JOMBA!’s open platforms confirm that dance is flourishing in KZN

By Lliane Loots

SIYAKHULA Dance Project

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.

JOMBA! @ artSPACE (durban) Photos

JOMBA! @ artSPACE brings art to life

By: Christiaan du Plessis

A site-specific performance gives a different view point to each of its viewers; this then generates what the audience gathers from the experience of the performance.  Musa Hlatshwayo’s ABANGUNI took this challenge and made sure that every person present was a part of the journey, activating all five senses as we saw movement and dance, heard music and singing, touched sticks of sugar cane, smelt the smoke from a fire and tasted fresh fruit corn and beef. If by chance you missed the story Hlatshwayo put across, you could not miss the experience and the journey.

A beautiful and terrifying past

By: Arno Wagenaar

As part of the first ever JOMBA! @artSPACE (Durban) , three live acts at last night’s site-specific performance  at the artSPACE (Durban) ABANGUNI choreographed by Musa Hlatshwayo (Mhayise Productions - Durban), SUICIDE: at six years old choreographed by Vusi Makanya (Dusi Dance Company - Durban), and SWAN, performed and choreographed by Misato Inoue, took the audience through a journey of identities and histories.

Artful tradition

By: Caitlin Goulding

An open fire brings warmth to the Durban evening, as do the smiles on the faces of audience members, dancers and the performers who come around to offer fruit, sugar cane, mielies placed in their husks and traditional beer.  This was the welcoming of Jomba! at artSPACE.