Joburg Moves: promising the re-emergence of dance in the city

Since the demise of Dance Umbrella in 2018 (which existed for 30 years as SA’s largest and longest-running platform for contemporary dance, choreographic performance and development), Johannesburg has been left in need. This is why the 2023 extension of Durban’s Jomba! Contemporary Dance Experience to Joburg, which saw the festival partnering with the Market Theatre for a mini presentation meant so much.

Now the launch of the Joburg Moves dance season at the University of Johannesburg’s (UJ) Arts and Culture Centre promises to fill the gap. Presented in the style of a fringe platform, the season is curated and co-ordinated by choreographer and director, Lesego van Niekerk. She believes active engagement and audience building are important for the growth of dance and theatre in the country. And, with Joburg Moves, she hopes to introduce new dimensions of Joburg dance.

Central to the identity of Joburg’s contemporary dance is the existence of Moving Into Dance (MID), a company started by Sylvia “Magogo” Glasser in her Victory Park garage in 1978. With it, she has produced some of the best SA dancer-choreographers, dance teachers and administrators, who keep the soul of dance alive locally and internationally through their work.

Glasser and Sunnyboy Mandla Motau — who is an MID dancer-choreographer and teacher and now the company’s artistic director since 2023 — are headlining Joburg Moves with two new works: Baobab and Umthombo. Threads, a collaboration with poet Lebo Mashile is the last dance piece Glasser choreographed for MID’s 30th anniversary in 2008. She choreographed Baobab remotely with Motau from Sydney, where she is now based with her husband, David Glasser.  The work is presented as a double bill with Motau’s Umthombo, both commissioned by The Playhouse Company in Durban in 2023.

Speaking on her choreographic process and how it has shifted over the years from her garage, to MID’s studios in Braamfontein, then later Newtown, and now remotely, Glasser says, “I think the main difference is that I am more experienced and hopefully more mature, and this is reflected in my work. The difference in having greater space, having much more room in Newtown, meant more people from the townships could access classes and rehearsals. Although my work from 1978 had a strong African aesthetic, it became even more so after moving to Braamfontein, and then Newtown.  When I created Baobab remotely last year for the Natal Playhouse I was very fortunate to be supported by the wonderful Moving into Dance company especially Sunnyboy Mandla Motau (artistic director) and my two associate choreographers, Lesego Dihemo and Eugene Mashiane. Also, Nadia Virasamy, the CEO of MID, and Wilhelm Disbergen, the lighting designer, completed a wonderfully supportive team.”

Born to Lithuanian Jewish parents in Pietersburg (renamed Polokwane after 1994), Glasser, 83,  is a dance pioneer of Afro-fusion and Edu-dance as well as an anthropologist and activist. She rejected her classical ballet and modern dance training in favour of creative movement influenced by US modern dance pioneers Alwin Nikolais and Murray Louis, which helped develop her own Afro-fusion style. Her anthropological approach to choreography is exemplified in her iconic work, Tranceformations (1991) about San rock art and ritual, later translated into the book, Tranceformations and Transformations — Southern African Rock Art and Contemporary Dance. Her Afro-fusion strategy is supported by her 1993 paper, Appropriation and Appreciation and her training as an anthropologist has produced publications such as Is Dance Political Movement?, which give her work a creative and intellectual character.  The anthropological approach continues in Baobab.

“It’s about the strength but also fragility of the baobab tree which is symbolic of the strength and fragility of the people of SA,” Glasser says of the work. “However, it is also about the challenge and threat of climate change and drought in Africa. It is the feminine energy and fertility that enables the recovery and rebirth of nature and the people. It is a continuation of my anthropological approach in that it is about the interaction between the tree and the people who lived around it and benefited from its fruit, shade and possibly the trunk as a repository of water and regeneration.”

On why she rejected ballet and modern dance, she says, “I found that in terms of teaching and training children, ballet or modern dance, which in SA was, and is, often linked to an exact curriculum and exam system for children, stifled the child’s creativity. I do use my modern or contemporary dance training in teaching teenagers and adults with an approach that encourages individual creativity and a quest for knowledge in each student. This is apparent when you look at the hundreds of dance performers, choreographers, teachers and leaders who have come out of MID; not only Vincent Mantsoe and Gregory Maqoma, David April, Sonia Radebe, Nhlanhla Mahlangu, Luyanda Sidiya, Sunnyboy Mandla Motau, Oscar Buthelezi, Lesego Dihemo, but also actors such as Gcina Mkhize, Sello Motloung and Tinah Mnumzana.”

Mentorship is a big part of Glasser’s legacy and one of her greatest achievements.

In merging creativity with the academic, she started the full-time MID Community Dance Teachers Training Course in 1992 which is now the MID PATC under Virasamy’s direction. Motau is a product of the course and is now entrusted with taking the company into the future.

He hails from Alexander and lives to tell the stories of the township through movement. He discovered contemporary dance in Grade 11 and joined the Plumule theatre and dance community group, which exposed him to a variety of dance styles and platforms. Motau wanted to be filmmaker but could not afford tuition. It was being captivated by MID’s Thabo Rapoo’s performance of Xiff at Dance Umbrella that cemented his path with contemporary dance. He joined the MID in 2008 and went on to choreograph his first solo, Within Me, for Dance Umbrella in 2010. He toured worldwide with Robyn Orlin’s Beauty Remained between 2012 and 2018.

His standout work, Man-Longing, was inspired by the disappearance of Motau’s uncle in 2013, which was linked to suspected human trafficking. The research for the work involved going into downtown Joburg to observe the workings of the sex trade and sex traffickers. This methodical approach to working hints at a cinematic quality of Motau’s work, which can fit into the site-specific mould much like his production of The Pandemic Project — a collaboration with UJ.

MID and UJ have a long-term working relationship where they collaborate on projects and share resources.

On Umthombo, Motau says, “Umthombo means the source of a well. For me, in this context, it means the origin of self. And that’s what we’re exploring with the work. There’s a lot of displacement and confusion about who we are. It’s about getting to understand where you come from and knowing what you want to take forward.”

Motau performs in Glasser’s Boabab as the main character and it’s a full-circle moment for him.

“I play the Baobab tree and the costume I’m wearing was created in 1986 — the year I was born. It was made for one of the first works that Sylvia started exploring. It’s a sacred costume in the company,” he says.

Catch performances of Baobab/Umthombo at the Joburg Moves dance season happening at the UJ Arts and Culture Centre from April 23-26. The season will also include Ukukhanya Kwenyanga: A Moonlight Waltz, choreographed by Craig Pedro from Joburg Ballet; Evelyn, choreographed by Smangaliso Ngwenya; Petticoat Princess, choreographed by Thamsanqa Tshabalala and an exhibition showcase by April.