By Chris Tobo
Stories and crates are stacked and unstacked
in a powerful dance work from
choreographers Sonia Radebe and Jennifer Dallas.
05 September 2014
03 September 2014
JOMBA!’s open platforms confirm that dance is flourishing in KZN
By Lliane Loots
Every year JOMBA! offers two distinct open
platforms for the promotion of developing dance and dancers. The first of
which, the JOMBA! Youth Fringe, was held on Sunday the 31st August
in UKZN’s Open Air Theatre. As I sat in this rather sublime outdoor venue, a
type of ancient Greek amphitheatre surrounded by the lush green of Durban’s
tropical vegetation, I was hit with how right this space was for such an event.
Surrounded by over 800 KZN based young dancers, their teachers/choreographers
and their families, I felt like I was part of something really significant.
 |
| SIYAKHULA Dance Project |
01 September 2014
Bearing Witness to Love and HOPE
By Samantha Daly
In the interest of full disclosure I have to confess I am a Lliane Loots fan, and have been since I (very naively) walked into my first contemporary dance lecture a few years ago. I have always been drawn to dance, but had never been exposed to contemporary dance before. It wasn’t until I placed my play-dough mind in Loots’ gentle and capable hands while studying contemporary dance during my UKZN days, that my passion and love for contemporary dance was ignited. I was hooked immediately. Since then, I have made it my mission to absorb as much as I can about this performance style which I adore. Fandom aside though, as I don my professional cap, I have to admit there is very little (if anything) to critique about Flatfoot Dance Company’s delicious offering at this year’s JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Festival, HOPE.
In the interest of full disclosure I have to confess I am a Lliane Loots fan, and have been since I (very naively) walked into my first contemporary dance lecture a few years ago. I have always been drawn to dance, but had never been exposed to contemporary dance before. It wasn’t until I placed my play-dough mind in Loots’ gentle and capable hands while studying contemporary dance during my UKZN days, that my passion and love for contemporary dance was ignited. I was hooked immediately. Since then, I have made it my mission to absorb as much as I can about this performance style which I adore. Fandom aside though, as I don my professional cap, I have to admit there is very little (if anything) to critique about Flatfoot Dance Company’s delicious offering at this year’s JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Festival, HOPE.
HOPE - Loot's Love Song To Her Dancers
By Tammy Ballantyne
A grand piano slouches quietly downstage, lit by a solitary spotlight, as we enter the auditorium of the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre. Heavy rain spatters down onto cobblestones and pebbles in a video projection on the back wall. The atmosphere is calm and tranquil.
A grand piano slouches quietly downstage, lit by a solitary spotlight, as we enter the auditorium of the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre. Heavy rain spatters down onto cobblestones and pebbles in a video projection on the back wall. The atmosphere is calm and tranquil.
28 August 2014
JOMBA! Opening Takes the Power Back
By Tammy Ballantyne
The message at last night’s opening of the 16th JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience was loud and clear: if artists in SA are to continue telling stories and to do so without censure, they have to take back the power and liberate themselves.
The message at last night’s opening of the 16th JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience was loud and clear: if artists in SA are to continue telling stories and to do so without censure, they have to take back the power and liberate themselves.
Lliane
Loots, Artistic Director of the festival, cut a lonely but statuesque figure on
the Elizabeth Sneddon stage as her war-cry rang out for artists to refuse to be
silenced; for companies to work together to realise powerful dance works that
carry messages of hope; to keep on finding the dialogue with society in the face
of interminable funding cuts, hopeless civil servants and a general disrespect
for artists.
25 August 2014
Luyanda Sidiya - Fulfilling an Adventurous Spirit
By
Adrienne Sichel (The Ar(t)chive)
Body's whiplash into motion sjamboked by internal rhythms. Then the same limbs and torsos shake the ground with one legged toyi toyi's.
Sitting serenely in the Vuyani Dance Theatre studio, scrutinising each movement at Dance Space in Newtown, is Luyanda Sidiya (31) the perpetrator of this surreptitious action. Political tyranny isn't exactly easy choreographic fodder but that hasn't stopped this dance maker from plunging into this murky territory.
Body's whiplash into motion sjamboked by internal rhythms. Then the same limbs and torsos shake the ground with one legged toyi toyi's.
Sitting serenely in the Vuyani Dance Theatre studio, scrutinising each movement at Dance Space in Newtown, is Luyanda Sidiya (31) the perpetrator of this surreptitious action. Political tyranny isn't exactly easy choreographic fodder but that hasn't stopped this dance maker from plunging into this murky territory.
18 August 2014
16th annual JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience - Press Release
The University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Centre for Creative Arts, is proud to present its 16th annual
JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience from August 27 to September 7 at
the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre with one performance at artSpace (Durban)
on 4 September. This year’s JOMBA! is an especially focused MSANZI edition
of the festival with attention being given to supporting some of South
Africa’s top dance companies and dance makers. In an unprecedented move
by one of Africa’s biggest and most prestigious contemporary dance
platforms, JOMBA! 2014 has decided to give support and offer recognition
to 5 of South Africa’s most awarded and cutting edge dance companies
with a special invites to Vuyani Dance Theatre (JHB), Moving Into Dance
Mophatong (JHB), Flatfoot Dance Company (DBN), First Physical Theatre
Company (Grahamstown) and the Floating Outfit Project (DBN).
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