New Dance Writing – Festival Edition 2016 www.goethe.de/joburg
What makes contemporary dance grow? Is it the impetus of sponsorship that a festival like Dance Umbrella through much hard work from its artistic director yields? Or is it the sheer enthusiasm, thoughtfulness and skill of contemporary dancer/choreographers to relentlessly reshape the discipline and challenge both audiences and practitioners to confront something new? Indeed, is it fair or justified to consider South African contemporary dance as insular and in need of stimulation or assistance from those from outside our borders? Or do we really have something of value and interest to the discipline to share with the outside world? This year, Dance Umbrella celebrates 28 years of being an annual injection of contemporary dance in Johannesburg. It is still considered the stepping stone for choreographic greats and historically it is still reflected as the moment choreographers, dancers or performance artists such as Vincent Mantsoe, Thorisa Magongwa, Steven Cohen and Dada Masilo stepped into a real careers, overseas. But what are the pitfalls of romanticising this obscurity-toprominence kind of story too heavily? (Bearing in mind that it has lent itself to remarkable tales of achievement and success under the steerage of choreographers such as Sylvia Glasser, Adele Blank, Martin Schonberg and others, who have effectively turned young performers’ lives around over the years, through dance). The discipline of dance is complex for not only technical reasons, but the aesthetic, socio-political, economic and audience-related realities it embraces. Local dance audience must reflect on it from a variety of sides: South African art audiences are very easily conned into swallowing the notion that ‘overseas is better than local’. This comes of an historical mindset rooted in apartheid thinking, where an artist was only respected critically or taken seriously by the establishments once he or she had achieved a modicum of success overseas. But lest we forget: apartheid was instrumental in blocking artists’ access to not only overseas venues, but also overseas publications, particularly in the years of high apartheid when punitive cultural sanctions the world over were applied. But, while apartheid is over and the illogical laws no longer exist, contemporary young black dancers still hone their craft against many pragmatic odds, including a lack of financial support. Does this render them insular in their thinking? The danger of romanticising the ‘overseas world’ is real. Not only does the notion of overseas success lend itself well to publicity writing and so-called puff pieces, but it is specious in the extreme: the overseas world is so big that it is meaningless. There are big festivals and small ones, important venues and insignificant ones. Once a publicist lavishes everything with the word ‘New York’ or ‘Paris’, the smaller facts seem to wither away. Having said that, one can never deny the value of overseas experiences, but more often than not, South African contemporary dancers have evolved a product and an
How lekker is local dance?
There is a danger of romanticising the ‘overseas world’ and its influence on dance, writes Robyn Sassen
Rebellion and Johannesburg is an interpretation of the Shakespearean story Romeo and Juliet, set on a backdrop of a transforming street sub-culture in Johannesburg. The work is by Jessica Nupen, who has collaborated with Moving into Dance Mophatong. It shows at the UJ Arts Centre Theatre on February 25 and 26 at 19:30. Photo by Steve Thomas
approach to an artistic medium which suffers more from a parochial downplaying of it than from actual flaws that can be addressed in the hand of ‘overseas’ experts. So then, can we say, local is really lekker? Over the past Dance Umbrellas, there has been no shortage of works from overseas or collaborative energies blending the ideas of South Africans and those of dancers/choreographers from foreign countries such as Portugal, Switzerland and Germany that have given new energy. But arguably, when the quality of such work has left audiences wanting, the veneer of overseas begins to pall. South African dance is no longer insular as it is enjoying the influence of the overseas world. South African dance, from the early years of Dance Umbrella, was irrevocably infused with the anger and energy necessary to not only combat apartheid values, but to re-establish identity. One need only ponder the kind of groundbreaking gestures Steven Cohen articulated with his body and his sexuality in the late 1980s that formed part of the spine of Dance Umbrella, challenging myriads of preconceived notions about what dance actually was.
