My Body My Space: Public Arts Festival
The Forgotten Angle Theatre Collaborative (FATC) and Ebhudlweni Arts Centre present the My Body My Space: Public Arts Festival (MBMS), cutting-edge dance, performance and installations that will unfold in public spaces throughout the Emakhazeni Municipality in rural Mpumalanga from April 23-28 2019.
The My Body My Space festival has grown considerably in popularity since its inception in 2015. MBMS is a hugely anticipated event attracting award-winning national and international artists and organisations, plus a large and diverse audience from around South Africa and the globe. Mozambique, Madagascar, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Switzerland are some of the countries represented by MBMS artists this year.
This year, five artists from the SADC region will take part in the MBMS festival with the support of ANT Mobility funding.
Samwel Japhet is a dancer and choreographer based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He is a founding member and artistic director of Nantea Dance Company, and organizes and directs the Contemporary Dance Night in Dar es Salaam. At MBMS he will present a work titled On The Other Side of Being with Mussa Seleiman, a dance-theater performance that talks about fear and feelings before and after we die.
McIntosh Jerahuni is a musician, dancer and a choreographer from Zimbabwe. He founded the Jerahuni Movement Factory offering free dance classes to those interested in moving. He believes that physical expression gives outlet to spiritual and emotional undercurrents that are entirely ignored in other dance forms.
A former dancer, choreographer and artistic director of Tumbuka Dance Company, he is moved by the mindset of exploring the body itself using his ‘jerahuni-technique’ without any judgement of our bodies, its abilities and disabilities. His performance at MBMY, Asante Sana, Sorry Goodbye, he describes as “a show for the HOPEFUL who are ready to TRANSCEND the PLAGUE of many faces and bring the CHANGE they want
to see….Soukaina Edom Marie-Laure Mafundikwa.”
Janeth Mulapha is a Mozambican dancer and choreographer who regularly collaborates with Panaibra Gabriel Canda.
Gaby Saranouffi is a Malagasy dancer, choreographer, dance teacher and artistic director of the International Contemporary Dance Festival TRÔTRA and VAHINALA Company in Madagascar. She is an important pioneer of dance in Madagascar and has set up strategic cultural policy to open access to many Malagasy artists. Her piece at MBMS festifal is called #MOI, and asks “When the body has been abused, raped, destroyed, devastated, what’s left?” This piece was created to fight against the violence to women and children. The choreography is inspired by ancient ancestral Madagascan forms, and raises questions of morality and value.
Idio Chichava is a Mozambican dancer and choreographer. At MBMS he will present a trilogy of works that address issues of social relevance and taboos using emotional and bodily vocabularies. These will be performed by Edna Jaime and Osvaldo Passirivo.
