New Dance Writing – Festival Edition
“I have to be a feminist; everyday should be a protest day,” proclaims dancer, choreographer Nelisiwe Xaba. It’s weeks ahead of Johannesburg’s 27th Dance Umbrella, and the award-winning artist is participating in the festival’s writing workshop, patiently reviewing her almost two-decade-long dance career, while addressing the politics attached to being a black, female dancer. The theme of this year’s Workshop is “choreographing gender”, so the writers gathered in the Dance Space in Newtown, are prepped and anxious to engage with the Goodman Gallery artist. “Feminism isn’t that thing that happened in the 1960s. We haven’t resolved what our grandparents fought for,” the Soweto-born dancer says. “My grandmother participated in the struggle for women in the 1960s. So for me, it’s always been something that I should carry on; there’s no way that my life cannot be about protest.”
“We haven’t resolved what our grandparents fought for”
Her 2012/2013 collaborative dance and installation piece with experimental filmmaker Mocke J van Veuren, titled Angels & Uncles, which critiqued virginity testing, won the FNB Art Prize. Xaba’s activism is embedded in her art, yet it is not didactic. “As a feminist, I disagree [with virginity testing] but it’s important to spark the conversation. It’s also not good to tell people who are practising a tradition that it is wrong, I think that shows arrogance.” Xaba, who honed her craft at the Johannesburg Dance Foundation and the Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance in London, is not new to gender activism. From They Look at Me and That’s All They Think to her collaborative work with Haitian choreographer Ketty Noel Correspondences, Xaba’s work reads like the journal of a brown-skinned woman who has travelled around the world exhibiting her art on the walls of her body. “I dont have an interest to put on my status that I’m an activist. I just am,” says Xaba ahead of her upcoming show, Fremde Tänze (Foreign Dance). Created while participating in a residency in Freiburg, amidst the Black Forest in Southern Germany last year, the work was inspired by Xaba’s research on some of the Modernist German choreographers from the early 20th century whose vocabularly was inspired by notions of exoticism gleaned from ‘foreign’ cultures. In this work Xaba created a piece that addresses exoticism and the gaze - a recurring topic for the star. “Since last year I’ve started accepting the fact that I am [seen as] a queen of exoticism and the exotic,” she says. “[My body is] political. I am aware that I travel more because I’m a black female. But what I’m interested in is the gaze and the angle of that gaze. The angle that you view or gaze from, is the point that it becomes political,” she points out. Xaba’s expression of feeling exoticised as a black woman in the contemporary dance field and society is rooted in a history that can be traced to the 19th century such as with the eroticisation and representation of South African-born Sarah Baartman, who was put on display in Europe’s ‘human zoos’, to African American dancer and actress Josephine Baker in early 20th-century, in France. Centuries later, a similar gaze, especially on women, is perpetuated in popular culture from commercial music videos to high-fashion magazine spreads. Xaba’s Fremde Tänze is not the only piece at the Dance Umbrella to critique this type of
Protest Art lives on Nelisiwe Xaba says the fight is not over, writes Stefanie Jason
“I’m interested in the gaze and the angle of that gaze.” othering and representation. Wena Mamela, choreographed by celebrated performer Mamela Nyamza, reflects on her life as a black South African woman while unpacking traditional roles assigned to women in dance and society. A collaborative work between Tumbuka Dance Company and Company Nora Chipmaumire will address how these issues are pertinent to men too. Portrait of myself as my Father, choreographed Chipaumire highlights male representation, masculinity and the black African body, while looking at issues around identity, specifically the “Zimbabwean self”. Sunny Motau and Rachel Erdos’s brainchild Fight, Fight, Feathers,
F***ers, performed by MIDM Company, explores the politics of masculinity, via the fight or flight theory. Wrapping up the workshop, Xaba meditates on her controversial piece Sarkozy Says ‘Non’ to the Venus, which was designed to challenge the gaze in relation to contentious museum spaces in Europe, where the likes of Baartman were displayed like objects. “There’s beauty in my work but not the kind of beauty you find in glossy magazines,” she once told the City Press. “There’s no way I can create work where we are just being beautiful, dancing and just gyrating.” – Fremde Tänze shows at the Dance Factory on March 14 & 15
Above: FNB Vita Dance Umbrella 2002. Nelisiwe Xaba performs her own work entitled Dazed & Confused. The performance centres around the use of candles as light to life, and is dedicated to her grandmother, Irene Mnisi. Picture by John Hogg www.goethe.de/joburg
