BRAVO TO JOMBA! CELEBRATING 25 YEARS WITH AN AMAZING LINE-UP!
By Samkelisiwe Nxumalo
The splendid moment has arrived again, the 2023 JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience! What is wonderful about this opportunity as a festival novice is that it is the moment I get to watch works of different artists from different places with different ways of doing and understanding to mine, I get to learn about other people, places and cultures. It is more like a take-and-leave moment for me that will deepen and sharpen my perspective about dance and the ways it is constructed. It is my privilege to look forward to the feast of dance that is on offer for this year’s 25th Anniversary Edition.
The JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience will commence on the 29 August and runs until the 10 September. Different choreographers from South Africa, Mozambique, Uganda, Madagascar, Romania, Kenya, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Finland, the United Kingdom and Brazil will be showcasing their embodied art for 13 consecutive days. Art heals broken hearts, educates lost souls, creates community — bringing people together, giving them something common to talk about!
On the opening night 29 August, we will get to witness South African Mamela Nyamza’s “HATCHED ENSEMBLE” which promises to be a provocation into the politics of movement. Nyamza is named this year’s Legacy Artist and her offering at this year’s festival speaks to her own legacy within the South African dance performance landscape.
Joseph Tebandeka from Uganda will be performing “ Time Machine: Unveiling the Inner Strength” on a double-bill with Cape Town’s Unmute Dance Company who present their “TIMELAPSE” on 31 August. This programme is sure to promote a deeper understanding of the potentials for diversity in dance and an opportunity to celebrate a growing global community of differently abled dancers. Introdans’s “HubClub Special” on 1 September further embraces dance for all, promising audiences a diverse spread of poetry in motion through the various dances on offer.
This year, JOMBA! Also partners with ASSITEJ for a special youth focus, which treats young audiences in Durban to dance work that is made with them in mind. Jack Timmermans from the Netherlands presents “Flying Cow” at Durban’s Stable Theatre on 2 September while Switzerland’s Joshua Monten’s “Game Theory” plays to local school audiences including the Mason Lincoln Special School in Umlazi.
Siwela Sonke Dance Theatre returns to JOMBA! With Jay Pather’s new offering “surface tension” at UKZN’s Jubilee Hall also on 2 September, for one performance only! The event promises to be an immersive experience for festival audiences. Another exciting event and festival favourite, the JOMBA! Youth Open Horizons will take place at Stable Theatre on 3 September. This exciting platform welcomes youth dancers from different places in and around Durban, including KwaMashu, Umlazi, Clermont, Musgrave, Pietermaritzburg, Lindelani, Chatsworth and Quarry Heights.
The JOMBA! Digital Open Horizons, an online programme streamed via the festival’s YouTube channel also promises a showcase of fresh talent from South Africa and Kenya. The Digital platform this year hosts six short works and three of these have been awarded “pick-of-the-platform” awards by an independent panel of jurors.
“RAMANENJANA” created by Romanian Simona Deaconescu in collaboration with Madagascar’s Gaby Saranouffi performs at the Stable Theatre on 4 September. This collaboration promises to treat audiences to a “docufiction” that explores shared histories and memory. As the festival starts to move towards its final days, it continues to promise everlasting moments… catch Pak Ndjamena’s work “DEUS NOS ACUDI/ GOD HELPS US” on 5 September followed by Helge Lentonja’s “UN-ZEIT” billed with Hannah Ma’s “INVASION(S)”, both on 6 September.
“INTO EMDAKA” introduces JOMBA! “EDGE” grantee Marcia Mzindle to the festival platforms on 7 September. It will be a digital offering and can be watched freely on the Festival’s YouTube Channel. On the 8 September Lorin Sookool will perform “Woza Wenties!” at the Howard College Dome and she is followed by Finland’s Virva Talonen who teams up with Durban’s FLATFOOT DANCE COMPANY to present “Portable Home” alongside Talonen’s solo “Nothing Personal”.
ACE Dance and Music present a trio of works on 9–10 September: “UNKNOWN REALMS”, “THE NIGHT BEFORE TOMORROW” and “MANA — THE POWER WITHIN”. This programme is ACE’s first time performing live on the festival’s platforms and is sure thrill local audiences with the company’s Afro-fusion styles. The final offering for this Anniversary edition of JOMBA! will be on the festival’s YouTube Channel in partnership with the Brazilian PANORAMA FESTIVAL and the presentation of two works “ELEGBARA” and “EDA”.
If you are not in Durban for JOMBA! I advise you to join in the festival’s activities that provide an everlasting experience for all to indulge.
Tickets are available at Computicket: https://tickets.computicket.com/events/searchPage/?q=jomba
For all YouTube events: https://www.youtube.com/Jomba_Dance
See the full festival brochure on the festival’s website at: https://jomba.ukzn.ac.za/2023-programme/
