Full transcript
0:00dance found you, how you found dance.
0:02>> Sure. Yeah. Well, I mean, again, thank
0:04you for having me. It's such a pleasure
0:06to be in Ottawa again. So, yeah, I grew
0:09up in Soeteru in it's a it's a township
0:12south of Johannesburg, and it was
0:13created as a place to keep the labor
0:17force of Johannesburg
0:20separate from the ones who were running
0:23the economy of the country. So we had
0:26migrant workers who coming from
0:28different parts of southern Africa and
0:30they were bringing with them their
0:32traditional forms. I used to hang out a
0:35lot as a young child. I was the age of 9
0:37or 10 years old. I used to hang out a
0:39lot around a hostel which houses migrant
0:42workers.
0:44>> In the late 1980s a teenager in Suetu
0:47used dance to escape political violence.
0:51That teenager was Gregory Vouani Makoma.
0:54He later founded the Voyani dance
0:57theater. Voyani is his cause name which
1:01means joy. So I'm Abby Galvaris and I'm
1:04in grade 10. And in this video we're
1:07going to look at his life, his company,
1:09his style and how he changed the work
1:12dance can do in South Africa. So let's
1:15start off with some background and
1:17training of his. Gregory was born in
1:20Suetu on the 16th of October 1973.
1:25And as a child, he watched mine workers
1:27dance at a nearby hostel. And he also
1:30watched Michael Jackson on television, a
1:34black artist shown with power, not as a
1:37stereotype.
1:39At that moment, dance became his escape.
1:43So then now in the 1990s he auditioned
1:46at the MID which is music into dance and
1:50began formal training under Sylvia
1:52Glasser.
1:54Later on he won a scholarship to P A RS
1:58which is part in Belgium studying with
2:01an Theresa demaker.
2:03and then on in 1999 while still a
2:07student he founded Voyani dance theater
2:10so South African dancers could tell
2:12their own stories through their dance
2:15and their movement vocabulary.
2:18So now let's go into some of the
2:20influences he has had over the years and
2:23how his career really kicked off.
2:26So his movement let's start with that
2:29comes from traditional ka zulu and sotu
2:32dancers gamboot and pansula shoot energy
2:36and contemporary technique from Europe
2:39and there are some important mentors and
2:42partners in his life that he had had.
2:44This includes Sylvia Glasser, Vincent
2:46Mansu, Chanel Winlock, Akram Khan and
2:49theater director himself James Novo.
2:54And also some interesting facts. Here
2:56are some career landmarks for Gregory.
3:00So, the rhythm trilogy from 1999, the
3:03beauty trilogy, the head choreographer
3:06of the 2010 FIFA World Cup kickoff
3:11concert in Suetu, then the solo
3:13exit/exist
3:15exist about his chief ancestor Makoma
3:20and the company work.
3:23Vyani had toured has toured actually
3:26more than 100 cities on five continents.
3:31So now we're going to talk about some of
3:34his achievements and contributions he
3:36has done in the dance industry.
3:39So he has won the FNB vital
3:42choreographer of the year, the Standard
3:45Bank young artist award for dance in the
3:482002,
3:49the Tony award for leadership, a New
3:53York bases award and France Sheravar the
3:58art desress
4:00I'm not French but that is one of the
4:03another awards he has won over the years
4:05he and his in his dance years. So his
4:09biggest contribution is not only his
4:11awards. He built a professional company
4:14where blacks of African dancers could
4:17create contemporary work on their own to
4:19terms and he helped the world take
4:23African contemporary dance seriously as
4:26its own language.
4:29So let's as we now talking about his
4:32dance, let's go into his choreographic
4:34style. Wukama's style is a fusion
4:38traditional African rhythm, contemporary
4:41concert dance and township street
4:43energy. He talks about pulse. That's
4:47basically when the body pushed when the
4:50body is pushed to its limits driven by
4:52heartbeat and ancestral memory. The body
4:55becomes an archive of history. head. One
4:59of his dances which is exit/exist is a
5:02theoretical solo with a live guitar and
5:05voices. He uses ritual objects and
5:08costume changes to connect his ancestors
5:11lands struggle with the present. So Zion
5:16is a group work set like a graveyard
5:20and in Sasyama singing meets Ravel
5:23Balore. It shows grief, community and
5:26hope. So that was just one another
5:28amazing dances he also was part of. For
5:31Yani's unique feature is the mix of live
5:34music, strong theater design and stories
5:38that are both African and international.
5:42So coming into the last part of this
5:46video where we're going to speak about
5:48his influence on the functions of dance.
5:51So Gregory shows three big functions of
5:54dance which is cultural expression,
5:56social commentary and artistic
5:59innovations.
6:01So with his cultural expressions his
6:04traditional movement is not just
6:05decoration. It carries causal identity
6:09and memory into the very present moment.
6:12and then with social commentary. His
6:15works speak about land, colonial
6:18history, death and how people survived
6:20together after loss. So, and his
6:24artistic innovations, he created a new
6:27hybrid technique and a company that
6:29proved South African dancers,
6:31contemporary dance belongs on the
6:34world's biggest stages. So he proved
6:37this by his artistic innovation
6:40that South African contemporary dance
6:43belongs on the biggest world stages. For
6:47Moama dance is also joy after struggle
6:51which is why his company is called which
6:55means joy.
6:57Gregory Makoma turned a soetu childhood
7:01into a company, a style and a new way of
7:04seeing South African dance as a whole.
7:07His work reminds us that dance can
7:09remember the past, question the present
7:12and still choose joy as his name for his
7:16dance company which is Wyani dance
7:18theater which means joy dance theater.
7:22So he always chooses the joy instead of
7:24the loss that has happened, the
7:26political violence that he had
7:28experienced in his early years. He still
7:30chose his passion for dance that created
7:33this whole dance company. He still chose
7:36the joy. So yes, thank you for watching
7:38my video. And this is all about the
7:42Voyani dance theater and the amazing
7:44choreographer that Gregory Muama is.
7:48Thank you.