Principal funder of Dance Umbrella
#flashback
When Jay Pather shook Johannesburg in 2003 By Adrienne Sichel When Jay Pather talks about his dancemaking, the word “palpable” keeps cropping up. No wonder. It’s that quality perceptions made tangible - that underpins CityScapes, his highly inventive site-specific project that started out in Durban and, by invitation of the FNB Dance Umbrella (2003), has been transplanted to Johannesburg. Whether at the Oriental Plaza on a bustling Saturday morning, the Carlton Centre escalators that afternoon, a Sandton piazza, or a steamy hotel room in Braamfontein the following day, people of all ages have been stopped in their tracks (or not, this is Jozi after all) by encounters of the conceptual kind. These Highveld interventions and his staging of the opening massed local dance sequence of the Now or Never Bollywood stadium spectacular have allowed Pather to “sleep easier”. “I don’t feel I’m masturbating in a corner,” Pather said. “At Sandton Square I was not compromising on what I wanted to say. I have found a popular context which is powerful which makes one optimistic about art in this country. I didn’t want to do anything vaguely Simunye,” he said referring to the TV show he was in.
“The sheer size of the square enabled made me to do this. It is beautiful and so epic, but epic excuses so much - so many slurs and insults and wars. It gave me a chance to make palpable some very personal surfaces.” Placing performed art in unlikely urban spaces is nothing new for this once Durban-based artist, academic and cultural activist - and soap star after appearances as a bogus Bollywood star in Isidingo. Pather’s staged forays into cross-cultural theatrical performance, mainly with his Siwela Sonke Dance Theatre, have flirted with integrating and juxtaposing landscape, architecture and other cultural forms. These volatile portraits are always underpinned by a razor-sharp political sensibility, technical expertise, aesthetic resourcefulness and theatrical nous.
“I don’t feel I’m masturbating in a corner” This body of interactive theatrical work/public art work was spearheaded by the experimental Ahimsa Ubuntu, created for the Playhouse Theatre Opera stage in 1996. The Johannesburg edition of the CityScapes series offers a refinement and articulate extension of this choreographer and director’s vision. CityScapes, which culminates in performances at the Johannesburg Art Gallery, featuring 50 Gauteng and KwaZuluNatal dancers and four video artists, manages to insinuate itself into the crevices of public life and individual imagination with creative stealth and artistic guile. The Sandton Square module of this performance cycle enabled diners and shoppers to sip their cappuccinos - not to mention a band of snap-happy Japanese tourists and an uninhibited participative mall babe - to construct their own narratives as the concrete thoroughfare was transformed into a temple of dreams. At sunset, and then an hour later, at the library end, sylphs (South African Ballet Theatre graduates) appeared against collonades, at the other a deity (Siwela Sonke’s Eric Shabalala) beckoned classical Indian dancers (Tribanghi Dance Theatre) and a troupe of Shembe worshippers (Moving Into Dance Mophatong and Siwela Sonke) wielding silver umbrellas. Cutting through the jingle of ankle bells and foot rattles was a boy on a skateboard. He could have just been a Sandton kid zooming by, but he wasn’t: he was Siwela’s Denton Douglas. There’s a twist. In an effort to avoid any rainbow nation sentimentality, all the performers, whether in tutus or punjabis, had their bodies and faces painted white with uMsako powder used for rituals. This is an ingenious ploy - skintone becomes irrelevant: it’s the rhythmic bodies, dancing to recorded ocean waves and Baaba Maal, and iconic identities that count. When an obviously impoverished woman (Ntombi Gasa) appears with a bundle of firewood on her head, there are echoes of Swan Lake and La Sylphide as she transforms into an earthy Odette, or Sylph, flanked by dancers movings towards the fountain. Floating from the wood was a piece of rust tulle. The whimsy that reappeared the next day in room 403 in the Devonshire Hotel, in Braamfontein, featured Gasa and Douglas. At one point in this up close and voyeuristically personal interlude, viewed by a tiny audience lining one wall, a figure (Eric Shabalala again painted white but in leather pants and sunglasses) is swathed in the same shade of tulle. It’s these wisps of ingenuity coupled with physically challenging, intellectually stimulating and intricately structured dancemaking that inform Pather’s canvas. The Johannesburg Art Gallery performances will provide another facet of this kaleidoscope of textured images that are at once subversively beautiful and provocative. – The Sunday Independent, 15 February, 2003. Sichel is the Head resident researcher & co-founder of Art(t)chive, Wits School of Arts.
