This year’s 21st birthday edition offers the world’s best contemporary dance that will challenge and entertain audiences of all ages.
UKZN lecturer and artistic director of the festival Dr Lliane Loots said, ‘By supporting growth and development in the arts within a space of teaching and learning like UKZN, the CCA and JOMBA! also embrace its wider community which is its city and its province. The festival creates a space to connect Durban and South Africa to our African continent, making JOMBA! a platform that consistently supports African dance works of excellence. I invite you to celebrate the incredible power of the contemporary dancing, moving body to speak truth to power!’
Celebrated Cape Town-based Jazzart opens the festival with their JOMBA! debut. Sifiso Kweyama’s Cape of Ghosts digs deep to find the core of what constitutes ownership of land in a beautiful and politically evocative work.
Durban’s Boyzie Cekwana collaborates with Lebanese dance maker Danya Hammoud in an intimate duet called Bootlegged, that speaks to the interior politics of relationships.
Mr Fana Tshabalala, joins JOMBA! as the UKZN Mellon Foundation Artist-in-residence collaborating with the Flatfoot Dance Company in an explosive premiere. In amaVendors, Tshabalala and Flatfoot explore the journey of women and men who wake up every day to sell their wares on the streets to provide for themselves and their loved ones. Fusing ritual and performance, Tshabalala takes the audience on a transformative journey. He also presents his solo MAN inspired by the ideal kind of “Man” within society and how roles and responsibilities have changed over the years as a new type of “Man” is emerging.
One of the leading dance companies in Washington, the Dakshina/Daniel Phoenix Singh Dance Company, which is funded for this season by the US Consulate, presents a confluence of the ancient Indian style of Bharatha Natyam and the ethos and flow of contemporary modern dance.
From New Orleans comes Leslie Scott’s company Body Art in an intriguing site-responsive work for the Durban Art Gallery, which will take audiences on a journey into the heart of contemporary popular identity. There will also be a unique collection of short films guest curated by Brazilian filmmaker Sofía Castro.
South Africa’s icon of African contemporary dance, Vincent Sekwati Mantsoe, offers the world premiere of his new work SoliiDad, an abstract journey to oblivion. Mantsoe is set in a double bill with Johannesburg-based Lulu Mlangeni – a young dance maker who is taking the country by storm and will present her duet The Encounter, a brave and unflinching contemporary journey into African spirituality and belonging.
‘JOMBA! On The Edge’ grants have been awarded to Sizwe Hlophe and Thulisile Binda to premier new creations through mentorship and support of the JOMBA! technical team to realise their work for the stage.
The 2019 JOMBA! FRINGE offers nine new dance works while the Youth Fringe will feature more than 18 youth dance groups from eThekwini and KwaZulu-Natal.
Workshops and masterclasses (all free and open to all) will be offered in various venues in the eThekwini area. Booking is essential.
Tickets are available at Computicket priced at R80 and R60 for students and pensioners. Discounts are available for group bookings of more than 10.
For more information go to http://jomba.ukzn.ac.za/
