JOMBA! NEW WORKS

Splendid evening of dance works to open contemporary dance festival. (Review by Caroline Smart)

Opening the JOMBA! 2010 popular contemporary dance festival this evening was a programme titled JOMBA! New Works. Commissioned to create new work for this event were three of Durban’s top dance makers: Desiré Davids, Sifiso Majola and Vusi Makanya.

All seasoned and creative choreographers, they each have a strong dance history and between them, they presented a splendid evening of dance to a highly enthusiastic audience. Each work dealt with identity – “who are we, where have we come from … and where are we going?” With stunning lighting design, highly effective costuming and well-chosen music, these works elevated the local contemporary dance scene to a level that both challenges and entertains.

The programme opened with Who Is This Beneath My Skin? with choreography and interpretation by Desiré Davids. The artistic advisor was David Gouldie, with Mike Broderick as lighting designer and Liam Magner in charge of music compilation. A co-founder of The Floating Outfit Project dance theatre collaborative with Boyzie Cekwana, Desiré Davids is a former member of the Napac Dance Company and its successor, the Playhouse Dance Company.

“Beneath the colour ... beneath religion ... beneath culture ... are we the person who we are because of or in-spite of it?” is the question Desiré Davids poses in Who Is This Beneath My Skin?. “This is a work that is both personal and abstract ... born through my encounters with others, this is a work that interrogates the unravelling/unpacking of self. “ Plastic bubble-wrap plays a strong role in this piece – both as a wrapping and a percussive source. We first see Desiré emerging from a container wrapped from head to foot in this material. As the work progresses, she disengages herself and once she breaks free - rather than discarding the material, she turns it into a fashion item. While the piece starts with only three people, the stage is soon filled with other bodies and she finds herself trapped in their determined journeys. A plain T-Shirt declaims “One Size Fits All” – to which the reverse replies “Yeah, right!”

Durban dance lovers will remember KwaMashu-born Sifiso Majola from his performances with Phenduka Dance Theatre in 2001. In his I Thank You which he danced with Siyabulela Mbambaza, Sifiso Majola paid tribute to those who have played a part in making him what he is today. "Sometimes the story of one’s life cannot be found in history, cannot be conveyed in autobiographies and not enough words in the dictionary can narrate one’s life!” he says. “But the body remembers! The body can share that story … you tell it best when you say nothing at all and let the body publicize the past, the present and the future.”

Dressed in standard high school gear of white shirts and long trousers, the two dancers were perfectly matched. They were often placed in a studious position seated with their backs to the audience as they gleaned information from screened images and texts such as “A smile is a gift you can give every day” and “There’s no such thing as failure - there’s success or quitting”. This was a very emotive work and the accompanying music allows for some eloquently controlled movements. I Thank You received assistance and support from The First Physical Theatre Company (Grahamstown).


Vusi Makhanya brought passion and spiritual upliftment to the fore in his God's Unspoken Words danced by professionals Stembiso Gcabashe and Zinhle Nzama and trainees Lungile Gcobo, Mthokozisi Masango, Nolwazi Majola and Nontando Maphumulo of Makhanya’s Dusi Dance Company. Firmly rooted in Durban, KwaMashu-born Vusi Makhanya has worked with Eric Shabalala's Shwibeka Dance Ensemble and Phenduka Dance Theatre and now runs his own newly-formed KwaMashu School of Dance.

"This is a critical dance work which focuses on how the church has changed here in South Africa;” he explains. “How power and money are often put first before the needs of a community! Often going to church has become about who has got what, who owns what … rather than the need for our spirits to find a home or a place of rest; a place of faith and belief." Dressed in stark white which adds to the drama of the work, the dancers open with the fervent movement of worshippers and move on to become more distinctive and individual, all the while keeping the movement at a steady momentum until the piece builds to its exhilarating climax. However, I would suggest that the voice-over needs reworking.

There will be another performance of JOMBA! New Works tomorrow night (September 2) at 19h30 at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre. Don’t miss it – and it’ll be well worth attending Adrienne Sichel’s post-show discussion with the choreographers after the show. – Caroline Smart