
2018 JOMBA! On the Edge grapples with liberation, identity and dismantling the patriarchy
A preview of JOMBA! On the Edge by Marcia Mzindle
We kick off another week of the JOMBA! festival, still in high spirits and in celebration of the 20th anniversary of dance and legacy. JOMBA! on the Edge is a festival platform that seeks to support fresh innovative contemporary dance work coming out of Durban/KZN region. The four talented choreographers on this year’s line-up are JC Zondi, Kristi-Leigh Greese, Tshediso Kabulu and Thamsanqa (Thami) Majela. No strangers to the JOMBA! stage, the choreographers and companies selected each year to perform their new works either created work in the previous year’s JOMBA! Fringe, or at other regional and national performance spaces attended by the JOMBA! on the Edge curators.
JC Zondi, born and bred in Kwa-Zulu Natal, PMB is the director, award-winning writer and dancer who won “Pick of The Fringe” in 2017 with a performance titled “Intimate”. In an e-mail communicaiton, Zondi opened up about his performance in saying that the work dealt with what it means to be intimate in a dance space and in society, and furthermore, how our bodies connect with one another. He brings on stage this year a new work titled “Classi_filed”.
Says Zondi:“This work looks at clothes, questioning the ideas behind the garments we wear, and how clothes create these identities and personalities that we conform too.”
He further explains that he was curious to see what other meaning the clothes could have, asking, “What if they don’t mean anything? What if they carry memory? It is all these questions, and perhaps my hate for clothes, that made me create the work. I asked my performers as well what clothes mean to them. I was surprise to hear most saying they use clothes to hide who they are, conceal their real selves. Tthen I wondered who one is without clothes…I remembered a quote that read ‘You are only free when you are naked and alone,’ and I thought that is the real you.’
Zondi wrote about the excitement and challenge he has faced with his new work, saying “I see the work as an introduction to JC Zondi, having just completed my MA at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal. This performance is me being a real professional, I guess. I am very excited about it, mostly because it is over 35min.; I have never created such a long dance work, and though it has been tough it has all been truly worth it.”
In closing Zondi shared how contemporary dance has been an eye opener, stating that dance has been able to offer him opportunity to express self. The power that dance has, he says, is that it’s able to let people get a glimpse of the way he sees the world. “I am able to tell my own [story], and importantly, fulfill my curiosity. There are so many stories to tell.”
The 2018 Standard Bank Gold Ovations award winner for the National Arts Festival Fringe (NAF), Kristi- Leigh Gresse will be debuting her new work titled “Blank”. Greese, an inspiring choreographer and dancer explains her work to be about how women find themselves in front of a mirror unable to see themselves as they are. In a program note, she writes “We are constantly filtering our identity through the lens of patriarchy. This piece interrogates the world of consumption of the female body for both pleasure and power.”
The artist goes on a personal journey to confront her identity; an identity that has become so obscured as a result of having the ideologies of the system consuming every aspect of her lived experience. Gresse, further adds that “‘Blank’ aims to create a conversation around the idea of self-censorship brought on by both fear and inheritances and how this is — in part — feeding the very system that oppresses us.” I am excited and looking forward to this performance to view things from her perspective.
The last performers for the night will be choreographers and performers Tshediso Kabulu and Thamsanqa (Thami) Majela, who first caught the eye of the JOMBA! curatorial team at the Black Out Arts Festival in 2017. Kabulu and Majela will be debuting their work titled “Imvelo,” that has been derived from a previous work “The Truth About the Truth”.
The performance “Imvelo” — translated to mean origin, nature or tradition depending on the context of how the word is being used — is described as a gentle and often intimate look at human relationships that journeys back to origins and beginnings. According to program notes, it “begins to question and deconstruct societal ‘truths’ that often get in the way of love and tenderness.” This promises to be a performance filled with tradition symbolism, heart and vigour.
As the discourse of the night deals with themes of liberation, identity, dismantling patriachal traditions, and personal and societal truths, this proves to be a recipe for breath-taking performances and one of the many nights to remember.
I am also looking forward to celebrating lighting designer Jullie Ballard, visiting from Chicago (USA), who has shared her technical skills with the three emerging choreographers in bringing their work to the stage. This is Julie’s second visit to JOMBA! — she first came as the lighting and production manager with Chicago based Deeply Rooted Dance Theatre in 2013.
JOMBA! on the Edge premieres at the Sneddon Theatre on Tuesday 4 September, for one night only. Tickets are available online at Computicket: http://bit.ly/2wzubVg, or at the box office one hour before the performance.

