Common Denominator 

The selection of dance films from South Africa, signifies the common denominator of a place battling with its own economic transformation and explores the differences and dynamics of cultures, traditions, hierarchies and dreams. The films are driven by the same signature form of a culture of Pantsula, an energetic dance style that originated in the South African townships – It’s one of the many creative solutions ordinary people have found to counteract the societal, political and economic situations they find themselves in. 

In these films, the body is a moving memoir of the time these artists have known, packaged in three minute segments with a larger film that is written like a love letter to movement, to objects, the people who move and the street corners they move in.  

The commonality is not in the colonized setting inherited, in which these films are made, it is the reality that cuts to the heart of the political and social issues that trouble the country, making any dancing a depository of all that is taken, the unjust, a vivid statement of cultural and personal identity. A common paradox of our times, depending on which part of the world you leave in. South Africans love to dance and the body becomes the archive, the architect that gives meaning to objects with sly humour alongside feisty, fast-paced episodes of the township’s Pantsula dance moves.  

SPOONS by Thabo Rapoo

In this Considered 3 Minutes, Rapoo attempts to breathe life into two spoons – to awaken them to dance. He transfers his embodied energy into that of two inanimate objects and is surprised at the extent to which two wooden spoons can make him sweat.  Rapoo cites the act of observation as a crucial factor to his creative process, as a result, much of his work is concerned with human nature – how we move and move things, various forms of non-verbal communication, labour, exercise, fatigue, energy and play.

Thabo Rapoo is a dancer, choreographer, musician, and performing artist.

Credits

Concept & Creation | Thabo Rapoo
Lighting Designer | Wesley France
Video Editor & Director of Photography | Noah Cohen
Sound Recorder & Mixer | Zain Vally
Curator of The Considered 3 Minutes | Bronwyn Lace

UMTHUNGO by Vusi Mdoyi

Umthungo is a Considered 3 Minutes that grapples with abstract notions of identity and origin through performance. In Mdoyi’s words: “Umthungo (Stitch) forms part of a chapter of my current research into performance. It is a grappling with questions such as: ‘Who am I?’ ‘What is of me?’ and ‘What is mine?’.

“When we sew, the machine jams; materials pucker; the edges of seams catch – this is all what it means to mend and stitch. Only when we turn clothing inside out do we achieve a clean stitch. This piece explores the threads connecting me to my birth story. The fabrics that kept me warm. The stitch as the needed fix. The metaphor of being inside-out. To fix is to stitch from within. The true mend is inside. The helping hands when you least expect them. Sithunge kau’! impilo ngu’mthungo!’ (Stitch yourself brother, life is a seam).”

Vusi Mdoyi is a dancer, teacher, choreographer, artistic director, and pantsula.

Credits

Story & Performance | Vusi Mdoyi

Tailors | Ziphilele Speech Mayiji, Luka Samu & Moses Maseko

Concept & Direction | Vusi Mdoyi & Phala Ookeditse Phala

Animateur & Dramaturg | Phala Ookeditse Phala

Sound Recorder & Sound Designer | Zain Vally

Director of Photography & Editor | Noah Cohen

Camera Operator | Bukhosibakhe Kelvin Khoza

Production Manager | Shruthi Nair

Stage Manager & Administrator | Dimakatso Motholo

Curator of The Considered 3 Minutes | Bronwyn Lace

LOLIWE | LABOUR DEVOURED BY THE RAILWAY by Vuyani Feni 

In this Considered 3 Minutes, Feni use gumboot dance to conjure his ancestors and the spirits of those who laboured on the railway lines of South Africa. Here he recreates the sounds and silhouettes of toiling by his bloodline. Simultaneously he embodies ‘Loliwe’ – the train, Feni’s haunting and vulnerable rendition of the song ‘Noyana’ calls to mind movement and migration, as well as the ceaseless cycle of young bodies arriving eager and full of energy and returning home tired, diseased and awaiting death.

Vuyani Feni is a dancer, choreographer, teacher, and researcher of iDadla (gumboot dancing).

Credits

Story & Performance | Vuyani ‘King Gaba’ Feni

Concept & Direction | Vusi Mdoyi & Phala Ookeditse Phala

Animateur & Dramaturg | Phala Oookeditse Phala

Sound Recorder & Sound Designer | Zain Vally

Director of Photography & Editor | Noah Cohen

Photographer | Zivanai Matangi

Camera Operator | Bukhosibakhe Kelvin Khoza

Production Manager | Shruthi Nair

Stage Manager & Administrator | Dimakatso Motholo

On-set Assistance | Melusi Leuw & Ewyk Ramkganyane

Curator of the Considered 3 Minutes | Bronwyn Lace

Retract Retrace by Gregory Maqoma

About Gregory

Gregory Vuyani Maqoma became interested in dance in the late 1980s as a means to escape the growing political tensions growing in Soweto, South Africa, where he was born. He started his formal dance training in 1990 at Moving into Dance, where he, later, became the Associate Artistic Director in 2002. He founded Vuyani Dance Theatre (VDT) in 1999 while undertaking a scholarship at the Performing Arts Research and Training School (PARTS) in Belgium, under the direction of Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker. Maqoma has established himself as an internationally renowned dancer, choreographer, teacher, and director.