(Left: Vincent
Sekwati Mantsoe)
The Centre for Creative Arts (UKZN) and
eThekwini Municipality host the 21st JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience at
various venues around the City of Durban from August 27 to September 8, 2019.
This year's 21st birthday edition offers a
hearty buffet packed full of the world’s best contemporary dance that will
titillate, challenge, and entertain audiences of all ages and art inclinations.
The celebrated Cape Town-based Jazzart
opens the festival with their JOMBA! debut. In their programme Sifiso Kweyama's
Cape of Ghosts digs deep to find the core of what constitutes the ownership of
land in a beautiful and politically evocative work.
Durban's own Boyzie Cekwana collaborates
with Lebanese dance maker Danya Hammoud in an intimate dance theatre experience
that offers these two extraordinary dancers in a duet called Bootlegged, that
speaks to the interior politics of relationships.
(Right: Boysie
Cekwana. Pic by Paula Reissig)
Fana Tshabalala, joins JOMBA! as the UKZN
Mellon Foundation Artist-in-residence collaborating with the Flatfoot Dance
Company in an explosive premiere. Called amaVendors,
Tshabalala and Flatfoot explore the journey of women and men who wake up every
day to sell in the streets to provide for themselves and their loved ones.
Fusing ritual and performance, Tshabalala takes audiences on a transformative
journey. Tshabala also presents his solo MAN
inspired by the ideal kind of a "Man" within society and how the
roles and responsibilities have changed over the years - as new type of
"Man" is emerging.
(Left: Dakshina
Daniel Phoenix Singh Dance Co)
One of the leading dance companies in
Washington, the Dakshina/Daniel Phoenix Singh Dance Company, which is funded
for this season by the US Consulate, presents work that sees the confluence of
the ancient Indian style of Bharatha Natyam with the ethos and flow of
contemporary modern dance.
From Durban’s twin city of New Orleans
comes Leslie Scott's company Body Art in an intriguing site-responsive work for
the Durban Art Gallery, which will take audiences on a journey into the very
heart of contemporary popular identity. Scott's dance work, hymn + them is about the joys of going
away, of leaving the greyness and entering the colour. “Over the Rainbow” is,
or ought to be, the anthem of all the world's migrants, all those who go in
search of the place where the dreams really do come true.
(Right: Body
Art 2nd Story Creative)
The DAG event will also see a unique
collection of short films guest curated by Brazilian filmmaker Sofía Castro who
has been living and working in Argentina, and has collected five short dance
films by Argentinian filmmakers/choreographers that explore the interior and
exterior life of contemporary South American life.
South Africa's icon of African contemporary
dancer, Vincent Sekwati Mantsoe, offers the world premiere of his new work SoliiDad, an abstract journey to
oblivion. Mantsoe is considered to be one of the founding fathers of South
African contemporary dance and now spends his time between France and South
Arica teaching, choreographing and doing masterclasses.
Mantsoe is set in a double bill with
Johannesburg-based Lulu Mlangeni – a young dance maker who is taking the
country by storm who will present her duet called The Encounter, a brave and unflinching contemporary journey into
African spirituality and belonging.
JOMBA! On The Edge grants have been awarded
to Sizwe Hlophe and Thulisile Binda. to premier new creations and are given
mentorship and the full support of the JOMBA! technical team to realise their
work for the stage.
The 2019 JOMBA! FRINGE offers the premier
of nine new dance works by JC Zondi (Pietermaritzburg), Carla Mostert (Durban),
David April with students of the University of Pretoria, Lethiwe Mzimela
(Durban), Nkanyiso Mazibuko (Durban), Vuyo Ndawonde (Pietermaritzburg), Sbonelo
Mchunu (Durban), Yaseen Manuel (Cape Town) and Jabu Siphika (Durban).
The festival’s ever-popular JOMBA! Youth
Fringe will feature over 18 youth dance groups from eThekwini and KwaZulu-Natal.
A series of workshops and masterclasses (all
free) are offered in various venues in the eThekwini area and they are open to
all – booking is essential.
Tickets R80 (R60 student/scholar/pensioner/group
booking of more than x10, and available through Computicket.)
For more information go to http://jomba.ukzn.ac.za/
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