BODY OF KNOWLEDGE

Don’t miss this work by a well-rehearsed and disciplined company. (Review by Caroline Smart)

Choreographer/dancer Vusi Makanya launched his Dusi Dance Company last year (2010). The company’s mission is to “promote an understanding of the human experience ‘within the African context’ through dance and storytelling and to provide sensory connection to history and tradition through music, movement and spoken word”.

Dusi Dance Company has grown out of Vusi Makanya’s KwaMashu School of Dance and it has now put together a comprehensive training programme aimed at uplifting learners with disabilities through the use of various dance forms. The programme is also designed to use dance as a therapeutic tool to uplift, heal and empower the learners.

Vusi Makanya’s first production of 2011 is Body of Knowledge which he has created with long-term colleague Sifiso Majola and it is currently running for a very short season at the University of Kwa-Zulu-Natal’s Square Space Theatre. The work has been created especially for the confines of this intimate venue which provides a good opportunity for lovers of contemporary dance to “get up close and personal”, as it were, with this new company and its performers.

Every nuance of emotion can be clearly seen on the dancers’ faces, every movement appreciated and one feels closely involved in this 50-minute work.

Vusi Makanya and Sifiso Majola explore issues affecting “body knowledge” (as opposed to “brain knowledge”) and follow the process of life from birth to death. Some of the issues are hard-hitting, such as a look at a mother-child relationship. There’s a strong message of HIV and AIDS awareness, performed against the screened images of a burial ground near Inanda, featuring rows upon rows of new graves. A frightening reminder of how many people are being lost to this pandemic.

Leading the company is the tall and impressive Sthembiso Gcabashe along with Mthokozisi Masango who gives several impassioned speeches in Portuguese. The trainee dancers – all delightfully individual in their own right are the diminutive Lungile Ngcobo, the eloquent (in voice and movement) Nontando Maphumulo, the impressively-tall Nkemiseng Khena and the enigmatic Zanele Bhengu.

The work moves through many moods and some of the explosive sections are very powerful, juxtaposed with other scenes that are sensitive and tender. The imagery of brooms indicates the sweeping away of a troublesome past to become cleansed.

Contemporary dance these days requires dancers to speak as well as move. I must commend this company for their clear articulation and understanding of the text. However, in the beginning the music soundtrack was way too loud and needs to be lowered to an accompanying level, as we tended to lose sections of important dialogue which impacted negatively on the understanding of the work.

This is a well-rehearsed and disciplined company and I would urge lovers of contemporary dance to catch one of its final three performances.

Body of Knowledge has two more performances at the Square Space Theatre on February 18 and 19 at 18h30 with an earlier performance on February 18 at 12h20. Tickets R35 (R20 students and scholars) available at the door 30 minutes before the performance. More information on 082 622 4005. – Caroline Smart