Durban: 1 to 12 September 2010 For 12 days Durban will play host to a dazzling 12th edition of the international contemporary dance festival, JOMBA! One of four annual festivals hosted by the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Centre for Creative Arts, the JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience has become synonymous with cutting-edge dance theatre, and with principle funding from the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund capacitating the festival, this bumper event contains a programme of broad scope and appeal.
On the international front, JOMBA! 2010 presents dance works from the Netherlands, Switzerland and Reunion Island, alongside wonderful offerings from both Durban and nationally-based dance companies. Special guests include Johannesburg ‘s inimitable Moving Into Dance Mophatong who will grace JOMBA! with Sylvia Glasser’s award winning “Threads”. This work has been created in collaboration with poet Lebo Mashile and is a rare chance for Durban to witness this poet extraordinaire in action with one of South Africa ‘s premier contemporary dance companies in a momentous fusion of dance and spoken word. Also from Gauteng is choreographer Sello Peso whose Ntsoana Contemporary Dance Theatre Company is known for its conceptually challenging engagement with political and social issues. For JOMBA! he will be performing his recently created “Lime Light on Rites”. This site specific dance work, performed in an outside environment of the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre, explores the media exploitation of people’s emotions around funeral policies. Peso comments: “Death is big business in this country and there is great social pressure to have big funerals. This pressure is compounded through the advertising strategies that play on the poor and the weak, exploiting their grief”. Peso will also be offering a master choreographic workshop during JOMBA! to all young artists/choreographers interested in creating site-specific theatre work. Supporting local dance is one of JOMBA!’s key missions and this year commissions to create new work have been awarded to three of Durban ‘s top dance makers – Desiré Davids, Vusi Makhanya and Sifiso Majola. All three have a strong dance history behind them and step onto the ‘JOMBA! New Works’ platform as seasoned and creative choreographers. The exciting