Pather will present his new work Rite at DU2015. It is a re-imagining of Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring), which will show at MOAD Feb 28, March 1st. Pics by Val Adamson.
In their own words Choreographers on their audience Nora Chipaumire: “There’s this nagging assumption that [audiences] don’t understand what [the artist] is saying. But what is it that makes you understand a painting? I’ve created this environment where there’s a lot of sensory stuff happening, where you are asked to feel, and feeling is fact. It is a way of knowing. I’m very comfortable in doing these small, chamber-like works that maybe are not easy to understand, but I’m working out certain issues, both for myself and for what is my place in the world. I would like for people to love the work, but I’m also happy if they come away having been provoked into “I don’t really love it, but I hadn’t thought about that,” and maybe the work grows on them.” (The Boston Globe, 13 March 2013) Chipaumire presents Portrait of Myself as my Father at Moad Gallery March 7 & 8 Jay Pather: “One wishes that an audience gets everything you put in. But I also have to accept that I might make a work over six weeks and an audience encounters it over sixty minutes, so much may get lost. All art requires a certain degree of patience and openness in order to allow meaning to be made. I try to work in certain key narrative elements, little islands that one can hang onto if one needs to. I also don’t want to talk down to an audience and make meaning so readily available that it simplifies the issue I am talking about.” (In conversation with Peter Machen, Arthtrob 2009) Pather presents Rite at Moad February 28 & March 1
Mamela Nyamza. Pic by John Hogg (courtesy of Standard Bank Young Artist Award 2011)
#preview
A flower in full bloom
Sarah Roberson reports on Mamela Nyamza’s new work, which the writer saw at the Cape Town Fringe in 2014 I’ve never watched Mamela Nyamza perform. To do so is something else altogether. I’m now a follower of Nyamza. I’m a new Nyamzist.
still fighting to maintain a smile. Her legs can no longer carry her weight, the weight of pleasing those who require her happily grinning face.
She is incredible. Nothing is taken for granted. The stage is simple; her body the canvas.
“Wena Mamela is dark. It’s unnerving. It’s uncomfortable. Good – it’s meant to be.”
Relentless. Flower pots are carried out. Photos posed for. Yoh yoh yoh you you you. There are questions. It is relentless. Pot plants are laid out a few at a time, fetched from offstage. Every so often an item is added as she emerges again from the wings. Flip-flops, gardening gloves, a raincoat. With the raincoat she hurries, drops are falling! A big sunflower stands out amongst the a of the pot plants. Dressed in yellow bikini, her stature tall and prominent – she mirrors the sunflower. The photo-op ensues. It begins with us. “OK please turn on your cell phones” imitating the CT Fringe message. We laugh. A number of people shamelessly snap away, at her instruction to “please take a photo of me”. “OK you can switch off your phones. I’m going to start the show now.” When did the performance really start? Now, when she says so? Five minutes ago when she started laying out the pot plants? Or was it happening already during the pre-set, when in a bikini she moves in spotlight whilst we take our seats. And what was happening before that? Our performances in life begin before we know it. Who decides when it starts?
