Online Digital Dance Offerings at 25th JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience
The 25th JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience, which is hosted by the Centre for Creative Arts (UKZN) begins tonight (Tuesday 29 August) in Durban, and alongside the performances at The Sneddon Theatre and the Stable Theatre, open workshops, talks and site-specific works, the festival will once again showcase some digital offerings that are FREE and online on its YouTube channel “Jomba_Dance”.
“Over the past three years, as the COVID-19 pandemic shifted our world, what emerged was the blossoming of digital dance making (sometimes referred as ‘screen dance’),” says Dr Lliane Loots, Curator and Artistic Director of the festival. “Stepping into 2023, we wanted to continue to support digital dance making – especially in the global South – and to enable audiences, who are unable to be here in person, to experience part of the festival. The result is some fascinating work, that we believe contemporary dance lovers will enjoy.”
The screen dance competition platform JOMBA! OPEN HORIZONS is available online on Sunday 3 September at 6pm. In early 2023 JOMBA! opened submissions for both long and short form screen dance films. An independent jury selected six films to showcase and the top three winners will be announced after the viewing. The top three will be given a cash prize from the festival to honour their ongoing work. The six shortlisted works are from Tshediso Kabulu (Durban), Maulid Owino (Nairobi, Kenya), Kamogelo Dooka (Cape Town), Zandile Salukazana (Cape Town), Thamsanqa Majela (Bloemfontein), and Oscar O’Ryan (Cape Town).
Durban-based dance-maker Marcia Mzindle presents a screen dance work as her offering as a grant recipient on the JOMBA! ON THE EDGE platform that supports fresh innovative contemporary dance work. Her s dance film INTO EMDAKA, was conceived while she was reading her Master’s degree where she began to explore the body — particularly Black women’s bodies, looking at dance and in physical performances. The work focuses on reimagining the Black female body as a ‘site of possibilities’ that unveils its multiple identities. INTO EMDAKA will premiere on the JOMBA! YouTube channel on Thursday 7 September at 6pm.
And as the closing for 2023, JOMBA! has partnered with the PANORAMA DANCE FESTIVAL in Brazil and will screen two Brazilian screen dance films on Sunday, 10 September at 6pm. ELEGBARÁ is described as “an ephemeral and visceral dance, dialogue with the city; making the streets an urgent stage” and ÈDÀ is a dance video with performance scenes recorded throughout the territory of Maré where seven artists, residents of Maré and other communities come together during the pandemic to pulsate and weave dance as breath and hope.
All these DIGITAL JOMBA! 2023 works are offered free via: https://www.youtube.com/Jomba_Dance
For more information about the festival go to www.jomba.ukzn.ac.za