Contemporary dance feast

THE 19th edition of the Jomba! Contemporary Dance Experience, hosted by the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Centre for Creative Arts, will take place from August 23 to September 3 and will showcase a number of South African and international choreographers, dancers and dancemakers.

Performers are from Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town, West Africa, Holland and Germany.

The opening night on August 23 will feature choreography by South Africa’s celebrated dancer and dance-maker Gregory Maqoma of Vuyani Dance Theatre in collaboration with Helge Letonja of Germany’s Steptext Dance Projects.

Benin dancer and choreographer Marcel Gbeffa will not only perform his acclaimed solo work Et Si…, but will run Jomba’s annual festival residency with five local dancers.

Cape Town-based Mamela Nyamza will make her Jomba! debut this year. Often called the agent provocateur of South African contemporary dance, Nyamza’s outspoken and politically edgy dance theatre work has garnered a worldwide reputation.

In her newest work, De-Apart-Hate, Nyamza takes on the legacy of the “rainbow nation” and begins to question issues around religion, race, sexuality and gender.

The 19th Jomba! Contemporary Dance Experience is under the artistic direction and curatorship of Lliane Loots and is organised, hosted and run by the Centre for Creative Arts, and supported primarily by the eThekwini Municipality.

For a full listing and the programme, visit www.cca.ukzn.ac.za and click the link to Jomba!