By Lliane Loots
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SIYAKHULA Dance Project
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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 31
st 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.
With all the on-going political rhetoric
about “nation building”, I was struck that actually it is via the arts that any
kind of social cohesion can be created. Mostly what struck me, as we watched
over 17 youth dance groups from all over KZN perform, was the incredible
support that the youth gave each other. No matter the level of the dance, the
audience cheered exuberantly for each other in what turned out to be a 2hour
programme. The sheer ability of a young audience to offer this level of support
and encouragement to their fellow performs, makes me think that perhaps we are
doing something right after all. And I am reminded why arts education is so
vital – outside of the competitive paradigm of sport (for example), dance and
the arts asks us to find a more social support system that does not declare who
won, but rather encourages participation and community.
Of particular note on the JOMBA! Youth
Fringe was the Umlazi based boys group called HHEHSE NSIZWA which saw about 30
young boys (aged between 8 and 18yrs) eloquently perform a type of rites of
passage ritual. Choreographed by Sifiso Majola, this work offered a focused and
technically eloquent dance work that offers the promise of some really good
dance training going on in Durban.
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| HHESHE NSIZWA |
The second open platform hosted by JOMBA!
was the much anticipated JOMBA! Fringe which happened on Monday 1 September at
the Sneddon Theatre. Every year JOMBA! places an open call to young up and
coming and established dance makers to submit applications for inclusion. It is
a fiercely sought after space to show work and 8 works were selected from
almost 40 applications. The number of applications grow every year and makes
one realise how vital a platform JOMBA! has become to support professional
space to showcase new dance work. These spaces need defending and are in need
of very careful support!
This year’s JOMBA! FRINGE offered a buffet
of dance work that heralded some important new voices in dance making. Most
controversial, was Finch Thusi’s solo work (untitled) that seem to mediate the
fluid line between performance art and dance. In a bold and very vulnerable
encounter, Thusi shrouds his naked body in a transparent cloth that both hides
and also reveals. Declaring how much he loves his body, a rambling monologue
finally culminated in a painful portrait of self-loathing that is finally
echoed with a traditional Xhosa ceremonies that allow boys to emerge as men.
The work was accompanied by an incredibly beautiful video projection which
sadly was not credited.
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| FINCH THUSI |
Also strong on the Fringe was seeing the culmination
of some excellent dance training programmes. First was Musa’ Haltshwayo’s Movement
Laboratory in a work called “futurescapes”. These young dancers writhe and fall
on stage, dressed in gas masks and bound bodies. Hlatshwayo has always had a
gift in creating interesting and profound theatrical images, but like some of
his more recent work, it does not seem to go anywhere. Setting up harrowing and
important images, while powerful and certainly challenging for the young
dancers, still requires Hlatshwayo to take a journey – if not for himself, than
at least for the audience?
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| Musa Hlatshwayo |
Sifiso Khumalo’s new work with the ADD
FLATFOOT dance development programme (entitled, “Sea of Hope”), also saw 13
incredibly focused trainees take the stage in a ritualised dance work that
offered a huge challenge around timing and connection.
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| Sifiso Khumalo |
The JOMBA! Fringe also offered two small
gems that delighted audiences. The first was a collaboration from PMB based
Bonwa Mbontsi, Ashleigh Joubert and Tegan Peacock. Titled “framed”, the work
was an unpretentious almost delightful and deceptively ‘ordinary’ play between
3 figures trapped in the trickery of a movable frame. Carefully created and
deeply satisfying to watch, this is mature work that demands to be seen again.
Finally Bronwyn Botha’s “Fitzpleasure’ had the audience whooping and
cheering. A trio crafted with Botha herself and Nqubeko Ngema and Njabulo
Zungu, saw the three very different dancers lean in and pull away as they
fought to find connections and continuity. Clad strangely in Ballet leotard and
small tutu, Botha pulls and pushes her place between Ngema and Zungu and finally ends up seated between them in a
statement of belonging and connection.
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| Bronwyn Botha |
Sporting almost a full house the JOMBA! Fringe
remains one of JOMBA! most popular events. Long live the endless creativity and
the endless stories that South African have to tell – and all in and on the
body in acts of political and community remembering. Wonderful stuff!
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