JOMBA! CREATES CONNECTIONS THROUGH DANCE
By Slindile Mchunu
The JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience, hosted by the University of KwaZulu Natal’s Centre for Creative Arts is set to present its 23rd Festival online. In its 2nd year having gone digital, it has provided creatives a platform to express themselves in a way that connects them and seeks a wider global community, especially during this time of uncertainty and forced separation, not least of all in relation to the concept of social distancing.
This years’ festival packed with eleven platforms, includes work from South African and African artists alongside European, American and Indian artists. Kickstarting the festival is the JOMBA! “Legacy” Artist, Professor Jay Pather who will present Undertow featuring Siwela Sonke Dance Theatre, works such as Qaphela Caesar, rite, Body of Evidence and Hotel will be showcased. Pather is a choreographer, curator, writer and teacher. A professor at the University of Cape Town, he is internationally recognized and has won numerous accolades for his curatorial and choreographic collaborations.
Durban-based “Living Legend Award” winning photographer Val Adamson features on a platform titled “Through the Lens” where she honours Jay Pather, with a photographic exhibition that spans three decades of his work with Siwela Sonke Dance Theatre.
“South African Crossings” includes Garage Dance Ensemble, Yaseen Manuel in collaboration with Flatfoot Dance Company as well as new works by Sylvester Thamsanqa Majela and Sizakele Mdi. While “African Crossings” features four dance films from innovative African artists: Robert Ssempijja, Bernado “Pak” Guiamba, Gaby Saranouffi and Marcel Gbeffa. These platforms offer rich cultural engagements to evoke deeper understandings of what “border crossing” might mean while offering viewers a microscopic lens into the realities of others, further exploring how difference can be what ties us together.
“European and American Crossings”, includes ACE Dance and Music from Brimingham in the UK, New York’s The Limón Dance Company, Cullberg from Stokholm in Sweeden, hannahma dance company from Germany and SHE Poems, which is a poetically driven screen dance series by Aïda Colmenero Dïaz who has created a series of dance films in response to poems written by African women.
“Indian Crossings” promises a selection of dance films entitled I m/ Material carefully curated by Vikram Iyengar and Kunal Chakraborty, while the “JOMBA! Durban Digital Edge” platform offers commissioned screen dance works from Durban-based dance artists centered on the festival’s theme of “border crossings”.
Also included are live online conversations with some of the festival’s guests and partners who engage dancing and dance making in a digital age, while the “JOMBA! Forging Alliances” platform, hosted by Thobile Maphanga offers an industry support programme that aims to assist dancers and dance makers in building relationships that cross borders.
The “JOMBA! Open Horizons” Long and Short Form Platforms include a range of dance films from dance makers across South Africa and Africa offering a sensory delight while also offering a platform for young dance makers to showcase their work.
Running alongside the festival is the JOMBA! Khuluma Writing Residency, which produces daily reviews and previews, and occasional interviews that both respond to the festival offerings while also archiving the experience.
All of this is packed into the thirteen day online festival, which runs from 24th August to 5th September and can be navigated free of charge via the website www.jomba.ukzn.ac.za or subscribe to the JOMBA YouTube channel here: https://www.YouTube.com/Jomba_Dance
A full programme is available via the website
