JOMBA!’s 25th festival: Looking back and within
By Kholeka Ngcobo
JOMBA!’s Screen Dance Residency showed us the outcomes of using different textures in two dance works which enhances and heightens the message that the films are trying to get across. The creative and different use of contemporary African dance portrayed the lack of belonging and (In)tangible Heritages from both the dance pieces.
The screening took place at the Stable Theatre in Durban, in an intimate space where the audience could then interact with the dancers, choreographers and filmmakers. The residency was run by Ivan Barros and Pak Ndjamena from Mozambique. “Home” performed by Dr. Saraleigh Castelyn at different settings on the UKZN Howard College campus, was emotional and showed how we don’t always feel like we fully belong somewhere, even though we have been there at some point in our lives. The film depicts how the dancer is somehow uncomfortable, different, alone and troubled while being in a space full of people going on with their normal everyday routine. You could be in a room full of different kinds of people and still feel like an outcast and question your sense of belonging.
The second work was “Threads” — the dancer, Kristi-Leigh Gresse moves across the Howard College Campus and seems to connect to the deep history that each building or setting has. She played with different colours that represented different meanings and moods in different parts of the piece. An image of the stairs being a big piano with the dancer playing the notes with her feet showed innovation and imagination. There were references to heritage — how the dancer connected to the tree and stripped the wrap around denim skirt from its trunk. While connecting with the tree, African beads fall out of the damaged trunk and somehow filled her hands, as well as her face and feet showing the personal relationship she has with her heritages.
“RAMANENJANA” was a lecture-performance educating the audience while demonstrating the different dances performed in Madagascar. In this docufiction, the dancers entered the stage slowly with books on their heads, showing the amount of knowledge they have as individuals. The books on their heads could also serve as a metaphor for great knowledge. This dance/lecture was created by Simona Deaconescu (Romania) in collaboration with Gaby Saranouffi (Madagascar) and is an attempt to share their knowledge of the Ramanenjana — a dance that made history. With every bit of information that was shared about the Ramanenjana such as people being labelled as possessed and crazed, demonstrations followed on how the people danced it. History and documentary lovers will most certainly enjoy this lecture performance.
