country, , and won a 2016 Standard Bank Ovation Award at the Grahamstown National Arts Festival for BIRD/FISH.

Tegan conceptualised and held the first ReRouting Arts Festival in Pietermaritzburg this year. The festival is a site-specific multi-disciplinary arts festival that uses alternate public spaces around the city. The festival aims to create unique audience experiences, build bridges and create dialogue between different socio-economic and cultural demographics while promoting a culture of art and dance within the city. “It is this phenomenal and courageous act of opening this PMB festival space for dance and dancers is what we honour,” said Loots.

In accepting the award Bonwa Mbontsi said, “It's a blessing and an honour to receive this prestigious award, I'm so proud to be standing on the shoulders of giants like brother Eric Tshabalala. In the (outreach) work (I do) I have found how powerful dance can be in creating personal change in these in these young individuals’ lives. Through time and through the ages, great thinkers have urged us to dance creatively through life…I appeal to everyone in this challenging time of change to dance together (to find solutions to these challenges and provide an antidote for some our social ills).”

Tegan said, “I would like to thank Jomba, the Centre for Creative Arts, Lliane (Loots) and the organising committee for the honour and recognition you bestow upon us this evening. Your unwavering support of dance and local artists is unprecedented and truly valued in KwaZulu-Natal.  I am in awe of the work that you do and grateful for the privilege of learning and growing under your watchful gaze. I believe that the evolution and sustainability of dance will come from the creation and growth of community more than that of individuals working in isolation. As such, Jomba and similar spaces, along with the varied dance work that is taking place, are critically important in developing a culture of art within the city and its people.”

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Notes from Lliane Loots Speech:

In selecting recipients, the Jomba! committee look for those gifted individuals who have gone above and beyond – often without funding – to dedicate themselves to the cultural industry and to put KZN dancers and dance on the national and international map. We are also mindful of KZN dance practitioners who have supported the Centre for Creative Arts and the JOMBA! platforms by taking advantage of the free workshops and for tirelessly bringing work to the Youth Fringe and the JOMBA! Fringe platforms. This too is an indication to us of a desire to grow dance.

Past recipients of this prestigious award include Jarryd Watson for his work with the Wentworth Dance Movement, Sifiso Khumalo for his dedicated work in growing the Flatfoot Dance Company’s dance education and development programmes. In 2013, the award was given jointly to Byron ‘Bizzo’ Tifflin and Preston ‘Kayzo’ Kyd - two dancers who still continue to grow a community of dancers. In 2014 the award was jointly given to Jabu Siphika, Julia Wilson and Zinhle Nzama. They are especially honoured for the dance development work they are doing though FLATFOOT DANCE COMPANY with young girls and women in KZN and with using dance to address a society fraught with difficult gender politics that often makes the lives of young women so challenging. In 2015 the award was given to the inimitable Ntombi Gasa of Siwela Sonke Dance Theatre for a lifetime of growing dance in this province through her teaching, choreography and dance administrations. 2016, 17 and 18 saw three of KZN most amazing dance practitioners honoured; Musa Hlatshwayo, S’fiso Magesh Ngcobo and Mduduzi Mtshali.

Cape Town’s Yaseen Manuel wins Pick of the Fringe Award at JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience In Durban

Cape Town’s Yaseen Manuel wins Pick of the Fringe Award at JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience In Durban

Cape Town dance-maker Yaseen Manuel received the Pick of the Fringe award for his work “Maktub” at this year's JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience Fringe event at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre on Thursday, 4 September.

The prestigious award, providing him with support and a platform to present a new work at next year’s JOMBA!, was awarded by a committee comprising 2018 Standard Bank Young Artist for Dance and well-known South African dance-maker Musa Hlatshwayo, veteran dance writer and critic Adrienne Sichel and Prof Ketu Katrak (Department of Drama, University of California [Irvine] USA).

The work “Maktub” (meaning “our destiny” in Arabic ) was inspired by a line from an Islamic reading that one of the very first messages  was revealed through the “necklace of Yemen”.  “I took this idea and directed and choreographed it into a journey of man having no purpose on earth and trying to find what faith could bring us ,” explains Manuel. “Once the message through the necklace is revealed it helps find a pathway, a purpose for religion and understanding God’s intention for man.”

Manuel who only started dancing at 18 years, is a dancer and choreographer who aspires to tell his stories through movement drawing on this own spiritual and personal life’s journey. He currently works independently, but has worked extensively with the Cape Town-based Jazzart Dance Theatre and Unmute Dance Theatre, performing a variety of dance styles.

 “I am really grateful and honoured to have received the award, especially as it opens up the opportunity for me to dig further into my exploration of the work. It has also made me realize that if you do things with love and intention as you tell your story, you are able to find who you are as an artist – and great things can come from this,” he says.

Next up Manuel will perform at the Baxter Dance Festival opening on 26 September with a collaborative production "Unraveled” and will also perform “Maktub” at the fest with Sifiso Khumalo of the Flatfoot Dance Company on 1 and 2 October.

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