WE ARE FREE — define “we”, define “free”: for when the rivers turn red, where will my next home be?
By Zwelihle Mdletshe
At the 26th annual JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience held at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre on 5 September 2024, the evocative double bill of “Weight of Time” and “Mycelium Maatu” transported the audience into a meditative space of aching beauty and reflective stillness. This collaboration between performer-teachers Deepak Kurki Shivaswami, Mirra, and Prashant More, alongside lighting designer and theatre director Gurleen Judge, all hailing from Bangalore, India, created an atmosphere as nostalgic as dancing with a stranger to unfamiliar music. The work unfolded like a dance unconcerned with whether our hips swung too wide or if beach sand crept between our toes, urging us to simply exist in the space and time — alive and in communion with the spirit of the performers.
Drawing on the concept of “Vasudaiva Kutumbakam” — the belief that the world is one family — the performances seamlessly woven together, offer a contemplation on the current state of the world. When I was young, I thought seeking help and relying on my brothers was a sign of weakness — a sentiment I’m sure resonates with many of my Black brothers. The dancers, fighting against gravity, unable to rise from the solid ground, became a mirror reflecting our shared humanity. It is in these moments of vulnerability that the work’s stillness and politics of presence shine through, revealing how some of the most profound art emerges from catastrophic times. To be poor, depressed, and Black is to know that some battles are best fought with someone to lean on, someone who holds us up at our lowest. Vibrating to a frequency that washes out the wounds of generational traumas.
“Weight of Time” and “Mycelium Maatu” whispered a need for intimacy through long-held eye contact and intimate lifts, where dancers leaned on each other’s chests and hands for stability. This is not a manufactured energy; it is a raw, transcendent force that moves beyond words, becoming a vessel for potential healing. But for the healing to begin, the audience must be willing to heal. A tied bag swings, and gravity becomes the enemy. With each attempt to move away from the ground, the escape becomes easier to navigate, symbolising the importance of resilience and perseverance in the face of adversity.
In this collaborative work, the performers hold a cultural microphone that amplifies the power of mantra meditation and the spirit of Ubuntu, demonstrating how liberating it is to view ourselves as interconnected. As James Baldwin once said, “I am myself and you are you, but I am also aware that there is a piece of me in you. I could be you on any given day.” If my neighbour neglects their lawn, the rats it attracts become a problem for the entire community.
The incorporation of meditation and mantra into the performance was profound. For two minutes, we were asked to focus on our breath and bodies. In that fleeting moment, I was not a writer, not my body, not even my mind — I was simply home.
I would like to share a poem I wrote in response to the evening:
A safer PALASTINE is what I am manifesting,
where women are safe and men are resting,
Instead they raped the women and overwork the men,
They box the children and confiscate the pen;
Being pulled and dropped, poisoned rivers everything is a metaphor,
A knee searches, black cheeks on the pavement, I CANNOT BREATHE, police brutality, atomic arguments, what is the matter for?
FREE PALASTINE!
As we head into the final weekend of JOMBA! 2024, the Durban leg of the festival closes off with Legacy Artist Robyn Orlin’s “we wear our wheels with pride and slap your streets with color… we said ‘bonjour’ to satan in 1820…” — for more information visit https://jomba.ukzn.ac.za. Catch “Weight of Time” and “Mycelium Maatu” at JOMBA! @The Market Theatre in Joburg next week (11–14 September 2024).
