All about the upcoming live JOMBA! Dance Experience

JOMBA! celebrates a new partnership with The Market Theatre in Johannesburg.

This year, the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Centre for Creative Arts JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience reaches its 25th anniversary.

To celebrate its longevity as South Africa’s longest-running dance festival, it has partnered with The Market Theatre to collaborate in sharing a down-sized and carefully curated JOMBA! @ THE MARKET after the Durban festival, which takes place from August 29 to September 10.

Selected local and international dance companies will travel to The Market Theatre and feature in a week-long celebration of some of the world’s most profound and provoking dance makers and dance companies.

Gauteng and The Market Theatre audiences will get to revel in the performance excellence of this contemporary dance platform between September 12 to 17.

The 2023 JOMBA! festival’s curatorial theme is “(in)tangible heritages”, and of special interest will be new work by Mamela Nyamza, named the JOMBA! 2023 legacy artist.

JOMBA! curator Dr Lliane Loots said Nyamza’s cutting-edge and deeply interrogated dance work spans over two decades of dance-making in South Africa and internationally.

“And as JOMBA! hits its iconic 25th year, we can think of no better artist to celebrate as our JOMBA! legacy artist. We celebrate Mamela for her vision and practice and for significantly contributing to our country’s rich, critical, contemporary dance history and legacy,” said Loots.

Alongside a fascinating bouquet of dance work, JOMBA! @ THE MARKET will also offer workshops and master classes to support dance skills development and training. The focus will be on lighting dance.

For more information about JOMBA!, go to https://jomba.ukzn.ac.za/