Portuguese choreographer Nelia Pinheiro will present Terra Chã at the UJ Arts Centre Theatre on March 1 and 2 at 20:15. Photo by Telmo Rocha
When one considers the work of choreographer-dancers such as Mamela Nyamza and Nelisiwe Xaba who have certainly benefited from overseas experience, it would be mischievous and disingenuous to colour their dance roots with how performing overseas might have developed them. In 2009, several years before her meteoric rise to acknowledgement, Nyamza created Kutheni, an immensely
“The dance community does not exist anymore; people work in isolation and do not collaborate much. Until this changes and there is a good representation of the sector, we cannot expect to achieve any access to the powers that be to effect real change and respect for the industry,” says festival director Georgina Thomson. Read the interview on Page 4 sophisticated work which engaged with the rape of lesbians in township society. Highlighting levels of violence in our country, this year’s Dance Umbrella features works that bring South African constructs into an international arena. Toyi-Toyi, a piece choreographed by French-based Hamid Ben Mahi explores South African protest, as does Bailey Snyman and Ashley Churchyard’s piece Makwerekwere. Indeed, the showcase works that begin the festival is R & J, a spoof on the Romeo and Juliet narrative, in which German-based Jessica Nupen and local choreographer/ dancer Sunnyboy Motau dissects suburban violence. Cross-border collaboration and negotiation needs to be seen as a tool in making dance, rather than as a remedy to treat a predicament. South African dance is not in crisis: its situation is a lot more complex than a simple reflection on the value of overseas money may point at.
Gregory Maqoma’s ability to remain open to dialogue and to work collaboratively across disciplines gives his work immediacy, writes Tammy Ballantyne
Barriers
Transcending
Maqoma in Beautiful Me. Photo by Val Adamson
Last December, Gregory Vuyani Maqoma celebrated 25 years of extraordinary dance at the Lyric Theatre, Gold Reef City. He brought together incredible friends and artistic colleagues to narrate his story and reflect on his journey through the world of dance – Sibongile Khumalo, David Tlale, Somizi Mhlongo, Shanell Winlock Pailma, Complete Quartet, his own Vuyani Dance Company (VDC) and a host of fabulous musicians. It was all woven together by talented Luyanda Sidiya, Artistic Director of Vuyani Dance Theatre (VDT), and Maqoma’s supreme talent as a storyteller and choreographer. As I sat in the audience, I reflected on all the years I’ve watched Maqoma perform, teach and choreograph – the times I’ve sat and interviewed him, the pleasure of chatting to this intelligent, passionate artist who articulates his vision so clearly and I marvelled at the almost miraculous achievement of keeping his art alive for 25 years. In an embattled arts landscape where funding is scarce, audience support is fickle and companies fold every year, Maqoma has sought innovative ways to make things work. He nurtures key relationships with media, funders, festival organisers, colleagues and friends. His humility and openness to readily discuss opportunities and provide clear frame-works within which projects can come to fruition, make him an obvious partner for sponsors who seek lively engagement within the arts sector. Ultimately, his greatest achievement has been to create a successful brand of his company and unique performance style which is acknowledged throughout the world. He has had many opportunities to settle elsewhere but he has always pledged his allegiance to the country of his birth
and his commitment to developing dance here and on the continent. Maqoma has been defined as a “holistic individual” by Sylvia Glasser, founder of Moving Into Dance Mophatong (MIDM), where Maqoma got his first grounding in formal dance training. It was here that Maqoma was exposed to a fusion of forms and began to create his own aesthetic which borrowed from traditional forms, Michael Jackson (one of his first dance heroes) and his own dance language embedded in his body. During the 25 year celebration performance, Maqoma recounted growing up with a Xhosa father and Sotho mother and how his parents lived according to traditional values. He also used to go and watch the men in the hostels performing traditional dance forms and he says this developed empathy for traditional forms. This filters strongly through his work which is highly contemporary, innovative and challenging but still lays claim to SA history, stories and traditions. He calls his style “a cocktail” which fuses history but also looks at defining the future and is a response to the now. In a TV interview on Curtain Call last month, he commented on the fact that “dance has the possibility to cross barriers and go where other forms can’t” and “contemporary dance is a big beast that can’t be defined in one context, it changes with time and depends on how people interact with their own stories.” Travelling and performing globally has shifted Maqoma’s view of dance; it has connected him to individuals who are shapeshifters in their own countries – artists like Shanell Winlock, Akram Khan, Faustin Linyekula and our own Vincent Mantsoe (who lives and works in France). Perhaps it is Maqoma’s ability to remain open to dialogue and to work collaboratively across
disciplines which gives his work such immediacy and impact. In the past few years, he has felt a strong need to make works that comment upon and deal with environmental issues: his ‘Skeleton Dry’, ‘Four Seasons’ and ‘Full Moon’ capture the way humans often use their power in destructive ways and wreak havoc on our planet. In other works such as ‘Exit/Exist’ and ‘Lonely Together’ are intensely personal stories deeply rooted in Maqoma’s identity and history.
