The JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience and the Centre for Creative Arts within the College of Humanities have launched the JOMBA! Masihambisane Dialogues archive and colloquium proceedings.
Artistic Director/Curator of the JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience Dr Lliane Loots said: ‘We are delighted to launch the Masihambisane archive that will become a living and growing free and open access digital archive supporting focused SA and African (and Diaspora) dance scholarship and research in an accessible and community-driven manner while supporting inventive ways of engaging dance/performance scholarship, practice, and practice-led research.’
Over and above the benefit of pushing dance scholarship and research in SA and Africa, the archives are a valuable resource (for all performing arts and Humanities scholars) in tracking performance-based dialogues that allow artists and dancers to have a space to articulate and interrogate their own practices in a safe and supportive environment.
‘This archive – as it grows annually – will continue to imagine new and innovative ways of sharing and archiving knowledge that helps support a community of African (and African Diaspora) dance scholars and practitioners in representing and theorising themselves. We also continue to welcome support in this endeavour from key partners in India, Europe and the Americas,’ said Loots.
The archive has been made possible with the support of the National Institute of Humanities and Social Science (NIHSS).
The digital archive can be found on the JOMBA! website:
https://jomba.ukzn.ac.za/masihambisane-dialogues/ and is now available.
