Dance festival enters last week in Durban

THE JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience ends on September 11.

There are just a few days left of the JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience, hosted by the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Centre for Creative Arts, but there is still time to catch top dance-makers from South Africa, Mozambique and France.

The 24th offering of the show is in a hybrid format, with in-person performances at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre and online, and has included a range of performances, workshops, panel discussions, virtual screen dance and a youth platform.

“This is our first physical event since 2019, and we have enjoyed relatively good support as people have started to venture out from behind their COVID-based online lives. We are looking forward to growing our audiences back up again, and it is encouraging to see the warm reception artists have received and the developing re-interest in going out to live performances,” says JOMBA! artistic director Dr Lliane Loots.

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September 7 at 19:00 – Sneddon Theatre: Edna Jaime (Mozambique) and Fana Tshabalala (SA)

Mozambican dancer and choreographer Edna Jaime performs her remarkable solo, Um Segundo, meaning One Second. Set against the ‘stay at home’ of the pandemic, this solo is about a woman fighting to rise and to be seen and heard. Jaime is visiting the country courtesy of the Goethe-Institut South Africa.

The 2019 JOMBA! Mellon Artist in Residence, Fana Tshabalala, premiers his latest solo work, Zann, which is a deeply moving solo exploration into unstable states which look at delusions of freedom in a world of change.

September 8 at 19:00 – Sneddon Theatre: Mamela Nyamza (SA)

Mamela Nyamza offers her newest work GROUNDED, which she performs with her son Amkele Mandla. She looks into her South Africa, where democracy superficially seems to be working, but in reality, has small cracks, which are not easily observed. Nyamza sees and investigates these cracks.

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September 9 at 19:00 and September 10 at 14:30 – Sneddon Theatre: Vincent Mantsoe (France /SA) and Flatfoot Dance Company 

Vincent Sekwati Mantsoe, the 2022 JOMBA! Legacy Artist will perform his new solo work, KOMA, which looks at layers of the passages of time through a symphony of rhythms and African rites. These speak to contemporary ideas of the need for sacrificial changes if we are to shift ourselves and humanity.

Mantsoe will showcase his ongoing two-year process of working with Durban’s Flatfoot Dance Company and the journey to making CUT (Part 2). In setting out to share his technique with Flatfoot, Mantsoe took the company of seven dancers through his training system of GOBA and has made a live performance that fits with his short film.

September 11 at 14:30 – Free Virtual JOMBA! Online Conversation with Simon Senn (Switzerland), and Rohee Oberoi, Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts (Bangalore, India) 

Through documenting movements with motion-capture technology and exploring the data with real-time game-engine software, dancers and collaborators Senn and Oberoi wander in the abyss of questions and issues raised by new technology tools. For those interested in technology and its relationship to dance, this will be a fascinating conversation between continents.

Tickets for in-person performances are R80 per person and R65 for students, scholars and pensioners.

Booking is through Computicket.

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