#jomba

Here they are. the Iconic cast of the Smiling Friends

An ‘open to application’ platform for the 22nd (Digital) JOMBA Contemporary Dance Experience (25 Aug - 6 Sept), has provided an opportunity for 17 dance-makers from Africa to present their digital/dance film work on Monday, 31 August at 7pm.A total of 17 digital submissions were made to the festival, and 8 works were selected to screen by a panel of expert adjudicators:  David April a director, teacher, choreographer, and lobbyist in the realm of South African dance and performance, based in Gauteng; Tiny Mungwe - a South African film/TV producer and festival programmer based in Cape Town; Smangaliso Ngwenya a dancer, performer, writer, choreographer, videographer and editor based in Gauteng and Clare Craighead (JOMBA! Fringe facilitator) a Drama Studies lecturer at DUT, a dance writer and academic with a keen interest in arts on a digital platform. Dance-makers who have submitted in this exciting line-up of new work include Julie Veronirina Iarisoa (Madagascar), Adebajo Oluwefemi Isreal (Nigeria) Uche A. Onah (Nigeria), Robert Ssempijja (Uganda), and from South Africa David Mahlaba & Phinda-Mzala Entertainment Project, Jena Woodroffe, Lungelo Khathini, Nkosinathi Blessing Khumalo, Phumlani Life Mndebele, Rhia Ryan, Sabelo Cele, Sbonelo Bhengu, Sifiso E. Kweyama, Pavishen Paideya, Kaldi Makutike, Sphakeme Shangase, and JC Zondi. Read the full article

A digital exhibition of JOMBA ! photographs by Val Adamson Award-winning Durban photographer, Val Adamson, whohas photographed the JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience since it began in 1998, shares her work in an online exhibition 21 years of JOMBA! through the lens during the festival on the event website from 25 August to 6 September. “This is not only a moment of honouring Val’s extraordinary photographic eye for dance and performance, but it is also a moment of visually remembering the festival’s 21-year history through these amazing pictures,” says Artistic Director Lliane Loots. Long associated with the performing arts, Val has carved a name for herself through the insightful and creative work she has captured for theatre, music, dance, visual art as well as in her work as a portrait photographer. Her generous contribution through supporting artists across the spectrum of the arts is legendary. So it is no wonder that she was named a Living Legend in 2014 by the eThekwini Municipality for her work in documenting theatre. Val was born in Kenya, studied in Scotland and came to South Africa, her mother’s birthplace, in 1985,when she joinedthe Performing Arts Council of Transvaal as an assistant photographer. In 1988 she was invited by the Playhouse Company to set up and run their photographic department in Durban. Read the full article

Dance in a Digital Age – in Conversation with… is one of the programmes curated within the JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience, presented by the Centre for Creative Arts, University of KwaZulu-Natal, as a free online event from 25 August to 6 September 2020.Four dance-makers from Africa and Europe present works created during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in their various countries. The screenings of their films will be followed by a conversation with facilitator and Artistic Director Lliane Loots, and the viewers will be able to send in questions. Iconic South African dancer and choreographer Vincent Mantsoe, who is now based in France, presents C u  t……Part one a 13-minute online work created in remote collaboration with composer and musician Mpho Molikeng, and filmmaker Frank Pizon in co-production with the Institute Français South Africa and The Market Theatre earlier this year. This short intense dance film offers Mantsoe at his best; offering the convergence of traditions, modernity, and digital technology in exploration around the power of energy. Mantsoe is the winner of international and national awards in performance and choreography, who has created works for dance companies across the globe. From Kenya comes Ondiege Matthew and his company Dance Into Space, he will be sharing two works created during the lockdown. Read the full article

Nine dance-makers and companies from the USA, Africa and Europe, will feature in the Legacy (celebrating 21 years of JOMBA!)  section of the  JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience, presented by the Centre for Creative Arts, University of KwaZulu-Natal, as a free online event from 25 August to 6 September 2020. “These dance-makers have contributed to the success of the festival, by bringing their work to Durban, and sharing their techniques and dance-making skills in performances, workshops, interviews and conversations with hundreds of South African dance-makers over the years,” says Lliane Loots, Artistic Director of JOMBA!. “We welcome these extraordinary iconic creative artists onto the digital stage to share work in a celebration of what has come before and what has shaped a lot of our contemporary dance space in South Africa.” Hailing from Durban’s sister cities in the USA are two dance companies that have left lasting impressions on dancers and audiences on their visits to the country:  Deeply Rooted Dance Theater from Chicago and Leslie Scott’s New Orleans BODYART Dance Company; both come to the virtual space with the kind support from the US Consulate in Durban. Read the full article

Ten dance films will be screened at the 22nd JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience, in a carefully curated section of the programme called USA Dance on Screen which has been supported by the USA Consulate in Durban.The JOMBA! festival which goes digital this year is presented by the Centre for Creative Arts, University of KwaZulu-Natal, runs free of charge from 25 August to 6 September with an array of dance works. The USA Dance on Screen, one of the  programmes on offer,  has been curated by Lauren Warnecke, Peter Chu, Rachel Miller and Tara Aisha Willis. All four of the curators hail from across the corners of the US and have come together especially for the JOMBA! screen dance programme. “When seeking films for this project, we consciously sought out films which showcased a varied American experience both culturally and stylistically” says the curatorial statement from the curators. “Our intentions were to give a voice to those who are often unheard from and to present films that have artistic integrity, show a variety of movement styles and explorations, and have multiple ways in which an audience might “read” them. Overall, we chose films that spoke to the multitude and variety of American communities, cultural experiences, sexual orientations, and gender identities to give JOMBA! audiences a taste of the diverse landscape of American dance-makers.” The Read the full article

South Africa honours and celebrates the role of women in society during this Women’s Month and on Women’s Day (9 August), in commemoration of the 1956 march of about 20,000 women to the Union Buildings in Pretoria to petition against the country's pass laws. Read Also: Trace X Gauteng Film Commission Filmmakers Competition Back For Fourth Edition In this remarkable show of solidarity, women gathered together in defiance to make change.  “64 years later our annual JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience, taking place in August, women’s social, economic, and political struggles, challenges, hopes, and joys, are exposed and expressed through their work and bodies,” says Lliane Loots, Artistic Director of JOMBA. “Dance is a visceral art form that gives space to a body politics and what better way to image defiant and powerful women than those dancing”.   JOMBA! is especially pleased to feature some of Africa (and the world’s) most powerful female voices in dance and especially Senegal’s award-winning choreographer and dancer, Germaine Acogny, considered as the “mother of Contemporary African dance”. Her 2015 work Somewhere at the beginning will be streamed during the festival and is a remarkable solo featuring a 73-year-old Acogny dancing and narrating a journey of self-identity as black, female, and African. Flatfoot Read the full article