JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience

People United Magazin

The JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience is the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s arts gateway to Africa and the world. It is one of Africa’s benchmark dance festivals. The annual festival is presented by The Centre for Creative Arts under the direction of Dr Lliane Loots. In 2021, it was presented digitally from 24 August to 5 September. JOMBA! fiercely holds on to its status as one of the few remaining dedicated spaces in South Africa where dance and choreography remain nurtured and supported. The festival’s vision continues to be to offer world-class dance theatre that challenges audiences out of passive lethargic viewership, asking them to enjoy the myriad festival offerings (performances, workshops, and classes) with the intention to be shocked, surprised, entertained and, above all, to celebrate a critical art form. In the following, we will present five artists who were featured in this year’s edition.

Yaseen Manuel Jomba! UKZN 2021 Mellon Artist in Residence

Thobile Maphanga Durban Digital Edge

Femi Adebajo and Ridwan Rasheed 1st place Jomba! Open Horizons (Long Form)

Mamello Makhetha 2nd place Jomba! Open Horizons (Long Form)

Diana Gaya 3rd place Jomba! Open Horizons (Long Form)

Lliane Loots

Lecturer & Dance Academic at UKZN Director

Jomba! Contemporary Dance Experience Dancer and Choreographer with FLATFOOT DANCE COMPANY

#CareerFocus with Lliane Loots 9 August 2021 | www.womenontop.co.za

Lliane Loots is the director of JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience and in 2003 – evolving from when it grew out of a dance training programme originally initiated in 1994 – founded FLATFOOT DANCE COMPANY as a professional dance company. As the artistic director and resident choreographer for FLATFOOT DANCE COMPANY, she has won numerous national choreographic awards and has travelled extensively in Europe, America and within the African continent with her dance work. In 1991, she ‘birthed’ the JOM- BA! Contemporary Dance Experience within the Centre for Creative Arts and continues as its Artistic Director and curator under the direction of

Dr. Ismail Mahomed. Loots also holds the positions of Lecturer in the Drama and Performance Studies Programme at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (Durban). She completed her PhD in 2018 looking at contemporary dance/performance histories on the African continent. Loots was awarded the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres (Knight in the Order of Arts and Letters) by the French government in 2017 for her work (both artistic and curatorial) in the South African dance sector. Her current collaborative research project with Dr Yvette Hutchison will trace the relationship between disability dance and citizenship in Africa.

— Lliane Loots

For more visit: flatfootdancecompany.webs.com and jomba.ukzn.ac.za

Tell us a bit about yourself. What work do you do?

I am somebody who likes to be doing multiple things at one time – I suspect, because of this, I am not a restful person as I have a lot of energy to expend! As such, I have my feet in many different shoes. First and foremost, I am a dancer and choreographer with FLATFOOT DANCE COMPANY. I am also a lecturer and dance academic at UKZN, and I am the founder and artistic director of the now 23-year-old JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience. I am a serious person and think about FLATFOOT as my family in my ever-on-going journey to find new and inclusive ways to create value, and honour dance making.

How long have you been in the industry?

I started dancing when I was 5 years old, and it seems to just have been one long journey from there. Professionally, however, FLAT- FOOT was formed in 1994 – so, that is 26 years of making dance and training dancers.

Has your work always been your passion? Tell us why.

Yes, for me there is nothing more sacred than the liminal human body in motion – challenging all expectations of what is possible. For me, this is a metaphor for life – and a chance to rise beyond even what you might think is possible. I often say to the FLAT- FOOT dancers that we have the intense privilege of confronting all our angels and demons when we make work, of truly finding our humanity in each other when we dance together; to see each other across race, gender, and ability. I hope there is not one day that I take this for granted.

Being a woman in the industry – what does it take?

Strangely, dance is a profession done by more women than men. So, you would think this would be a space where women are nurtured and supported. In some cases, this is true but research has shown that men are more often favoured for funding, career support,

and obtaining commissions in the professional arena. So, myadvice to women wanting to choreograph, curate and dance, isnot to wait around for a hand-up but to find as many opportunitiesto make work, on all and every platform you can – start small butalways commit to the work! And, of course, to ask the sisterhoodto hold and support each other and not to drag one another down.

What has been the most difficult challenge of your career?

The biggest challenges to being an artist in South Africa in 2021,is, of course, funding and spaces to show your work. COVID hasalso cut a lot of artists off at the legs and it will be a long timebefore many recover. Personally, my biggest (and still daily) challengehas been asking people to walk (dance?) with me on thisjourney of making dance, of finding those bodies and spirits whoknow the personal cost to be an artist and still do it anyway.

What advice do you have for other women in your industry?

I always ask fellow women artists to really support one another, tonot fall into mindless subterfuge that allows patriarchy to survive.We are as strong as our community that holds us. I would alsoask women to seek out and support other women—especially inspace where seeing inequity and a lack of representation.

Plans for the future?

