The Gordon Institute of Performing and Creative Arts (GIPCA) partners with this year’s Infecting the City Public Art Festival, to present provocative, award-winning dance performances from the continent.
Having recently returned from sold-out performances at the Ovalhouse in London, highly acclaimed choreographer and Donald Gordon Creative Arts Fellow, Mamela Nyamza, presents a startling dance performance Okuya Phantsi Kwempumlo (The Meal), for which she received a Standard Bank Ovation Award at the National Arts Festival 2012. Conceptualised, choreographed and directed by Nyamza, the work is performed together with Dinah Eppel and Kirsty Ndawo. Okuya Phantsi Kwempumlo considers cooking, eating, art, love and sex. It celebrates the creative capacity of young South Africans to subvert and transform instruments of oppression and denigration into expressions of ecstasy and beauty; and reflects on the relationship between women from different generations and races.
“Before a meal can be eaten, preparation is necessary. The most basic division is between the creator of the meal and those who are being served. This work examines the process in which the eater becomes one with the meal, though the process of reaching satisfaction can take many forms,” Nyamza comments.
Awarded the main Puma Creative Prize and the first prize in the Group Pieces category at danse l’Afrique danse in Bamako, 2010, the collaborative performance Orobroy, Stop! was conceptualised under the creative direction of internationally esteemed Mozambican choreographer, Horácio Macuácua.
Orobroy means ‘thought’ in the language of the Gypsy nomads with whom Flamenco originated. In an inventive intercultural reconstruction of Flamenco; deep emotions, notions of identity, gender and conflicting experiences are explored in a visceral manner through both body and sound in this provocative work; which features Sónia Janeth Mulapha, Domingos Bié, and Pedro Machava.Subsequent to the work’s success atdanse l’Afrique danse, the comp any has travelled with the piece throughout Africa (Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Congo, Niger, Nigeria and Togo) and Europe (Netherlands, France, and Belgium); it will also be presented as part of the program Next Future in Lisbon, Portugal, later this year. Orobroy, Stop! at Infecting the City 2013 is presented with support from Pro Helvetia through the regional programme with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).
Both Nyamza’s and Macuácua’s performances appear on Programme A on Monday and Wednesday 11 and 13 March, amongst a dazzling array of site specific performances, including work by the acclaimed visual artist Marcus Neustetter and Swiss choreographer Jozsef Trefelli. The programme starts at 18:00 at the Iziko South African Museum. All Infecting the City Performances are free and open to the public. For more information on these performances, contact the GIPCA office on 021 480 7156 / fin-gipca@uct.ac.za / www.gipca.uct.ac.za. For the full Infecting the City programme, please visit www.infectingthecity.com.
URL: http://www.gipca.uct.ac.za/
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Author: Fiona Gordon from The Famous Idea Trading Co.. Originally distributed by MyPR.co.za.
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Mamela Nyamza’s Okuya Phantsi Kwempumlo Photographer: Stef de Klerk
Orobroy Stop 03 Photographer: courtesy of Horacio Macuacua
