Mandela Bay Arts Festival kicks off
Music, comedy, dance among the festivities
Music, poetry, theatre and dance are on the menu for arts lovers in Gqeberha as the inaugural Mandela Bay Arts Festival kicks off today.
The eight-day event will run from Friday September 23 to Sunday October 2, 2022.
Six productions of different genres will light up stages at three different venues to ensure no arts lover is left out.
Dancers Sinoxolo Botha and Odwa Zwedala, musicians Wandiswa Gogela, Sibongile Tsoni and Ahlumile Mankeya and choreographer and director Nomaxabiso Rala will take to the dance floor to deliver Rala’s dance production, Paths Crossing.
Paths Crossing interrogates human bodies and their interaction with outside elements.
“The production is an exploration of who we are in relation to life, who we are alongside this life,” Rala says.
Having started her dance education at Moving Into Dance Mophathong in Joburg, she specialised in Afro fusion, contemporary dance, history of dance and arts management.
She joined the East London Guild Theatre Dance Company in 2007 and has been a part of the Mandela Bay Theatre Complex’s Dance Season and the Woman in Arts Manyano Festival.
The dance production will be at the Mandela Bay Theatre Complex at 6pm on Friday and again on Thursday.
The travelling comedy production, Stand Up People, will be there to tickle funny bones at the festival.
Comedians include Tsepiso Nzayo, Sqhazolo, Lonwabo Xatasi, Philile Mnunwa, Nkosinathi Maki, Ngcaphephe, Mbu Msongelwa, TD Jokes and Phakamisa Fayindlala.
DJ MissJay will be behind the decks.
The show will start at the Masifunde Changemaker Academy at 6pm today and move to the St Thomas High School Auditorium at 7pm on Saturday, Mandela Bay Theatre Complex at 7pm on Wednesday and the Mendi Art Centre at 7pm on Thursday.
For music lovers, Walmer musician Joliza Magayiyana brings his Bhacasoul Experience – a live music concert that pays homage to Joliza’s Bhaca ethnicity – to the Mendi Arts Centre next week at 6pm on Friday and 8pm at the Mandela Bay Theatre Complex on Saturday.
Joliza calls his sound Bhaca soul music, a genre which leans more on traditional Bhaca rhythm elements of ukucwiya (spiritual singing), ukuvalela (spiritual humming) and ukusina (spiritual dancing).
Veteran musician Sizwe Zako and his accompanying band present KwaXhosa – highlighting the arts, culture and history of the Xhosa people – at the Athenaeum from 7pm on Friday, the Mendi Arts Centre at 7pm on Wednesday and back at the Athenaeum at 8pm on Friday next week.
Nelson Mandela Bay dancer Junior Ferreira leads The Uprising, a moving production which tells the story of the famous June 1976 students’ uprising through dance and music, at the Mandela Bay Theatre Complex, 8pm on Friday.