Rain, plastic bottles and the meaning of life bring down the curtain on JOMBA!
A review of ‘One-One-One’, ‘Aka Nativa’ and ‘Dance des Bouteilles’ by Saranya Devan
Bearing the cold and rainy weather, a few Durbanites managed to make their way to the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre last night for the final evening performance of JOMBA! 2018.
Situated in the cordoned off parking lot outside the entrance to the theatre, “One-One-One,” performed by Ioannis Mandafounis (Switzerland) and Emilia Giudicelli, is a one-on-one conversation through eye-contact with the spectator, by which the dancer takes inspiration from your eyes whilst you are seated in front of them.
Although I got a chance to be in the ‘hot seat’ of the work at the Durban Art Gallery on Friday night, last night’s performance of the work was different. The level of energy and atmosphere differed on a very cold evening to have been outdoors. I was juggling whether to go back and sit or not, and I eventually chickened out.
The second performance of the evening, now in the theatre, was “Aka Nativa” which explores the meaning of life through dance.
Born in Madrid, Spain, Aida Colmenero Diaz believes there is a powerful connection within us all. She explains life through beauty and death as well as the past, the present and the future, using facial features as well as movements of the upper torso to display discomfort, enjoyment and pain.
Diaz breaks into speech throughout the 20-minute piece. Something that stood out for me was her opening speech:
She says: “I, just stopped writing a manifesto. My own manifesto. A life manifesto (she awkwardly giggles). For you, for you , for us.” (maintains eye contact with members of the audience)
“I have two words. DOS (Spanish for two).”
“Are you with me?”
“First word: Beauty.” She keeps her left arm up. “Second word: Death.” She keeps her right arm up. Could this movement — having her two arms up — represent a comparison between the extremity and difference between the words beauty and death?
Wearing a red maxi skirt and a black bodysuit with a brown belt, her castanets (a pair of concave shells joined on one edge by a string, used by Spanish dancers) are attached on either side of her. She goes on to have fun by tickling and slapping her castanets in a Spanish track by KAiengal.
Diaz’s Spanish, contemporary-trained body makes a lot of use of her torso. She uses her shoulders, back and chest to make concave and convex shapes, thus displaying her versatile and flexible body.
She ends off the piece by speaking about the past, the future and the present as strategies to survive.
After the interval was over, I was wondering why the house lights were on for so long and why the next performance had not begun. Then bah! There was a loud noise from behind me.
I watched as a man maneuvered his way through different aisles by walking really slowly in between and by running so that the plastic bottles made a huge noise in his trail.
He even managed to roll and climb over empty seats (yes, the theatre was sparsely filled because of the cold and wet weather).
Then I saw him on the opposite side of my aisle. My fellow colleagues and I looked as he made his way in between us. I was quite afraid for some reason. As he got closer and closer, I grabbed onto my colleague Siphokazi’s arm.
As he walked past me, the man stopped and looked at me with his neatly mascaraed eyes. He shook his neck trying to get comfortable as the bottles were riding up his face, and then he reached out for a plastic packet.
He took out a sweet, unwrapped and threw it in his mouth. He looked at me for a moment and then put his hand back in the packet and took out another sweet.
He teasingly played with me — offering and then retracting the sweet — and eventually gave it to me. The sweet actually turned out to be a Bolo, the Madagascan version of an Oreo biscuit.
This was choreographer Haja Saranouffi’s interactive moment with the audience as the start of “Danse Des Bouteilles.”
Saranouffi makes his way to the stage takes the string of plastic bottles wrapped around him and throws it to the ground. Another body comes into a downlight; Harivola Rakotondrasoa shows off his contemporary moves in and out of the light.
Certain moments of the work made me feel like I was watching a WWE smack-down between the performer and that cluster of plastic bottles.
As the title translates in English to the ‘dance of bottles’, the work explores the philosophical aspect of the bottle. The work is a two-fold between myth and reality. The bottles are symbolic of what value and the place a person has in society. The piece was short and to the point. However, I was a bit confused by the gentle kiss between the two men that ended the piece.
Overall, all three works made use of including the audience, giving them a total experience of being a part of the work. Sad that JOMBA 2018! has come to an end, but now we must wait for JOMBA! 2019.
This triple bill concludes the JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience today at 13.30 in (and outside of) the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre.
