All-African dance at Jomba!
17 August 2004
Ten years of democracy in South Africa, as well as the creative work of Africa, is celebrated in all-African dancing, stamping, leaping style at the 2004 Jomba! Contemporary Dance Experience.
Jomba! 2004, presented by the University of KwaZulu-Natal's Centre for Creative Arts at Durban's Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre from 18 to 29 August, is an "all-Africa" event featuring dance companies from Nigeria, Mali and Mozambique, among others.
Ijodee, from Nigeria, won the SANGA All Africa competition in Madagascar in 2003, and are presently touring Europe and Africa.
Also participating will be other ground-breakers from the SANGA event, namely La Compagnie from Mali and Projecto Cuvalis from Mozambique.
The programme also features award-winning Johannesburg choreographer Gregory Maqoma, whose work has been heralded by international dance critics as the "new visionary dance voice for South Africa".
Durban-based dance companies
Fantastic Flying Fish, Flatfoot and Phenduka Dance Theatre have been awarded grants by the Centre for Creative Arts to premiere new work at the festival.
Internationally acclaimed Boyzie Cekwana's Floating Outfit Project will also perform at the festival.
The festival hosts a number of innovative dance experiences that push the boundaries of dance presentation.
A highlight of this year's festival will be The Republic Project, facilitated by Siwele Sonke's Jay Pather and involving 12 local dancers, video artists, architects, fashion designers and choreographers coming together to create site-specific performances.
Pather is a master in taking dance out of the theatre and putting it into the street, the coffee bar, the art gallery and the shopping mall. This unique collaboration project takes place at Artspace - next to the Waste Centre in Umgeni Road - on 23 August and in the Albany Grove precinct on 26 August.
The Jomba! Fringe programme provides
opportunities for up-and-coming choreographers to enter dancework, and 12 selected new works will be showcased at the Sneddon on 22 August.
Youth dance companies will also strut their dance stuff in a special performance day at Cato Crest Community Hall on 28 August in the new Youth Dance Fringe for dancers under the age of 16 years.
Besides a host of dance workshops and classes - all free, if you book in time - Jomba! will also host a four-day Dance Conference in which ideas around what constitutes an "African contemporary dance aesthetic" will be debated by some of the top choreographers, dancers and academics in Africa.
Principal funders of the 2004 Jomba! Contemporary Dance Experience are the National Lottery Distribution Fund, HIVOS, Royal Netherlands Embassy, Africalia, Association Franciase d'action Artistique, and the French Institute of South Africa.
For more information, including full programme details, visit the Jomba! 2004 website.
Source: Jomba! 2004
| 
