
“SABELA” COMING TO THE JOMBA! STAGE
By Tammy Ballantyne (guest writer)
Thandazile (the prayed for) Sonia Radebe’s “Sabela” (respond in isiZulu) premiered at the National Arts Festival in July and had one performance only at the Wits 969 Festival soon afterwards. Durban audiences can enjoy it at the Jomba! Contemporary Dance Experience currently running at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre.
Radebe, 2017’s Standard Bank Young Artist for Dance, has an impressive pedigree — the bulk of her training and performance work was with Johannesburg’s Moving Into Dance Mophatong. After almost 15 years there, she took a brave and much-needed step into going on her own as an independent dancer/teacher/choreographer. Having watched her for many years, she has grown into her own voice with the maturity to seek direction, input, collaboration and feedback from dance luminaries such as Sylvia Glasser, Shanell Winlock and Nhlanhla Mahlangu (also her husband).
Radebe’s insightful reflection and commentary on the simple (but loaded and often emotional) theme of names — what they mean to us, how they carry us and how we carry them — has resulted in a dance work of many conceptual nuances, rich with the personal histories of her cast and a significant choreographic signature emerging with maturity and honesty.
She explains: “Names carry signs and symbols, words and phrases, times and places, events and history. They stand behind our families, our faces, our songs, our scripts and paintings. They are makers of our circles of life. They are the ones we go look for; they are the ones we come back to.
The work finds its setting at Home Affairs and in front of a backdrop of a sad reality which could be migration borders or constructed systematic spaces. This is where our identity is constantly in question through biometrics, ID numbers, skin colour and names.”
We can identify completely with the harsh and often frustrating system into which we have to venture to renew ID books or passports, get birth and death certificates etc. She constructs the never-ending queue where we are reduced to a number in the hope that we’ll reach the front and be assisted quickly, only to be disappointed. The dancers repeat their names and over the speakers come the voices of the audience saying their names — musician Matthew (gift of God) MacFarlane quietly gathered and recorded the voices in the foyer at Wits prior to the performance. We feel the resonances in the pronunciation and timbre of the unique voices; we recognise identities and personas — she asks us to reflect on our own names.
Radebe’s rehearsal and research methodology has rendered a rich tapestry of choreographic and musical languages. She explains the process:
“The ability and need to look into my own personal archive is always key…I find that there is an overwhelming movement and shift when it comes to identity…My research led me to interviews (with my neighbours in Diepsloot who are immigrants), gathering newspaper articles on stories of individuals and families…I also gathered stories from the whole cast with regards to their own personal experiences and their observations as well…This was followed by a workshop process which created an opportunity for me to play around with ideas for the movement language…it entailed research on how each of the performers came to Johannesburg and how that has influenced them…I enjoy this because other than the performers being just dancers or musicians such a method of working demands them to be engaged with the process on many levels… I allow people an opportunity to comment or question and as a result our discussion or engagement with the topic is informed by either our findings or experiences.”
Radebe has explored the various strands of live installation (the performers appear in the foyer prior to the performance); text; audience interaction and live music with MacFarlane playing with recorded and electronic elements, while percussionist Micca Manganye heightens the atmosphere with magnificent drumming on “walls” (boards) that are mic’d and using sjamboks and bells, his dreadlocks dance to his beat in alternate rhythms while he ushers out his own personal ghosts.
Radebe, Thabo (happiness) Kobeli and Phumlani (rest) Nyanga powerfully engage with all these layers in a work that offers us the chance to interact with the complexities (and tragedies) of identity in our country, uses deeply personal narratives and themes and engages us with a rare honesty. Wilhelm (resolute protector) Disbergen’s intelligent lighting and set design contribute to a significant work to add to Radebe’s repertory.
Radebe said: “A stranger once said when you are in doubt, pray your name and those words have stayed with me.”
Catch “Sabela” at 7.30pm on Wednesday 30 August and Thursday 31 August at The Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre. Tickets are available on computicket or at the theatre box office one-hour before the show.
