7th Jomba! Contemporary Dance Festival: 19 - 29 August 2004

Ten years of South Africa ’s democracy is celebrated in this year’s JOMBA! festival in a symphony of contemporary dance that also celebrates the creative work of our own African continent. JOMBA! 2004 is an ‘all Africa ’ event in which we dance, stamp and leap to the rhythms of the contemporary dance work being made by our fellow Africans.

Held between 17 and 29 August 2004 , JOMBA! is thus extremely proud to be hosting, amongst others, dance companies from Nigeria, Mali and Mozambique. IJODEE, from Nigeria, won the SANGA All Africa competition hosted in Madagascar in 2003. They are presently touring Europe and Africa, and JOMBA! is proud to welcome these phenomenal dancers to our Southern shores. Also participating will be other ground-breakers from the SANGA event, namely LA COMPAGNIE ( Mali ) and PROJECTO CUVALIS ( Mozambique ) and the presence of these companies will provide rich insight into contemporary dance styles and practices from other parts of this diverse continent.

The programme will also feature award winning Johannesburg choreographer Gregory Maqoma whose work has been heralded by international dance critics as the “new visionary dance voice for South Africa ”. Gregory, alongside all the JOMBA! dancers, choreographers and dance companies will be teaching workshops and classes at JOMBA! – watch the press for more details.

Local companies, and favourites amongst all of us, the FANTASTIC FLYING FISH, FLATOOT DANCE COMPANY and PHENDUKA DANCE THEATRE have been awarded grants by the CCA to premier new work at JOMBA! In recognition of the incredibly high standard of local dance work JOMBA! is proud to be part of facilitating these Durban based companies in their bid to make socially engaging dance work. JOMBA! is also particularly please to announce that Boyzie Cekwana’s FLOATING OUTFIT PROJECT will also perform at JOMBA! – international commitment often makes it impossible for Boyzie to present work in South Africa so this is a rare treat for Durban audiences.

JOMBA! also promises a whole host of other treats, primarily the REPUBLIC project being facilitated by Jay Pather in which 12 local dancers, video artists, architects, fashion designers and choreographers have all come together to create 5 performance works. Pather is a master in taking dance out of the theatre and putting it into the street, the coffee bar, the art gallery the shopping mall … and this collaboration project between Pather and these young artists will prove to be one of the highlights of this years festival.

JOMBA! will also host the FRINGE in which any up and coming young dance maker can enter work; the JOMBA! panel will select 12 new works from the entries so perhaps you can perform your work alongside some of the top dance companies in Africa ? This year JOMBA! is also announcing a new YOUTH DANCE FRINGE for all young dancers under the age of 16 years. In a special performance day in Cato Crest Community Hall, all the youth dance companies can strut their dance stuff.

Besides a host of dance workshops and classes (all free if you book in time), JOMBA! is also particularly pleased to announce that it will be hosting a four day Dance Conference in which ideas around what constitutes an “African Dance Aesthetic” will be debated between some of the top choreographers, dancers and academics in Africa .

Principal funders of the 2004 Jomba! Contemporary Dance Experience are the National Lottery Distribution Fund, Royal Netherlands Embassy, Africalia, Association Franciase d’action Artistique, French Institute of South Africa, and the City of Durban . How foreign funding operates in the South African (and African) dance context will be one of the issues discussed during the conference.

This is the seventh year of Durban ’s JOMBA! CONTEMPORARY DANCE EXPERIENCE – a festival which amongst many other encounters of dancing feet, is about Durban and us all celebrating the hip sway and feet tap of our own vibrant city and its dancing cultural life – see you there!

For more information contact cca@ukzn.ac.za or phone 031-2602506. Website www.cca.ukzn.ac.za/Jomba_2004.htm

Last updated on 28 July 2004

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Original photography by: Val Adamson, Rafs Mayet, Precious Ngcobo, Jeeva Rajgopaul, Monica Rorvik, and Peter Rorvik