The Centre for the Less Good Idea unveils Season 11, a five-day celebration of creative collaboration
Renowned dancers such as Vincent Mantsoe, pictured, and Shanell Winlock-Pailman will present new work as part of Season 11.
Image: Zivanai Matangi
Johannesburg’s The Centre for the Less Good Idea is set to host Season 11, a five-day festival of visual art, dance, theatre, site-specific installations, pop-up performances and talks from Wednesday November 26 to Sunday November 30, 2025.
Curated by the centre’s impresario Neo Muyanga and supported by the core team, Season 11 features works made by and in collaboration with Johannesburg’s artists, theatremakers, musicians, writers, film-makers and thinkers, alongside a selection of invited international artists.
“The Centre for the Less Good Idea is invested in giving the idea the benefit of the doubt,” says Muyanga. “We are all in the room when the idea is explored and we give input from our own vantage point as practitioners and audience members alike. We pull on those threads and ways of seeing together to make the idea come to life. It’s a core practice at The Centre.”
Co-founder and director Bronwyn Lace adds that Season 11 reflects two years of provocations and experimentation. “The deeply integrated and interconnected results of these forms are evidence both of Muyanga’s extraordinary capacity for deep listening and play, as well as The Centre’s capacity as a collective to develop context-specific, collaborative and cross-disciplinary new work,” she says.
Artist and activist Mallika Taneja from New Delhi will bring her solo performance Be Careful to Season 11.
Image: Simone Voggenreiter
Merging Visual Art and Dance
Season 11 opens with Moving the Mark, a programme pairing prominent visual artists and dancers in a series of responsive, interdisciplinary experiments in movement and mark-making. Artists include William Kentridge, Vincent Mantsoe, Penny Sopis, Shannel Winlock-Paiman, Mary Sibande, Nandipha Mntambo and Kitty Phetla.
“The interest is in what emerges from the collaboration, how new methodologies or creative decisions are revealed when a dance interacts with an ink stain, or a painter choreographs their brushstrokes,” the organisers note.
Continued Collations
Season 11 also presents continued explorations from the first three Collations series: Visual Radio Plays, Sounding Pictures and The Unexpected City. These programmes interrogate sound, moving images and urban narratives, each featured for one night only.
Site-Specific Performances and Installations
Downtown Johannesburg is a vital inspiration, informing works both inside and outside The Centre. Curator Marcus Neustetter leads Site, Light, Action | Fox Street Activations, featuring performances and public light installations.
“These small experimental moments embrace the unknown, seeking connections and stories that reveal themselves through artistic languages,” says Neustetter. “Framed by temporary sets and focused by mobile light, these moments function as small public studios of attempted sense-making.”
Three New Plays from the SO Academy
The SO Academy presents SO | From Script to Stage, featuring three newly incubated short plays:
The Braai Republic by Mongezi Mtukwana, directed by Jupiter Sibisi
Chosi Three Times by Uvile Ximba, directed by Chris Djuma
Exodus with No Last Name by Nolwazi Mahlangu, directed by Aalliyah Matintela
Curator Athena Mazarakis says: “In these plays, writers explore migration, capitalism and disconnection in the digital age, reflecting key concerns in South Africa today.”
Guest Performances, Talks & Activations
Season 11 welcomes local and international artists including Mallika Taneja (India) and Dele Olojede (Nigeria), featuring In Conversation programmes. Taneja presents Be Careful, a satirical piece challenging prescribed notions of women’s safety and leads Women Walk at Midnight, a nighttime community walk in Johannesburg. Olojede collaborates in a sonic call-and-response around the theme Money Miss Road, examining the frivolous use of money.
Internationally renowned dancers Vincent Mantsoe (Desert Poem) and Shanell Winlock-Pailman (Oh, death! Where is your sting?) showcase new conceptual works. Regular Centre collaborators offer pop-up performances, while the cultural collective NarowBi activates Arts on Main courtyard with Party + Market, featuring music, art and style.
A Collective Navigation
Season 11 invites artists and audiences to reflect on collectivity and shared experience. Muyanga explains:
“It’s about how we become a performance ensemble, whether performers, audience members, or neighbours. Johannesburg is a city that requires a collective navigation, a mutual reliance, a particular call and response.”
The full programme is available at www.lessgoodidea.com