The 29th Dance Umbrella festival begins in Joburg today and Nhlanhla Mahlangu’s Workers CHANT is on the bill.
The Cape Times got in touch with Mahlangu while he was on his way to rehearsals.
Before shedding light on this particular piece, he revisited his journey into dance.
“I was born in Thokoza on the East Rand. I grew up in a squatter camp. During my childhood, I was in the centre of the ANC and IFP wars,” he says.
Later, he moved to Tembisa, where he joined a choir group.
He adds, “My love for music has always been with me since I was a child. I remember singing Struggle songs in the street. This was in 1985. And it became a part of me, even though I wasn’t considered a comrade or freedom fighter. I just thought the music was beautiful.
“I wanted to study music but I couldn’t afford the music schools. This was in 1998.
“I went to auditions for Moving Into Dance to de-stress as I didn’t know what to do. And then I was accepted and given a scholarship,” Mahlangu says.
“I didn’t intend to study there. Then I became a dancer with one of the most prestigious dance companies and was travelling the world.”
In 2007 he left to start his own company, SONG and DANCE WORKS, with wife Sonia Radebe, also a choreographer and dancer. She recently won the Standard Bank Young Artist of the Year honours for dance.
Mahlangu says, “It’s not necessarily a dance company.
“We do educational theatre, corporate performances”
Back to Workers CHANT. He confirms: “Yes, this piece was commissioned. It forms part of the CHANT series, which started with my first solo. Then I did a group piece called We CHANT.
“So I just keep chanting, still haunted by memories of South Africa in the 1980s.” With regards to this particular piece, he reveals: “It pays homage to the migrant workers who built the city of Johannesburg with their bare hands.”
At this point, he references the coal train that Hugh Masekela was talking about on his song Stimela, which came from Zambia and Malawi, bringing young and old men to work in the mines in Joburg.
He adds: “The Workers Museum is one of the first compounds that show how the men who worked in various industries lived.
“When I walked into the museum, I looked at the beds made from concrete, which looked like (they belonged in) a mortuary.
“I decided to activate this space and express how I feel about it.
“And when I got a residency at Dance Umbrella last year, I started exploring the Workers CHANT.
“This year, Georgina (Thomson) commissioned the full works and we are glad to be opening.”
The show comprises 15 men and two women. “We have an isicathamiya music ensemble.
“As you know isicathamiya was popularised by Ladysmith Black Mambazo.
“There are a number of groups who are just as good, if not better, than them.
“ This group (in the show) have been singing together since they were five. They are still together. Now they are between the ages of 25 and 29,” he says.
They also have a professional dancer, who is a graduate from Tshwane University of Technology, and a dramatic arts graduate from the University of Cape Town, performing in Workers CHANT.
He adds, “In our history, when these men came to Johannesburg from their homelands, they were not supposed to sing and have fun because the white people would think they were conspiring.
“So they would sing softly and step lightly. That is the language.”
On the impact this performance will have on audiences, he offers: “When we are in touch with our past, we understand the current problems even better. And the Workers CHANT is a rollercoaster ride. It’s a juxtaposition of ugliness and beauty.
“The music is absolutely beautiful. While you are being mesmerised by the harmony of the voices, you will be astonished by the position of the bodies, the space and the story the art tells.
“You will smile and cry at the same time.”