JAZZART’s trio of spirited works calls us to remain feisty and flexible
By Tammy Ballantyne Webber (Guest Writer)
JAZZART Dance Theatre, which turned 50 last year, knows all about remaining resilient in the face of uncertainty and turbulent times. The trio of works which opened the 26th JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience on 27 August, connected us to the festival’s theme of “…finding our way home”, finding ways to keep art going in safe spaces and amongst friends and community, finding other routes to places we can call home, echoed in the title “Resilience”.
The first piece, “I am African”, choreographed by Jazzart’s Head of Training, Sifiso Kweyama, offers a rich, sonorous ensemble work which celebrates cultural diversity and offers a collective hopefulness towards tolerance and acceptance of each other. Clothed in gorgeous hues of orange, the company punctuates moments of smooth, soft choreography with communal handclapping and foot stamps beating out insistent rhythms. Particularly effective are the collective breaths and sighs, initiating sinuous contractions moving upwards through their heads.
“Battlefield” by Lihle Mfene (former Jazzart Company dancer) harnesses the theme of the struggle to break out of societal constraints. The work is tight, combative and works with a compulsive beat and rhythm; dancers plunge into the space using a motif of grab and pull, grab and pull, arms thrown upwards to the sky. Arms and wrists become focal points of the vocabulary and Mfene’s use of powerful music drives an intense pace. The work sits in strong contrast to the opening piece.
The final work, “Dark Flock”, by MANACAN is indeed sombre and shrouded in darker, more complex emotions. The grey costumes are counterbalanced by wonderful lighting; it is moody, set in twilight tones with strong bright, white shafts that illuminate the grey. The dancers seem to make their breath an additional character in the work, such are the tangible rhythms of gulps and gasps, in and out, interspersed with chanting. The work signals an unravelling towards some kind of fallout, a scattering which then re-unites towards the end.
This work in particular points to the turbulent times we live in and echoes snatches of Dr Lliane Loots’ opening night speech where she talked about “pushing into pain”:
“…we are asked to “push into the pain”. In fact, as artists, we are being asked to carry the pain ‘on behalf’ of nations — we are asked to purge for those who cannot; to honourably be the teller of stories and the conduit of those voices who cannot speak or shout out. There is not an artist who takes this task lightly — we are the mandated voices of pain and we push and push and push; and we are all getting sick, we are losing our voices. We are not finding spaces where there is listening.”
JOMBA! offers this vital space of breathing together, hearing each other and ultimately, learning how to heal each other.
This (mature) young company brings “all the feels” and all the moves to its spirited performances, offering virtuosity and technical prowess combined with great costumes and lighting. It was the perfect opener for this year’s JOMBA! and it was a real delight to enjoy the Capetonians in Durban. Joburg dance lovers can catch Jazzart as part of JOMBA! @ The Market Theatre on 13 and 14 September.
