THE 25th JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience hosted by the Centre for Creative Arts is set to kick off in a week, on August 29.
The event is hosted by the Centre for Creative Arts will be hosted until September 10 at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre and other venues.
A highlight will be Jay Pather (JOMBA! 2021 Legacy Artist) and the Siwela Sonke Dance Theatre, who will stage a new work entitled surface tension.
Pather said surface tension used large scale projections and dance to explore how surfaces attempt to hide but barely cover the underneath tensions of living in South Africa.
“The intention is to bear witness to how little what is actually being experienced by people comes to the surface and how ‘going on as normal’ starts to set up a toxic, complicated environment. The body’s strategy for survival in this complex toxicity is to never be still, constantly trembling and moving, as if stillness will make the body feel the true impact of reality, and that is too much to bear.
“The production explores these ideas through dance, object and projections as well as comedy; finding intermittent relief from the sense of claustrophobia and hopelessness. The work, though, is cool as working with surface, outer layers, topography, or the epidermis of the skin imply with, of course, the occasional violent outburst or breakthrough when the outer layers can hold the boiling underneath. It is a quiet testament to the extraordinary resilience of ordinary people to keep going on the surface. How long though will the surface be stretched and how long will it last, is what the work asks,” he said.
Pather said his interest in dance and architecture was the main source of inspiration for this work.
“Thematically, I was also interested in how we, as particularly black South Africans, just seem to carry on no matter what is flung at us.”
In recent weeks in KwaZulu-Natal alone, there has been events on the arts and cultural scenes, with the Durban International Book Fair at Suncoast, the SA Women’s Arts Festival at the Playhouse, and the Hilton Arts Festival, among others. Pather said since the Covid-19 pandemic, theatre and performance were on a healing path.
“Theatre and performance are healing in much the same way as our ancient rituals. Sadly, during Covid, theatre was put in the same category as clubs and entertainment, missing the opportunity for theatre to act as a therapeutic and healing agent, as a space for us to feel as a community, to think and converse.
“We could have done that outside in safe spaces, but as a society, we still think of theatre as simply entertainment. Yet, it is so much more. Now that these restrictions have been lifted, I trust that we will come out of our shells, our TVs, look up from our isolating phone screens and reconnect as humans, as sentient beings. The theatre industry has suffered so much as a result of this misconception, and simply understanding more of what theatre does would have been rewarding for both the industry as well as our communities.”
Pather reiterated the value and importance of the arts in society through his own experience.
“I was studying to be a lawyer in the ‘80s, and I followed instead my instinct for performance. Theatre and the arts was a means for me to understand and give expression to how I felt about the horrors of apartheid at the time.
“Before I knew it, I had a full Fulbright scholarship to go to New York University. Forty years later, theatre has continued to help express my innermost thoughts, anxieties and dreams. I have travelled the world and am now a professor at a university nurturing young artists because I listened to my heart and trusted my passion.”
He said the arts helped us connect with who we are on the inside as well as with each other.
“Technology has given us much, but it has also been partly responsible for alienating ourselves from the world. The youth is in great need of this human communication, and the arts achieves this no matter what your overall career might be. The arts allows you to see the world more deeply, and when you understand more, you feel less alone. You have a sense of wonder and amazement and, above all, an ability to feel and understand your emotions.
“Communities were built on culture, and in a society where conflict is so pervasive, art and culture can draw communities closer together because making us understand people’s humanness and complexity helps us to accept people for their difference as well as their similarity. Difference is what makes the world interesting. The arts can put you in touch with that and open the senses, broaden the mind and lift your heart.”
According to a statement, under the theme “(in)tangible heritages”, JOMBA! honours South African choreographer and dancer Mamela Nyamza as the 2023 JOMBA! Legacy Artist.
Nyamza opens the festival on August 29 with Hatched Ensemble, a work that references her original 2007 solo Hatched.
Other highlights on the JOMBA! programme include:
* Vincent Sekwati Mantsoe (JOMBA! 2022 Legacy Artist) and Gail Parmel’s choreography Mana - The Power Within. It will be performed by Birmingham company ACE dance and music as part of a double bill programme titled Unknown Realms. It will be held at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre on September 9 at 7.30pm and the following day at 2:30pm
* Other South African performers and choreographers include Thobile Maphanga and Jabu Siphika, working with German company Hannah Ma Dance, the Flatfoot Dance Company collaborating with Finnish choreographer Virva Talonen, Unmute Dance Theatre and KZN featured JOMBA! On The Edge grant recipients Marcia Mzindle and Lorin Sookool.
Dr Lliane Loots, curator and artistic director, said in a statement that the JOMBA! 25th anniversary festival included a host of international guests, the JOMBA! Youth Open Horizons, after performance talks, a series of free workshops and master classes, a screen dance residency, a dance writers residency, and a smaller curated festival at The Market Theatre in Johannesburg.