“Dance has the possibility to cross barriers and go where other forms can’t” This year’s Dance Umbrella will see Maqoma present ‘Ketima’. The genesis of the work was a solo in 2003 which he later developed into a male quartet. It toured Europe and Mexico and also launched the first intake of a full-time company of VDT dancers. This time round, ‘Ketima’ is being revived with new company members as a male and female quartet. Glimpsing Maqoma working with his company in Newtown last week, I was struck yet again by the collective engagement in the studio – he demands unequivocal commitment and discipline from his performers but individuality is encouraged and indeed, celebrated. Perhaps this will be one of Maqoma’s lasting legacies to SA dance. – Ketima will be showing on March 2 and 3 at the Market Theatre.
anticipation. Their hands caress their bodies as if feeling them for the first time. Just when you think the dancers aroused by the heroic ascending music will leap into thin air, or run as the name of the piece suggest they just, remain, grounded on the floor creating a silence that is both nerve wrenching and exciting. Maqoma does this over and over until the anticipation of some kind of climax or resolution becomes almost unbearable, until you can’t breathe.
GREGORY MAQOMA
RETURNS TO HIS ROOTS
Maqoma starring in Lonely Together. Photo by Juses Robisc
By Jedi Ramalapa At first South African Dancer, Choreographer Gregory Maqoma’s piece Ketima – seems much like what we’ve all seen before on the South African contemporary dance stage. Beautiful black bodies, gyrating, twitching, shaking and twisting into undefinable movements, grasping at thin air into shapes and forms which seem to imitate an unknown creature. It is in many ways what we have come to expect. However, Maqoma has revamped the pieced which was originally a
male quartet first presented in 2003, to include new male and female members from the Vuyani Dance Company. After the dancers arrived predictably on stage in a snake –like formation, that’s when he breaks with the familiar. The dancers draw you in through through their bodies into a world that is as certain as the ebb and flow of the ocean. They pull you into a trancelike state. It’s an uncomfortable place, which is filled with excitement, the blush of innocence, fear and a feverish
During their rehearsal at the studios in Newtown, Maqoma breaks the palpable silence with such a gentle and insightful question to his dancers, I felt as for a moment he was expecting an answer from me too – the observer of creation: “What is it that forces you break free from the uniform line?” His method of training is aimed at inducing the intuitive nature of children freely at play but with an element of self-control and composure typical of a military regiment, an unfamiliar juxtapositioning of movement. Ketima is inspired in part by Maqoma’s memories of his grandmother’s mental state, the fluidity with which she plunged into her childhood towards the end of her life, something which was sad and warming to observe. The piece also serves as commentary on the political state of our nation. A state in which, Maqoma observed back in 2003, where everyone was running in different directions without a common purpose. For Maqoma Ketima is a call to stillness, to remembering those dreams which shaped our childhood. It’s a call to stop – running. A reminder to contemporary South Africa, that there is power and strength in the feminine, that there’s also something irredeemably sad in the masculine attitudes. A coming together of two of the worlds powerful forces of life. – Ramalapa is one of the writers sponsored by the Goethe-Institut as part of the Dance Writer’s Workshop.