Jay Pather
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So, the show ‘commences’. In show-girl getup she strikes a pose. And another. And another. Another. Another again. More. Like the sunflower amidst the regular range of plants, is she a special fad, because of her perceived uniqueness? She is increasingly exhausted, physically extending her body, used and used up by each shot from the camera. She deteriorates,
Her work with the ‘body mask’ – I don’t know what else to call it – is magnificent. It’s eerie and unsettling. “Yoh, yoh, yoh”, exclamations of disagreement and dissatisfaction, become “you, you, you”. And then “ma… ma… mamela!” repetitively, to a disquieting climax. You! Listen! She is questioned. It’s deeply personal. (And political too). Eventually she sheds her skin, removes her outer shell, exposes what’s left underneath. The sunflower is positioned instead of the body mask’s head. A pretty flower. Just a body. Is this all she is? She sings Brenda Fassie’s “Weekend Special”. Use her up until you’ve had enough. Use her when you need her, if it makes you feel good. Wena Mamela is dark. It’s unnerving. It’s uncomfortable. Good – it’s meant to be. It’s meant to shake you as she shakes and undulates in response to… too much. I can write and write on about the symbolism manifest in the imagery. Wena Mamela will stay with me for a long time. The programme says this Cape Fringe debut was “a work in progress”. I hope to see the full version soon. – first published on www.thecritter.co.za – Wena Mamela will show at the Dance Factory on March 5 & 6
Georgina Thomson: The director of Dance Forum
Which work on this year’s DU programme should not be missed and why?: There are two works I’d suggest: WENA MAMELA by Mamela Nyamza. I think this work will be interesting and challenging. Also Tumbuka Dance Company with Zimbabwe with the Nora Chipaumire work: they have been “in hiding” for some years so it will be interesting to see them now.
What is the biggest misconception about contemporary dance? People expect the same thing ie: just plain dance; today it has shifted hugely and choreographers embrace many disciplines which includes film, performance art and even drama in their work. So the word “contemporary” should be considered in a more general way rather than expecting only one type of show.
Name a work from last year’s DU that stood out and explain why...: Les Nuits stood out simply because we just never see work of this nature in SA and I thought it was pretty amazing and CARGO Precious which was very special..
What keeps you interested and passionate about contemporary dance in South Africa? I’ve loved dance since I saw a photo of a dancer when I was six years old. I can’t explain it but it lies deep within me and I feel dance has many more levels than simply movement.
The 2015 Dance Umbrella team: Artistic Director Georgina Thomson Administrator Lindiwe Lekasapa Company Manager David April General Assistant Sifiso Kweyama Street Beat Coordinator/ Intern Matthews Manamela Admin Assistant Lethabo Khumalo Production Managers: Mashudu Nemukula – Dance Factory
David Hlatshwayo – Wits Theatre Gladman Balintulo – Market Theatre Aubrey Ndaba – MOAD Gallery and GoetheonMain Publicity/media liaison: Behind the Scenes Communications / Di Sparks Social media: Melissa Griesel Pic by Tony Garland
Meet the writers Young arts writers find it increasingly difficult to find a foothold in the mainstream press. This is even more so the case when it comes to dance and performance – an area of the arts often deemed difficult to access via words. For this reason, the GoetheInstitut, in collaboration with the Dance Forum, for the third time hosts the Dance Writing Workshop running parallel to the Dance Umbrella Festival. The aim is to nurture, discover and support new writing talent in this field, but also to get established journalists to engage with contemporary dance. Mary Corrigall facilitated the workshop. This year’s participants shared ideas about the role of gender in contemporary choreography, a timely topic to tie in with current debates, but also with the platform for female choreographers that is part of Dance Umbrella 2015.