I hope FLATFOOT DANCE COMPANY survives the onslaught ofCOVID-related loss of work and funding, and if this can happen,I hope to do more of what I am doing now! I want to see JOMBA!hit 25 years in 2023 – this will be a huge milestone, and I am excitedby a generous commission from the Playhouse Company tocreate a new dance work for their South African Women’s ArtsFestival 2021.

Yaseen Manuel

Jomba! UKZN 2021 Mellon Artist in Residence

As a creative I pride myself in being consistent, a visual thinker as well as an influencer in my artistic approach. With this, having gone through the stages in becoming who I am today. I have taken my experiences as a trainee, teacher, director, and choreographer and have used them in becoming a well-rounded artistic individual. I have had many opportunities to work with influential artists nationally and internationally and have found new ways of learning, work-shopping ideas and sharing knowledge. This has broadened my understanding of the arts. I am no pioneer, however, I am interested in the universal exchanges, integration of dance and the creation of more opportunities for

collaborations. Working as a mentor and teacher of youth in both training and outreach programmes. I believe in the power of cultivating the passion for dance and the arts amongst South African‘s youth. This is the „boiling pot“ of our industry, it is where one’s drive and ambitions are created. I did not receive much dance practice in my youth, my body and mind were occupied by religion and religious studies, I have been dancing for more than ten years and still felt as if something was missing. I then connected my religious background to my personal works, and it has been a great outcome spiritually.

UKZN 2021 MELLON ARTIST IN RESIDENCE Yaseen Manuel with FLATFOOT DANCE COMPANY (South Africa) with two new screen dance films: Al-Kitab and UNHINGED

Al-Kitab

Al-Kitab is the holy book we call Quran. It looks at the life of an Islamic dancer who finds himself between religion and dance. Having gained all the Quran’s knowledge and preaching throughout his life, he questions why he can’t comfortably merge being a dancer and living in Islam.

UNHINGED

This dance film narrates the four phases of an individual suffering with schizophrenia set against the backdrop of current South Africa. This is the journey of one person’s daily struggle of being unhinged from reality. We are poignantly faced with incoherent and illogical thoughts, hallucinations, delusions and abnormal behaviour. Is this mental illness or everyday reality jomba.ukzn.ac.za/sa-crossings...

Thobile Maphanga

Durban Digital Edge

↑ — Thobile Maphanga © Thomis Sweet-Harvey

Thobile is a Durban-based dance practitioner, creative collaborator and emerging writer. Her current preoccupation is with black female narratives and how black women are writing themselves into history in the ‘now’. Through her research, which is theory and practice led, she explores where and how black women use their voices and where these voices can be found. Through self-study she journeys to find her authentic voice and learn her true self through processes of questioning and unlearning. Her research methods include, but are not limited to, sitting in wait, listening and improvisation.

Sihamba sizibhala

In becoming we leave traces of ourselves behind

Sihamba Sizibala is a dance film by Thobile Maphanga. Roughly translated, the title means “we write ourselves as we move/go” in isiZulu. In becoming we leave traces of ourselves behind. She asks what are the remains we leave behind in the process of becoming? The markings, smudging and disruptions we create in our journey through life not only speak to where we have been, but who and how we effect the world, and what new beginnings we may arrive at. This dance film is a solo journey of one traveller’s journeying.

Concept, choreography and performance Thobile Maphanga

Music contributions Ntomb’Yelanga, Oudskul, and Refiloe Olifant.

Sihamba sizibhala In becoming we leave traces of ourselves behin Limited Availability

Cinematography Marcia Buwa

Editing Thobile Maphanga

Diana Gaya

3rd place Open Horizons (Long Form)

Choreography and performance Diana Gaya

Cinematographer and editing: Charlie Ely

Music: Mesuli Nale

Diana Gaya is a freelance choreographer, dancer, and teacher, with over ten years’ experience. She has trained in a wide range of dance styles with YAWA Dance Company, Kisumu, and Kenya Performing Arts Group, Nairobi. She now specialises in contemporary dance and dance theatre, with a passion for innovative storytelling. Gaya’s work is both uniquely Kenyan, relating to issues of everyday life in her home city of Kisumu, and international in aesthetic.

In 2017, she founded Gaya Dance Theatre and created the first solo dance theatre production by a Kenyan woman. Amongst her choreographies are full-length pieces Skin (2017), which was nominated for the SANAA award for ‘Best Dance Theatre’, and Pas Op (2019).

Gaya has been an Associate Choreographer with Dance into Space since 2017, working with disabled dancers on the Breaking Barriers project, and performing in Agwata, which premiered at the Artfluence Human Rights Festival 2021.

She was humble and honoured to be part of JOM- BA! Contemporary Dance Festival 2021 where she was awarded the third place (Open Horizons Long Form).

So far, her work has taken her across Kenya, to Tanzania and the Netherlands. Her mission is for Gaya Dance Theatre to be further internationally recognised, to improve the professionalism of dance in Kenya and to inspire more people, particularly the youth, to participate in dance and the performing arts.

