Unravelling the darkness in ‘ Breaking Borders’
HARD- hitting in its tenderness, quiet in its loudness, raw in its sophistication and sobering in its intoxication. These are just a few descriptions that could be used for the preview performance of Breaking Borders.
If there were any question on the texture and tone that this collaboratively choreographed piece between Cape Town’s Unmute Dance Company and Tumbuka Dance Company from Harare, Zimbabwe, would adopt, those doubts were firmly addressed in the piece’s opening soundtrack, which set the tone of what was to come.
The Julius Malema parliamentary speech on xenophobic violence in South Africa, along with the other political soundscapes used, were one of the many elements that these companies grappled with during their two weekresidency at Newtown’s, The Dance Space earlier this month.
Breaking Borders interrogates the effects and outcomes that stem from trying to unravel the emotions that deal with “the other”.
The choreographers from Unmute and Tumbuka, Yaseen Manuel and Mcintosh Jerahumi, along with 2016’s Standard Bank Young Artist Award winner for Dance, Themba Mbuli, who oversaw the creative process of engagement from both groups of dancers, set themselves the task of unpicking at the entangled mass that is xenophobia.
While plucking away at the many issues relating to xenophobia, questions such as “who am I as an African person?” asked dancers to tug at the historical thread relating to their family backgrounds. Another question to reveal itself during their process of interrogation was: “What is it to intimately encounter ‘other’”? This is an interesting idea, especially from a dancer’s perspective as they often find themselves using their bodies as an art form in quite intimate proximity before getting to know each other socially.
I found it interesting, witnessing what these two groups from outside of Joburg – what many would call “Ground Zero” of the attacks – brought to their understanding of the violent actions. It was a process that included referencing still images from many incidents and transforming those into motion. I discovered that for all those involved, accessing the darkness of this problem meant finding individual connecting threads with which to use as entry points on the issue.
This was alluded to in a powerful section in the performance that saw the dancers each recall an attack and screaming out the name of the individual while contorting and making violent gestures with their bodies and covering their ears in a metaphoric attempt to sweep the issue under the carpet.
The marriage of somewhat fractured movement, coupled with a highly charged political soundtrack, left one somewhere in between sterile coldness and all-consuming anger. One wondered, while looking at the small group and taking in their expressions of deep contemplation, shame, disgust and anger, of the effects this piece would have when presented to audiences at this year’s Dance Umbrella.
It’s a question many artists who choose to tackle socio-political subject matter ask themselves: “Will what we are trying to say have an impact and will it be a lasting one?” Judging by the reactions to this minimalistic preview performance, I would have to say: “Yes.”. This performance will linger like a nagging knot in your throat. Even in this stripped down incarnation, Breaking Borders has left the entangled mass we know as “Afrocentric otherness” with looser threads, with which we as Africans can begin unravelling.
According to Georgina Thomson, the director of Dance Forum from Dance Umbrella, they hope to present Breaking Borders at the Dance Umbrella, from February 25 to March 12,
A scene from