Dancing to the tune of maternal influences
UNDER the expert choreography of award-winning artistic director, Sifiso Kweyama, Jazzart’s Through the eyes of the masses makes bold statements and asks uncomfortable questions while unpacking the issue of forced removals and land restitution.
Bringing raw emotion and fearlessness to the fore with a fusion of poetry and dance, it lays bare the harsh reality of the thousands of lives that have been shattered. The promises of restitution, never fulfilled, is depicted in two separate works, both exploring the pain, anger, sadness and love .
Says Kweyama: “People have placed their trust in leaders who vowed to right the wrongs of the past so that all South Africans are able to access opportunities that will allow them to lead lives they can value and have a chance to prosper. We are using dance to tell the stories of the majority who once occupied spaces they now may only access occasionally to enjoy or to render services and facilitate the lifestyle of a minority.
“Not because there are laws governing their access, but because the system and the resultant economy has shifted them to the outskirts of the land they once toiled.”
Founded in 1973, Jazzart Dance Theatre is acknowledged as one of our leading contemporary dance theatre companies, renowned locally and internationally as a company that influences and preserves the arts through the sustainability of dance training, choreography and performance.
Programmes are inter-linked to use dance as an informative tool within society.
The three-year trainee programme provides full-time dance theatre training to young adults and their outreach programme provides dance, performance training and capacity building to the community. These programmes use the arts as an educational tool and enable young people, mostly from historically disadvantaged communities, to express their creative impulses.
With Women’s Month in full swing and as Heritage Month approaches, Jazzart’s budding artists, currently in their third year of training, will also have an opportunity to perform the favourite work from the June Season Dankbaar.
This moving story illustrates the power of the maternal figure that lives in all women and how these influences shape and mould communities.
The show opens at Artscape on Thursday, September 14, at 7.30pm for four nights only.