A Mercurial Trance, A Purging Pang

A review of “Udodana” by guest writers Silindile Hlengwa and Vedarsha Singh

Musa Hlatshwayo’s “Udodana” performed to a standing ovation at this year’s JOMBA!. Photography by Val Adamson.

Upon entrance to view “Udodana” our senses were already confronted — a peculiar swirling rattling sound found our ears — 7 of the performers were seated in the aisle creating the jarring soundtrack. The mysteriously lonely figure of Musa Hlatshwayo (2018 Standard Bank Young Artist for dance) bathed in dappled light. There was a strong sense of foreboding — the ritualistic nature of the performance was suggested by the ‘white arum lillies’, bowls of cow dung and drums that demarcated the space in which the performers would eventually move.

Fitting this year’s festival theme of ‘legacy’ the coveted Eric Shabalala Dance Award (now in its 8th year) was awarded to Mduduzi Mtshali. This award celebrates a locally based dance practitioner for their excellence in performance and choreography, but perhaps more importantly it recognizes the sustained effort to teach (sometimes with no funding) and create a space to continue the legacy of dance theatre in KZN and in South Africa as whole.

“Udodana” began with angst laden, aimless wondering of young men, perhaps trying to find a place amidst constructed stereotypes, holding them hostage. Young boys, ‘playing with their marbles’ — the poignant image of 7 young men, glass bottles (filled with marbles) in hand positioned over crotches, swirling the phallic object in a circular motion.

The piece was profoundly combative and provocative in that it challenged and interrogated the position and perception of the black male body in society. It dived into the supposed cracks of the ‘broken’ male identity and cast a stylized light (realized by Lerato Ledwaba) into this assumption. The multidisciplinary tapestry wove together dance, film, light and sound to a great distancing effect. The frenzy of flurrying movement framed by trees of glass, explored ancestry and questioned our colonial heritage through Musa’s deeply personal narrative and highlighted the tension around land in South Africa.

Incessive drumming, contact improvisation, and uncontrollable fits of movement served as purging pangs that mesmerized the audience. Musa’s stillness throughout the piece created an unsettling disparity and helped to highlight the dexterity of the seven other moving bodies. The virtuosic movement of dancers and complex phrases of choreography were painfully transcendental and fittingly encapsulated the ‘male’ trauma at the heart of Hlatshwayo’s work.

“Udodana”, autobiographical in nature, was a mercurial trance of light and dark, depicting the imposed and self-inflicted scars of an African man’s identity culture and masculinity in society. This existential motif is enveloped in struggle, violence, broken and abstract lines, isolation and beauty. Leading us through a deeply personal journey of conflict and brotherhood into a purgatory of the unresolved. Musa Hlatshwayo once again has taken us to the very edge of the precipice and has asked us to jump. A joyful reminder that art can never be silenced, through trauma or peace, it finds a voice, most explicitly through the moving body.

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21st annual JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience 27 August – 8 September 2019

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