The Imitation Game
Jedi Ramalapa caught up with Nelisiwe Xaba and spoke to her about The Last Attitude This could be my last dance, says dancer, choreographer and performance artist Nelisiwe Xaba on her latest collaborative dance project with fellow dancer Mamela Myamza called The Last Attitude. “I thought about making this my last performance on stage, but decided against it,” she said without a hint of irony. It was during the process of coming up with a title for the collaborative piece with Nyamza that Xaba decided not to do the proverbial final curtain call on her illustrious, 20 year career as a dancer, choreographer and in more recent years performer. The piece initially titled “Corps de Ballet” is a comment on the militant and opulent nature of classical ballet which both dancers were trained in at the start of their dancing careers. In The Last Attitude, Xaba and Nyamza take on the male lead roles amid a troupe of white dancers. The change in the political landscape both on stage and in the world formed the backdrop of our conversation in a restaurant in Braamfontein, downtown Johannesburg. Xaba’s militant feminism and commentary on racist ideology and its political and cultural manifestations forms the bed rock of her repertoire. The Last Attitude, is no different. It is perhaps a final curtain call to a particular, binary way of thinking. She is no longer interested in cracking the Eurocentric code or affirming masculine ideas of black consciousness. Here she and Nyamza tackle gender roles – an imitation game which has softened her harsh attitude towards male dancers.
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How different is the Last Attitude from Dada Masilo’s “ deconstruction” of the classical ballet piece, Swan Lake in 2010? XABA: Our point was never to deconstruct ballet or to Africanise it. We were not interested in making Eurocentric art-forms, African. That is so 80’s; mixing ballet with African dance (such as the panstula dance in Dada’ Masilo’s remixing of Swan Lake) was done in the 80’s. There’s nothing new there. With The Last Attitude we’re taking on the male role in classical ballet and its Euro-centricity. Originally when ballet started there were no male performers included. They were gradually introduced as porters, to lift and carry women on stage, their job was to make the principal ballerina shine. The move to include men in prominent roles in Ballet began with the Russian male dancers, who pushed hard for male dancers to take on leading roles in ballet pieces. This was heralded by the likes of Mikhail Nikolayevich Baryshnikov – the famed, Latvian principal dancer choreographer for New York City Ballet and the American Ballet Theatre. Today men and increasingly black, gay men have taken over the art form which was originally intended for women. Ballet is a very conservative art form which has clearly defined roles for female and male dancers. Our aim is not to change this, but to comment on it and how hard it is, to actually be a male dancer in a ballet company. Why did you want to take on the male role? XABA: I have always been envious of boys or male dancers on stage. They were strong and could lift girls, and for this reason they always had a place in a dance company – particularly in South Africa. As a black female dancer I had to overcome a number of barriers, first the racial-colour bar
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and then the gender barriers. I started dancing very late for a woman in Ballet at 16, so I had a lot of catching up to do with my white contemporaries, whereas with boys (including black males) age was not a major limitation. I left ballet many years ago but, you can never fully abandon your roots. In many ways Ballet is such a global art form that you think you can get into any company around the world and do well but this is not always so. In doing this piece I always knew that it was going to be hard, so I started taking ballet classes for two years before – to remain fit and maintain the technique. In 2015 I started taking professional dance classes with the Jozi Ballet Company. I took nine classes a week which is more than the 6 classes that their professional dancers take. It made for rigorous training and suddenly after so many years I was confronted with the politics of the ballerina the aesthetic of beauty and youth. Your brain remembers but your body can’t do it anymore. How did it feel to be confronted with your own mortality as a dancer and human? XABA: The realisation is always hard. I mean, we all have things we don’t like about our bodies – but in dance it is a daily and acute awareness. I am 45 now, you’d be hard pressed to find a principal ballet dancer who is 45 years anywhere in the world. Happily the contemporary dance stage has no age restrictions. When we created The Last Attitude we were not trying to prove that we can still dance ‘en Pointe’. After a 20 year career in the field I expect more than a simple label of “the black dancer”. – The Last Attitude will be presented at The Dance Factory on February 27 at 19:30 and February 28 at 14:30
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French choreographer Hamid Ben Mahi from Hors Serie Company present Toyi Toyi, a protest dance that comes from activism found mainly in the streets. Featuring four performers, Toyi Toyi uses both dance and the spoken word to recount the life story of three South African dancers from Katlehong who share their encounters with a French dancer. This work is presented with support from the French Institut of South Africa at the Dance Factory on Thursday March 3 and Friday March 4 at 19:00. On March 5 at 19:00 and March 6 at 14:30 at the Dance Factory, a second Double bill will be featuring new works from Shanell Winlock Pailman and Baily Snyman and Ashley Churchyard: 40 Years in 30 Minutes by Shanell Winlock Pailman, was created as a celebration of her life at 40. She will invite the audience to share with her the many ups and downs of her life; sharing her dreams and fears with glimpses of who she really is; Makwerekwere by Bailey Snyman and Ashley Churchyard explores xenophobia in South Africa. Makwerekwere is a derogatory term used for foreign nationals in the townships and the work sheds light of the fear of the “other” in South Africa.
