#jomba

[chr0medome-113]

Here they are. the Iconic cast of the Smiling Friends

[031cinephile]

USA DANCE FILMS TO SCREEN FREE ONLINE @ JOMBA 2020

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 goes digital this year and is presented by the Centre for Creative Arts, University of KwaZulu-Natal, running 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  70 minute programme features the following films:

Memory Keep(H)er

acts as an archive to hold memories of the filmmaker’s grandmother growing up in Crockett and Huntsville, Texas.

Pull Up by

explores the expression of protest and how it pertains to authenticity in allyship. It is an examination of accountability, education and a commitment to progression.

Separate Sentences

a explores the generational impact of incarceration and the toll on families and communities.  Cast members are “Bay Area” performers, some of whom have been incarcerated or are family members of people who are incarcerated.

Abbey

depicts the interior life of a sheltered young Filipina alone in a university dance setting in middle America. Sakamoto and Carlos collaborated in an effort to bear witness to, and portray Carlos’s tenuous liminality as a stranger in a strange land.

Bound

is a dance film in three parts as the dancers move through different relationships to an object - books - the symbolism inherent in the physical relationship vacillates as well.

About Inertia

is a slow-motion, acrobatic Breakin’ moves that echo the struggle for balance when the world is flipped on its head. When being in motion becomes a state of constant regression, being at rest can feel like incredible progress. This is a meditative reflection on the effort and endurance that is demanded on the road to recovery.

Uprooted

uses contemporary and Mid-Michigan site-specific dance, metaphor, and movement to address issues of immigration, migration, and displacement to a soundtrack of local immigrant stories that narrate their relationships to the concept of “uprooted.”

subMERGE

is set on Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles - a sixteen-mile corridor that spans across ethnicity and cultural and economically diverse communities in LA. The site is the echo of this film.

Supreme Love

is a celebration of John Coltrane's A Love Supreme with live jazz and tap dance, Supreme Love displays the spiritual, artistic and historical values that infuse human life. Its expresses true life through the art of tap dance.

Revel In Your Body is

a film with stunning choreography in glorious slow motion, amidst a breath-taking open blue sky and industrial playground, which reveals the joy of flight on wheels. This film originated as a creative concept when the dancers shared online a slow-motion iPhone video of them jumping on a trampoline while strapped into their wheelchairs. Access components for “Revel in Your Body" take an insider approach for the blind and nonvisual or deaf and hard of hearing experience of the film. Audio describer and captioner, Cheryl Green, has composed an aural and captioned experience that, along with music and text description, creates an emotional arc with space for mystery. Rather than describing only what the dancers are doing, the description takes you inside how the movement feels. “Revel" can be experienced with Audio Description, captioning, or both simultaneously.

USA Dance on Screen will stream live on 30 August 30 and 6 September at 7pm. And bonus materials will be availbale on the JOMBA website. The festival runs from 25 August until 6 September off the website jomba.ukzn.ac.za

All platforms for 2020 are free of charge and a full programme is available via the website.  For more information and updates on the programme visit Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

[jozigist]

Fabulous Fringe at Digital JOMBA

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

[jozigist]

A digital exhibition of JOMBA! photographs by Val Adamson

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

[jozigist]

Dance works created during Lockdown for JOMBA

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

[jozigist]

A Lasting Legacy for Contemporary Dance at JOMBA!

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

[jozigist]

USA Dance on Screen at 22nd (DIGITAL) JOMBA

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

[jozigist]

The Body Politics remembered during Women’s Month through Dance at JOMBA

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