Broken Chord
Gregory Maqoma and Thuthuka Sibisi
60 min | Parental rating 12+
![Broken Chord](https://mitsp.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/MITsp-2024-acorde-quebrado.jpg)
29/2, at 20h*
1/3, at 21h
2/3, at 21h
Sesc Pinheiros | Teatro Paulo Autran
R. Paes Leme, 195, Pinheiros
*sessão de abertura somente para convidados.
A sessão da sexta (1) conta com audiodescrição.
SYNOPSIS
Between 1891-1893, a group of young African singers called The African (Native) Choir travelled by boat to Britain, Canada and America. This ensemble of the missionary-educated black elite, were on a mission to raise funds for a technical school in Kimberley, South Africa. The show by Gregory Maqoma and Thuthuka Sibisi starts from recordings of the group, revealing a drama of global dimension and looking at the black body as a political site. Using elements of Xhosa [South African ethnic group] dance and contemporary dance alongside atmospheric soundscapes, the work not only reflects on an archive, but addresses urgent issues about migration, dispossession and borders, questioning the relationship between the colonised and the coloniser – and either’s complicity in shaping and shifting the South African narrative, past and present.
HISTORY
Gregory Maqoma is an internationally renowned dancer, choreographer, teacher, director and screenwriter. Born in Soweto, South Africa, he began his formal dance training in 1990 at Moving into Dance, where in 2002 he became associate artistic director. He founded the Vuyani Dance Theatre (VDT) in 1999 while receiving a scholarship from the Performing Arts Research and Training School (PARTS) in Belgium under the direction of Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker. Maqoma is respected for his collaborations with artists of his generation, having worked with choreographers such as Akram Khan, Vincent Mantsoe, Faustin Linyekula, Dada Masilo, Shanell Winlock, and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. He received awards such as the FNB Vita Choreographer of the Year (1999, 2001 and 2002), the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Dance (2002) and the Tunkie Award for Leadership in Dance (2012).
Thuthuka Sibisi is a composer, musician and music director. He started his studies in music at the Drakensberg Boys Choir School in South Africa, where his passion for performance has begun. He holds a bachelor’s degree in music from Stellenbosch University, also in South Africa, and he has a MA (performance making) program at Goldsmiths, University of London, United Kingdom. Alongside his studies in music, he completed his training in physical theatre and movement with Sam Prigge and Estelle Olivier. He has toured with his work in South Africa, Asia, South America and Europe, and has received awards such as the Mail & Guardian 200 Young South Africans (2017) and the Ampersand Foundation Fellow (2018).
CRITIC
Not only are the four leads sterling singers, with stamina, but they are charismatic movers too, backing up Maqoma, who at 49 has said this show will be his last as a performer. Still, he moves with ease and magnetism: feet skipping, torso shaking, shoulders and hips bouncing in their sockets, drawing on Xhosa and contemporary dance. He seems to embody multiple facets of the journey: he’s unsettled, he’s homesick, he’s resolute, he’s playful, he’s powerful.
Maqoma acts throughout like a human antenna, receiving vibrations and translating them into serpentine or avian motion, spins, rhythmic stomping, Michael Jackson poses and, climactically, a fevered shaking. Often, his improvised-looking responses work against or on top of a musical foundation provided by everyone else. Sometimes he idles, sometimes he makes everything take off. The show is impressionistic and episodic.
TECHNICAL SHEET
Concept: Gregory Maqoma and Thuthuka Sibisi
Choreographer: Gregory Maqoma
Composer and Musical Director: Thuthuka Sibisi
Dramaturg: Shanell Winlock
Cast: Gregory Maqoma, Luvo Rasemeni, Tshegofatso Khunwane, Xolisile Bongwana and Nokuthula Magubane
Choir of local artists: Andrea Nagamine, Ariel Bernardi, Daniel Umbelino, Fernanda Pimenta, Giu de Castro, Guilherme Aquino, Helena Toro, Isabelle Dumalakas, Jessé Vieira, Julián Lisnichuk, Nathália Serrano, Rodrigo Morales, Simone Luiz, Ulisses Montoni, Wilian Manoel and Zi Vasconcellos
Technical Design: Oliver Hauser
Technical Director: Ralf Nonn
Sound Design: Nthuthuko Mbuyazi
Costume Design: Maxhosa by Laduma Ngxokolo
Executive Producer: Gregory Maqoma Industries
Co-Producers: Festival Grec (Barcelona), Manchester International Festival, Théâtre de la Ville (Paris), Weimar Arts Festival (National Theater), Festpielhaus St Pölten, Torinodanza Festival/Teatro Stabile di Torino (Teatro Nazionale), Festival Aperto/Fondazione I Teatri – Reggio Emilia, Stanford Live at Stanford University and Sadler’s Wells London
Production Manager: Siyandiswa Dokoda
Assistant to Composer: Mhlaba Buthelezi
Movement Understudy: Katleho Lekhula
Wardrobe Assistant: Nathi Mnisi
Special Thanks to the Market Theatre Foundation, Tshwane University of Technology Performing Arts (Vocal Arts) and Carlos Cansino Pérez.