(Vincent Mantsoe, whose new solo work
“KonKoriti” premieres on the festival)
The University of
KwaZulu-Natal’s Centre for Creative Arts, presents its 18th annual
JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience, at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre, Pieter
Scholtz Open Air Theatre and KZNSA Gallery from August 24 to September 4.
This year’s JOMBA!
is an international and national delight for dance and theatre lovers with
dancers, dance companies and choreographers making their way to Durban from all
corners of the globe for 12 full days of some of the world’s best dance theatre
work that promises to provoke, entertain, delight, challenge and leave
audiences breathless with the sheer joy of dance in all its various
contemporary manifestations. This year’s festival hosts dancers and dance
companies from Switzerland, Austria, India, Madagascar, Mozambique, Reunion Island,
France and South Africa.
JOMBA! opening
night in partnership with the Swiss Arts Council, Pro Helvetia, features one of
Europe’s hot tickets in the form of a duet created by MAMAZA; a young Swiss
company that are winning awards throughout the world. They bring a tender and
viscerally challenging duet that places these two ex-Forsythe dancers in a
reflecting stage space that sees their lives connect and re-connect in an
endless algorithm of what two people can be with visions and echoes of
themselves.
France’s Company Ex
Nihilo, also features on opening night, offering a site responsive dance work
for the audience as they leave the theatre. Ex Nihilo, based in Marseilles,
create dance ‘interventions’ around a desire to regard shared public spaces as
a work place, as they embrace spatial history, never excluding the passer-by
and spectator. “We are particularly proud to host dance companies like Ex
Nihilo who are breaking down the traditional barriers that often exist in
theatre spaces,” says Artistic Director of JOMBA!, Lliane Loots.
Honouring the long
term vision of JOMBA! to shine a light on the African continent and to make
artistic connection with the rest of Africa, this 2016 festival will premiere a
collaboration between three exceptional Southern African female dance-makers
who come together to share their vision in dance. Desiré Davids (South Africa),
Gabi Saranouffi (Madagascar) and Edna Jaime (Mozambique) present a work called Lady, Lady that is a result of various
short residences over 2015/16 where they were able to meet and work together. These
artists share, explore and exchange their realities in order to give voice to
various commonalities, challenges and images as they move towards a commentary
on current issues facing women in the African context. Full of wit, irony and
spirited dance this is sure to be a talking point of the festival.
Continuing the
festival’s connection to its continental history, Reunion Island’s Company Soul
City returns to JOMBA! to present their newest work Priyèr Si Priyèr (fresh from a sold-out tour in Germany). The
company is best known for the innovative ways in which it uses the genre of Hip
Hop and its confluence into contemporary dance. Priyèr Si Priyèr is a quest of the sacred through ritual. Based on
Hip Hop’s unique energy, this dance work uses Reunion Island and its people as
the source of inspirations.
Hip-Hop and the
power of the urban dance Bboyz and BGirlz is further highlighted at the
festival with the collaboration between Austrian choreographer Daniel Renner
and Durban’s inimitable Flatfoot Dance Company. Renner comes to Durban with two
of Europe’s most prolific breakdancers, Bilal Bachir (Germany) and Maarten
Krielen (Holland), to join forces with Durban’s Preston ‘Kayzo’ Kyd, as they
meet the fluid grace and technical prowess of Flatfoot Dance Company in a new
creation.
Titled IDHRA/breath, Renner returns to the
sanctity of the “in and out breath”, the life force of all of us, and the very
essence of dance, to create a mesmerising invocation to beauty. “This is
Renner’s third collaboration with Flatfoot (all have premiered at the JOMBA!
festivals) and he comes to Durban not as a guest but as family as he shares his
unique dance vision with us.” explains Loots. Over his four-week residency,
Renner will also spend time training and choreographing with the Flatfoot
trainees to create a small new work for the JOMBA! Fringe programme.
Break-dancers Bachir and Kreilen will also spend time exchanging and skills
sharing with various eThekwini dance development programmes in Umlazi, Newlands,
KwaMashu and Waterloo.
Another coup of
JOMBA! 2016 is the African premiere of acclaimed South African born
dancer/choreographer Vincent Mantsoe’s new solo work, KonKoriti. Meaning “a state of being”, KonKorti returns to the original solo format of Mantsoe’s
award-winning and globally acclaimed style of dance making. Enthralling
audiences with his vision of African contemporary dance and the meeting of Asian,
African and contemporary styles, Mantsoe’s solo is a prayer to the power of
self and is inspired by his own physical, spiritual and emotional growth as
both a dance maker and as an African. “Mantsoe performed at the very first
JOMBA! festival in 1997 and it is an honour for Durban to play host to him
again,” says Loots. “As part of the festival, he will also be teaching a master
class while in Durban so I would advise that interested dancers book early to
learn from one of our continent’s great artists!”