Mamela Nyamza in The Last Attitude.
Hero by Ivan Estegneev from Russia, assisted by South African PJ Sabbagha, investigates heroism and observes the way men, in performance and through courageous actions discover their “body power” and their own identity, however weak and imperceptible. This will be presented at the John Kani Theatre (Market Theatre) on March 5 at 20:30 and March 6 at 15:30.
3
Linger longer with Sonia Radebe
that can be derived from trying to reach that goal.” Lingering uses “those ideas being woven together in the movement language when you have constant interruptions and … jerky fast movement that progressively [interacts with] smoother and more gentle movements.”
Sarah Roberson met the rising choreographer to discuss her new work Lingering, photograph by Lungile Matylia
“What happens when a thought constantly lingers…?” This is the question that Sonia Radebe’s new work, Lingering poses and processes. Radebe’s work may be the product of intense internalisation but she ensures it can be shared with audiences. In fact her process is rooted in translating thoughts into movements. This has been the case with Lingering, created in collaboration with Teresa Mojela, as part of a double bill. The work was created last year during the NAC-funded Connections, a project which focussed on the development of South African professional contemporary dance practitioners.
Threads. She has since choreographed numerous solos and works for companies, most recently the highly acclaimed Ngizwise (together with Canadian Jennifer Dallas) in 2015.
Multi award winning Radebe left Moving Into Dance Mophatong (MIDM) in 2014 to pursue a freelance career as a dancer and choreographer as well as continuing with Song and Dance Works which was launched in 2012 with her coArtistic director husband.
Radebe works from an internalised impetus rather than simply stringing moves together on the studio floor. Play is an important part of the processs. “[I’ve been] asking myself what … I feel most comfortable with or what is it that really just comes as a reflex in the way in which I create work … I strongly feel that most of the things, they really come from the inside and I try to find a way to share it with the observers … without compromising the honest story.”
Her performance career began in 2003 with (MIDM) after she graduated in 2002 with Theory and Practice in Dance Teaching. Although she’s often credited with being a lead and principal dancer for MIDM, she humbly says, “I never looked at myself as such for all the years that I [was] at MIDM. I was simply doing what I did and tried to do it well all the time”. She began choreographing in 2008 and in 2010 was an associate choreographer alongside MIDM founder Sylvia Glasser for
In creating Lingering, Radebe explains, she and Mojela are both “strong female dancers” and after bouncing ideas around “initially for the residency … we didn‘t know what we wanted to do but we knew that we wanted to create a strong physical female performance … with a soft gentle side in the movement and the vocabulary”.
Her process emerges in the content of Lingering where thought is given the foreground as the driver for one’s actions. “We wanted to explore that idea, of what really happens when a thought constantly lingers in one‘s mind [and] explore if we can depict this physically, and if we cannot, what is it
Meet the Festival Director: Georgina Thomson Is SA Dance in a state of crisis?: There is a fine line between what can be called crisis and/or a future. On the one side many companies have disappeared in the last ten years mainly due to the irregular funding system and the lack of formal institutions that can train and uplift people with the right tools to be able to sustain themselves. On the other side there is far more money actually available and if people can access it they can probably sustain themselves in a way, but as I said the funding is irregular so companies have to be creative to keep going. It’s an up and down predicament one finds oneself in. I think it is in a crisis: the dance community does not exist anymore; people work in isolation and do not collaborate much. Until this changes and there is a good representation of the sector, we cannot expect to achieve any access to the powers that be to effect real change and respect for the industry.
