Pictures supplied
The 26th JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience, which is currently running in Durban, announced its JOMBA! Digital Open Horizons “pick of the platform” awards for 2024 on Wednesday August 28, 2024. The programme was screened on the festival’s YouTube Channel and is available for the remainder of the festival until September 8.
JOMBA! Is presented by the Centre for Creative Arts at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
The Digital Open Horizons platform invites digital submissions of original works from new and established dance-makers across Africa. These works which last 3 to 8 minutes, were reviewed by an independent jury and seven selected for this platform at the festival: Lacuna by Louise Coetzer (South Africa, Darkroom Contemporary), Echoes by Femi Adebajo (Nigeria), As the Mountain Stood Still by Dave Gardner/Jacques Batista (South Africa), Internal Struggles by Diana Gaya (Kenya), Yolk by Skyla Buchanan (SA/Cyprus), Moments by Marcia Mzindle (South Africa) and Blue Funk by Louise Coetzer (South Africa, Darkroom Contemporary)
(Above: Image from “Yolk” by Skyla Buchanan (SA/Cyprus).)
The jury selected Yolk in first place, Echoes in second and Lacuna in third as the “picks of the platform”.
Yolk was selected in first place for its “innovation, beautiful cinematography and interesting settings as well as its subject matter”. Filmed by Beatrice Mariani, and choreographed, performed, directed and edited by Skyla Buchanan a contemporary-trained dancer, practitioner and choreographer working with a multidisciplinary approach to performance.
Yolk is set against the oppressive heat of summer, and explores the link between womanhood and fertility - where the sense of being a woman is derived from a "bioessentialised" maternal instinct: “A woman with no children is a wasted potential of a womb, wasted space, wasted time, wasted life- the wasted yolk of a fresh egg.”
Nigeria’s Femi Adebajo’s Echoes, performed by Adebajo and Janed Aduayom was awarded second place. This work was selected for its “interesting pace and rhythm as well as its use of location and space and his creation of tension and suspense.”
Adebajo is a creative multidisciplinary artist who focuses on exploring art as a medium of connection to the human mind.
Echoes provides a creative representation of the concept of pressure and its influence on both the physical bodies and mental states of individuals. It aims to offer a powerful and artistic insight into the human experience, highlighting the effects of pressure and its significance in our lives.
(Left: An image from “Lacuna” choreographed and performed by Mthuthuzeil
November)
In third place selected for its “wonderful play between dark and light, its use of slow motion and its cinematic sets” was Lacuna choreographed and performed by Mthuthuzeil November, directed by Louise Coetzer with videography: Oscar O'Ryan, and produced by Darkroom Contemporary.
Coetzer is a
versatile dance artist also renowned for her multidisciplinary approach to
performance art. Lacuna traces the unfilled spaces of the brutalist
architecture enveloping the dancer. It is a cinematic study of light and shade,
seen and unseen
The Festival offers a range of workshops, talks and performances and runs until September 8, 2024. Tickets are available through Computicket.
All festival information is available on the festival website: https://jomba.ukzn.ac.za/
(For more information on the Centre for Creative Arts, click on the logo advert to the right of this article)
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