
Vuyani Dance Theatre’s Thulisile Binda receives Pick of the JOMBA! Fringe Award
On Saturday night (1 September), Durban born and bred, and Johannesburg-based dance-maker Thulisile Binda from the Vuyani Dance Theatre received the Pick of the Fringe award for her work Ithemba at this year’s JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience Fringe event at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre.
Ithemba, is a strikingly original solo dance work and a very profoundly personal piece choreographed and danced by Thulisile Binda, which examines losses experienced, and how these become deep scars that come back to haunt.
Thulisile received the prestigious acknowledgement from a committee comprising 2018 Standard Bank Young Artist for Dance and well-known South African dance-maker Musa Hlatshwayo, veteran dance writer and critic Adrienne Sichel and US-based art critic and writer Lauren Warnecke from the Chicago Tribune.
The award provides Thulisile with the supported opportunity to present a new work on the JOMBA! on the Edge platform at next year’s JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience.
“I would love to thank the festival for giving me the platform and opportunity to perform my solo,” says a delighted Thulisile. “I would also like to thank the festival for recognising my work and I am grateful for the amazing opportunities that come with it.”

“We are thrilled so see such an array of strong work coming into the Fringe,” says Artistic Director of JOMBA, Lliane Loots. “Thulisile’s piece was extraordinarily personal yet echoing the very pertinent issues felt in South Africa today, and especially from a women’s perspective. We look forward to welcoming her back to JOMBA in 2019.”
The JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience, which is presented by the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Centre for Creative Arts, continues this week with the launch of Adrienne Sichel’s book Body Politics: Fingerprinting South African Dance on Tuesday, 4 September at 5.30pm at the Sneddon followed by JOMBA! on the Edge at 7.30pm. The festival runs until Sunday, September 9.
For more information go to the JOMBA! Facebook page, follow on Twitter and Instagram.
Sharlene Versfeld
Versfeld & Associates

