“Open Horizons” a compass of creativity, innovation and fresh performance art
By Boitumelo Makousu
The JOMBA! OPEN HORIZONS presented an open call to dance creators to present their digital/dance works for showcasing under the auspices of the JOMBA! festival. The top three for Long Form were: 1st Femi Adebajo and Ridwan Rasheed — Yin Yang; 2nd Mamello Makhetha — Ore Phelele and 3rd Diana Gaya — Machozi ya Jana (Yesterday’s Tears).
All 10 submissions were innovative, creative, and vocal about social and political issues displaying strong activism.
The live stream on 29th August 2021 was fascinating to watch, Conflicted by Mzamo Kunene, takes us through a tranquil experience amid conflict. The use of space, light and music creates a soft and delicate atmosphere. The dancer moves around the centred chair using it as though it were a tool expressing motion in one spot.
Gaya’s Machozi ya Jana (Yesterday’s Tears) is quite intense from the beginning. Gaya’s work feels like nightmares or dreams that have succeeded in entrapment as the performer vividly expresses that by screaming and her flow of movement in the incomplete building. The location and setting sets the tone of in-betweenness of reality and a dream. The use of textures in the environment and how she utilised space was powerful.
Javier Valazquez Cabrebro and David April’s La Comunio de Tics, gestos y ademanes (the gathering of tics, gestures and manners), is a collaborative piece highlighting the importance of what can be achieved through partnership. Using different techniques brings about a distinctiveness which harmoniously fits well together. They demonstrate the essence of togetherness and understanding.
Ore Phelele by Makhetha takes us through a powerful body of work, for a moment in the performance, she shakes her hands speedily as though she cannot wait to let go of something that is bothering her, she blends in solidarity-like firmness in her style, suggesting “Stop” or “ENOUGH” ! Intuitively upon viewing Ore Phelele, especially seeing the phrases outside what could be a post office, brought back memories of the murder of Uyinene Mrwetyana in a Cape Town post office in 2019. Ore Phelele, highlights GBV and the skyrocketing femicide cases in SA. The piece becomes a form of activism through performance and a space for healing.
Yin Yang — Yin yang, black and white, filled with contrasts and the ability to see the good, and the bad in any lived experience. This work takes you on a visual experience of the interconnectedness of black and white colours and deliberate use of touches of colour. The aesthetics are amazingly incorporated in different shapes, gestures and a fusion of martial arts, kwaito and other contemporary dance styles. The way in which different spaces was used justifies the interdependence and symbiotic relationship that Yin and Yang has and that a balance in life is maintained if we accept the contrasts of life.
All the works on this programme express where contemporary dance is growing into. The elements of performance activism present in all the works leaves the viewer questioning, thinking and often experiencing a revelation.