Machozi ya Jana

(Yesterday‘s Tears)

Flashback on a hard life. I sleep, dream after dream, thoughts coming and going, seeking for help in vain, memories keep running all over my face, mind and body, there‘s no sound but the beating of my heart, there‘s nowhere to run, I sit afraid and freezing, imprisoned in my bones, She struggles to move out from the space of yesterday‘s tears into a space of hope and light.

Machozi ya Jana (Yesterday’s Tears)

Choreography and performance Diana Gaya

Cinematographer and editing Charlie Ely

Music Mesuli Nale

Mamello Makhetha

2nd place Open Horizons (Long Form)

Mamello Makhetha is a South African actress, voice artist, singer, performance artist, producer, and writer. As an actress she is fluent in both English and Sesotho.

Stages of her performance art career: She played Tina for Amiya Nagpal’s performative script in the Yokohama Triennial’s Episodo 3. (2020). She was a co-performer in Isabella Chydenius and Balindele ka Ngcobo’s City of Ladies for the Cape Town Art Fair (2020). She was in Nguvu Ya Mbegu: The Cleansing for the UCT Decolonial Festival in 2018 directed by Mandla Mbothwe. The same performance was done in 2019, at ICA’s Infecting The City. She also performed Madi Iphidisa Madi, her first self-conceptualised, directed and performed performance art piece, for the same festival that year. Nguvu Ya Mbegu: The Cleansing was also performed at Alude Mahali’s conference in Cape Town that was about, the relationship language has with education. She performed the piece Un-Televised with Grace Matetoa at Body Politic 3: Eros. A quarter annual experimental performance art event curated by Louise Westerhout. (2018). In 2018, she was in a group performance art piece entitled UMGOWO, an experiential butoh-based performance dealing with the collective and individual conscious experience of black mental health, for Body Politic 2: Pathology. In 2018, she was a performer for an installative performance curated by Mandla Mbothwe celebrating Sindisiwe Magona’s 75th birthday. She also performed as a co-performer in Anathi Rubela’s

LGBTQIA+ for their D3 Contemporary Performance Course (DRM3010F). She is currently a fellow for the Institute of Creative Art’s 2020/21 Online Fellowship, her work is entitled Ore Phelele. The film Ore Phelele recently came in second place at UKZN’s Jomba! Contemporary Dance Experience Online Festival for the Open Horizons Fringe Festival (2021).

I am a queer black womxn from South Africa. My practice is very body based and uses the corporeal as the main sight of play, possibility, investigation and making. Because of this, I am continually drawn to my personal intersectionality and how that can also relate to the intersectionality’s of people like me. This would also speak to my inquisitions of my blackness, my womxnhood and my queerness. As well as my relationship with class structures in relationship to all those aspects of my identity. Therefore, I deal with subject matters and issues around menstruation, black mental health, GBV and rape culture and representations of black queer womxnhood in media and art. My work is interdisciplinary in nature. I use various multimedia in relationship to the bodies / body ‘performing’ to layer meaning and create palimpsest like experiences that allow both the ‘performer’ and the audience to unpack multiple interpretations of the work. This ranges from the use of movement, choreography, voice, visuals (film, video, still), the use of music and sound, and writing.

Ore Phelele

Ore Phelele is a dance and movement performance art film. It is my body, in white sports bra and white tights, which allude to peace. The clothing represents me as an angelic and protective like figure, moving in various environments that have a history and an ongoing relationship with sexual violence in our country. These include a magistrate court that represents ways that the justice system has failed sexual violence survivors, my bed and bedroom, as the intimate and vulnerable site of excavating a personal, romantic, and a sexually safe space, and the betrayal of that. As well as, outside a post office, which alludes to the site Uyinene’s death and murder, which I use to remember how she died, but also remember her spirit while she lived, and lastly, an expansive green field cloaked in the night sky, as the site of breath, peace, stillness, release, and strength. I created a movement language, with the assistance of choreographer, writer, and artist Quinton Manning. The film is held by the delicate and tearful, yet haunting and powerful score created by Mikyla Emergui. I use my body and the language it can create a way to understand my relationship with my trauma and the pain I have experienced because of my own sexual assault. The language works with ways I may I understand myself in present time and space and in relation to various feelings, and emotions I have had to process, come through myself to be where I am now. Feelings of death, grief, loss, pain, anger, sadness, chaos, bravery, courage, release, strength, laughter, peace, guilt, breath, joy, and self-forgiveness are all embroiled in the language. After I was retriggered last year, I was deeply invested in understanding, through performance, the, motivations and material feelings of re-trauma, after one has been raped or sexually assaulted. This was created through the movement language that attached itself to cycles, the cyclical and the constant revisiting and investigating of all those emotions and experiences I have mentioned above.

Concept, direction, art direction, performance Mamello Makhetha

Cinematography and direction Thandi Gula

Choreography mentorship Quinton Manning

Music Mikyla Emergui

Edited and graded Bryan Augustyn

Cinematography assistant Ramadumesta Makhwidiri