“Hominal / Xaba” by Marie-Caroline Hominal and Nelisiwe Xaba at JOMBA! [Durban, etc.]

“Hominal / xxx” is a series of collaborative works initiated by Swiss choreographer Marie-Caroline Hominal where she invites an artist to co-create a work exploring the notion of authorship, appropriation, transformation and creative processes. The titles of the pieces, a combination of the two artists’ names, unites them and dissolves the notion of a singular author. The title becomes a kind of label and framework for the collaboration, its dynamics and possible hierarchies.

The second work in the series, “Hominal / Xaba” by and with Marie-Caroline and South African choreographer and dancer Nelisiwe Xaba was created in September 2019 at La Bâtie festival in Geneva. The two artists studied for a time together in London, and always wanted to meet again with a common project. Together, they dance a choreography of appropriated cultures via Youtube tutorials, threading journeys and intersecting by chance.

Swiss journalist Arnaud Robert describes the piece as a “fragile dialogue that only hangs by a thread, two women perform a choreography of appropriated cultures, online tutorials, and patterns reproduced by machines. The performance is a textile manifesto. Two choreographers, one South-African, the other Swiss, measure up to each other, and the suits they create on stage are both funny and fearsome.”

The South African tour of “Hominal / Xaba” includes three cities. Beginning in Durban, the piece will open the 24th edition of the Jomba! Contemporary Dance Experience with two performances on 30 and 31 August 2022 at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre. The two artists will give a two-hour workshop and participate in a discussion with the audience after the second performance. In Johannesburg, Nelisiwe’s home town, the artists will present a site-specific version of the piece on 2 September at the venue Carfax. The performance is part of “What’s The Point?” by InfluenZArt, a programme of short performances, live video projections and sound installations curated by Nelisiwe and coinciding with the Johannesburg art fair. The tour ends in Cape Town where the Institute for Creative Arts (ICA) will host performances on 4 and 5 September at Hiddingh Hall at the University of Cape Town.

BIOBRAPHIES

Marie-Caroline Hominal received her dance education at the Schweizerische
Ballettberufschule (ZHDK TanzAkademie) in Zurich and at the Rambert School of
Ballet and Contemporary Dance in London, where she joined the National Youth Dance Company. Thereafter, she worked among others with Gisèle Vienne, Gilles Jobin, La Ribot and Marco Berrettini. Her practice includes choreography, performance, video, drawing, music. After her solo “Fly Girl” in 2000, Marie-Caroline created jointly with François Chaignaud the hula hoop duet “Duchesses” (2009), the one-to-one performance “Le Triomphe de la renommée” (2013) and the concert-performance for a one-female band “Silver” (2013), all of which toured the world. She also developed full length performances such as “Patricia Poses by the Pop Machine” (2011), “Ballet” (2014), “Taxi-Dancers” (2016), “Grrrrrrrrrr” (2018). In 2015, following an artist’s residency in Berlin, she developed the radio project “Where’s the MC”. In 2020 she created “Le Cirque Astéroïde”, a performance for 5 dancers in the trailer of a truck, and “Sugar Dance”, with 9 dancers. Since 2008, her works have been presented in theatres, museums, art galleries in Europe, Asia, North and South America. In 2019 she was awarded the Swiss Dance Award for Outstanding Female Dancer by the Federal Office of Culture. In 2021 she created the solo “Eurêka, c’est presque le titre”, commissioned by the Museum Tinguely for the Ahoy event, which toured in more than 13 prestigious European museums. In 2023 she will complete the “Hominal/XXX” triptych, inviting visual artist David Hominal for a new collaboration.

Nelisiwe Xaba received a scholarship to study at the Johannesburg Dance Foundation, as well as the Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance in London. Returning to South Africa in 1997, she joined Pact Dance Company and later launched her solo career, and began working with a variety of esteemed choreographers, including Robyn Orlin. Her work is informed largely by her feminist and racial politics which challenge stereotypes of the black female body and mainstream notions of gender. She has been involved in various multimedia projects, collaborating with visual artists, fashion designers, theatre and television directors and poets and musicians. Her seminal works such as “Plasticization” and “They Look At Me & That’s All They Think” have toured internationally over the last few years. In 2013, Neli performed “The Venus” in Venice as part of Imaginary Fact – Contemporary South African Art and the Archive at the South African pavilion at the Venice Biennale. In the same year, the film version of her acclaimed performance piece “Uncles & Angels”, a collaboration with Mocke J Van Veuren, was awarded the FNB Art Prize. In 2016 she created “Urban Mermaid” which was performed at the Goodman Gallery 50th Anniversary and at Berliner Festspiele. In 2017, she presented “Bang Bang Wo” at the Centre for the Less Good Idea, with funding from National Arts Council. The collaboration “Hominal/Xaba” with Marie-Caroline Hominal, a Swiss dancer and choreographer, premiered in 2019. Her latest piece is a sound installation “Nzinga” for the 2020 Virtual National Arts Festival.