Same Mdluli: I realised I was interested in writing when I found that there were certain ideas I couldn’t articulate through any other mode of expression. Writing about the arts thus enabled me to apply critical thinking towards a range of mediums, approaches and subjectivities artists employ. Contemporary Dance is an area of the arts that offers the opportunity to explore a dynamic artistic expression within an exciting cultural space. Layla Leiman: I realised I was interested in writing when I realised I was a sadomasochist. Also, when I realised that writing was my entry into the arts industry. Writing about the arts enables me to compensate for my lack of artistic ability and still be a constructive member of the arts community. Contemporary Dance is an area of the arts that I have immense appreciation for but no experience writing about. This is therefore an exciting opportunity to bring these two points together and hopefully contribute in some small way to the field. Stefanie Jason: I realised I was interested in writing when... I spent almost my entire Cape Town summer profusely typing away at my memoir. I was seven. Writing about the arts enables me to .... do two things: Live vicariously through artists (I’ve heard someone say that failed musicians make great music writers. I’d like to think the same applies to me and my art). Secondly, with words I can document art and attempt to understand or interpret artwork for my generation and hopefully generations to come. Contemporary Dance is an area of the arts that.. is quite fluid. There’s this grey area that I feel it can live in (with performance and protest art); and in that space South African contemporary dancers truly flourish.
#partyon Join the Goethe-Institut in celebrating their 20th anniversary in South Africa. Two decades have passed since the German cultural institute first opened its doors in Johannesburg in 1995. They have been a long standing partner of the Dance Umbrella Festival, and an active supporter of dance and performance projects in Johannesburg. The Birthday party includes a special live performance by GermanChilean DJ and Producer Matias Aguayo. Friday 27 February, 7.30pm, Goethe-Institut, 119 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parkwood. Admission free, safe parking available.
ANNIVERSARY
PARTY 1995 2015
Goethe-Institut SOUTH AFRICA
Credits: Editor : Mary Corrigall Production Manager: Benjamin Keuffel Designer: Adéle Prins, www.prinsdesign.co.za Contributors: Adrienne Sichel, Stefanie Jason, Sarah Roberson Photographs: John Hogg, Val Adamson, Zanele Muholi, Tony Garland, Fred Koening Acknowledgements: This publication would not be possible without the support of the Goethe-Institut or Dance Forum and the individuals driving the promotion of these institutions; Benjamin Keuffel and Georgina Thomson. Thanks to all the dancers and choreographers who provide the inspiration for the content.
More information and bookings on www.danceumbrella.co.za
#upcoming Programme two features South African performance artist Thabiso Pule with a new work, What the Hell Happened to This Place?? It will show at GoetheonMain on Saturday February 28 @ 18:00 and Sunday March 1 at 14:00. Jay Pather brings a new installation work to the MOAD (Museum of African Design) on Saturday February 28 and Sunday March 1 at 19:00. On Sunday, March 1 at the Wits Theatre a new programme comes to Dance Umbrella: Street Beat. This features Hip Hop dance, Pantsula and Street Dance and the programme was curated from auditions throughout Gauteng. A double bill programme at the Dance Factory on March 3 and 4 at 19:00 starts with the work “fight, flight, feathers, f***ers”. It is a collaborative work from Moving into Dance Mophatong’s Sunnyboy Motau and the British-born choreographer Rachel Erdos. The second work in this programme is The Architecture of Tears, a highly acclaimed work from ex-Jazzart Dancers called the Figure of 8 Dance Collective (FO8). Themba Mbuli has created a new work called Ashed. Working with the Unmute Dance Company, Ashed mirrors the evolution of South Africa. Ashed is presented in partnership with Artscape and the British Council and will be presented at the John Kani Theatre, Market Theatre on March 3 and 4 at 20:15. Internationally renowned Mamela Nyamza will premiere a Wena Mamela on March 5 and 6 at 19:00 at the Dance Factory.
Mamela Nyamza performs in Wena Mamela. Pic by Zanele Muholi