Radebe pauses thoughtfully when asked about the many collaborations on which she’s worked. “…there are processes that I‘ve been involved in [which were] quite challenging … Because I am a person who really loves challenges I see how that influences the processes of that particular work…” She says of the collaboration with Mojela: “…both of us are very opinionated, there is sometimes conflict, and that sometimes creates tension in the creation process [but we] acknowledg[e] that a collaboration is not a one sided thing … [it is] 50% in terms of contribution, personally, artistically, in every way.” She concedes that compromise is necessary because the work is paramount and the creation process must always return to connecting to the audience. Radebe avoids the fallibility of working self-indulgently by constantly including people in the creation process. For Lingering, she says, “[i]t was helpful to have external eyes while we were working because sometimes we can be very self-absorbed in the creation process … We have people such as Nhlanhla Mahlangu … and Shannon Winlock who is also one of the very much well respected dancers in South Africa.” Of her particular creative processes, she resists categorisation. “I was trained in contemporary dance. I was also trained in Afrofusion … but in my work I find elements of both those now … I do not like putting labels onto the creation process.” She wonders why some try to label the style she works in, or question why as “an African person” she doesn’t perform traditional African dance, but Radebe remains confident in her choices. “I think I‘ve been blessed in a way that I’m able to create work that comes from the inside ... but the work is not too self-indulgent … I‘m able to allow the space to really invite the audience to be part of this journey, so it doesn‘t become this thing about me as a mover… because I might as well be dancing in my bedroom”, she laughs. Roberson participated in the Dance Writer’s Workshop funded by the Goethe-Institut. – Lingering will be presented at the Soweto Theatre on 27/02 at 14.30 and 28/02 at 10.00.
Extra Ordinary
is a performance installation featuring Sifiso Seleme who plays with stereotypes of men and women, with glamour and poverty, ecstasy and exhaustion. It takes place at GoetheonMain 245 Main Street, Maboneng Precinct from February 26 to 28.
Has the festival‘s dependence on foreign funding shaped the programme? We don’t get any foreign funding. We have partnerships with the embassies which is that they pay for the company to come to RSA and their performance fee and we pay for the theatre rental, accommodation, local transport and per diems. So there has been no dependence at all. The nice thing about the foreign embassies is that they collaborate and therefore it has evolved to us creating partnerships. What role does the DU play for dancers and the public? Over the years the festival has offered an open and free platform for new work and many careers specifically for choreographers were launched and developed via the Dance Umbrella. The audiences, have discovered so many things via Dance Umbrella. I think that there is no other platform that is so open to speaking about South Africa on all levels. From the community-based groups that focus on issues such as Aids, education, sexism etc to the more sophisticated work created on the main platform, our unique history is reflected in so many ways and the audience has grown with the festival. What work are you looking forward to seeing the most? The Last Attitude: even though Dance Forum is the producer of the work, I haven’t seen it live as yet so am really looking forward to seeing it on stage,
Credits: Editor : Mary Corrigall Production Manager: Benjamin Keuffel Designer: Adéle Prins, www.prinsdesign.co.za Contributors: Robyn Sassen, Tammy Ballantyne, Jedi Ramalapa, Sarah Robson The Dance Umbrella Gazette is an initiative by
Acknowledgements: This publication would not be possible without the support of the GoetheInstitut or Dance Forum and the individuals driving the promotion of these institutions; Georgina Thomson and Benjamin Keuffel. Thanks to all the dancers and choreographers who provide the inspiration for the content. Dance Umbrella would like to thank their partners Creative Feel & Splitbeam
The principal funders of Dance Umbrella Festival are
www.goethe.de/joburg
More information and bookings on www.danceforumsouthafrica.co.za