JOMBA! 2016 will
also present a programme at the KZNSA Gallery in Bulwer Road, Glenwood on August
29. “The gallery space offers an alternate kind of challenge to dance makers
and for artists who work outside of the traditions of the proscenium arch,”
says Loots. France’s Ex Nihilo continue their exploitation of everyday open
space at this event with a dance performance work called Calle Obrapia #4. JOMBA! @ KZNSA Gallery will also host to one of
India’s most controversial contemporary dance makers Preethi Athreya. Moving
away from the classism and over-romaticisation of tradition, Athreya has
created a solo that explores the reframing of notions of classism and beauty.
Her solo, Across, not Over is created
for, and performed by, Kathak dancer Vikram Iyengar and is, in the end, a
tender and evocative meeting of two incredible dance talents and two dance
styles; Baratha Natayam and Kathak.
JOMBA! @ KZNSA
Gallery is rounded off with a new work by Durban’s Lliane Loots, who partners
again with spoken word maestro, Iain ewok Robinson, Durban’s Kathak expert
Manesh Maharaj, filmmaker Karen Logan, and the ADD Flatfoot dancers. Loots has
created MIGRATIONS (at the feet of Kali)
for the main gallery space. This is the second part of Loots’s newest
trilogy that looks at issues of ‘home’. The work can be viewed independently or
in context to the first part HOMELAND
(security) which was performed in April 2016 by Flatfoot Dance Company. It
is an ‘in situ’ physical journey into the heart of colonial and post-colonial
rememberings around the movements and/or migrations of people. Using personal
memory as the starting point, this work interfaces with the convergence of
Indian and South African histories, and will tackle some challenging notions around
issues that will no doubt stir some controversy.
New to JOMBA! this
year is KZN On The Edge a curated
platform that seeks to support fresh and innovative contemporary dance work
coming out of the KZN region. For this inaugural KZN On The Edge, three innovative selections have been made. The
first is a collaboration between lighting designer Michael Broderick and David
Gouldie called one man, one light,
the second is the consistent excellence of past JOMBA! Fringe work being made
by Tegan Peacok and her Pietermaritzburg based ReRouted Dance Company. They
will premiere a new work called the Paraphernalia
of suffering. The final performance place has been given to the newest
“kids on the block”, Phakama Dance Company. Choreographer Sandile Mkhize will
also premier a new work called take me
back home. “This platform ensures that JOMBA! continues to mentor and
support new and established KZN-based dance makers who are proving their mettle
by consistently putting work of excellence into the public domain despite
funding cuts,” says Loots.
JOMBA! hosts its
Fringe on August 30 with 10 new works of 10 to 15 minute each, and the Youth
Fringe on Sunday 28 August. With over 40 entries for a coveted place in this
year’s JOMBA! Fringe, the selection of only 10 works was a difficult task but
means that the final selection offers a standard of dance theatre that is
growing. The JOMBA! Youth Fringe takes place at the UKZN Open Air Theatre
(entrance is free) and is a celebration of over 20 KZN-based youth dance groups
and the incredible dance work that they are doing.
JOMBA! also offers
a full programme of workshops and master classes by all of the participating
dancers and choreographers. For a full listing go to www.cca.ukzn.ac.za and go to the JOMBA! page. These workshops
and classes are offered free of charge (dancers must be 16 years and older) but
booking is essential.
Performances are
from August 24 to 27 and August 30 to September 4 at the Elizabeth Sneddon
Theatre at 19h30, at the Pieter Scholtz Open Air Theatre on August 28 at 14h00 and
the @KZNSA Gallery on August 29 at 18h00.
Tickets R60 (R45 scholars/students/pensioners)
for the Sneddon Theatre and bookings can be done through Computicket (or at
venue from one hour before). Tickets for the KZNSA Gallery are R50 (no
concessions) and available at
venue only – from one hour before the performance. The JOMBA!
Youth Fringe at the Pieter Scholtz Open Air Theatre is free.
For more
information, visit www.cca.ukzn.ac.za and join on Facebook (JOMBA!
Contemporary Dance Experience) and Twitter (Twitter@Jomba_dance).
The 18th JOMBA!
Contemporary Dance Experience is under the artistic direction of Lliane Loots
and organised and hosted by the Centre for Creative Arts (University of
KwaZulu-Natal). The festival is supported primarily by the eThekwini
Municipality.
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