Bodies whiplash into motion sjambokked by internal rhythms. Then the same limbs and torsos shake the ground with one-legged toyi-toyis.
Sitting serenely in the Vuyani Dance Theatre (VDT) studio, scrutinising each movement at Dance Space, is Luyanda Sidiya, the perpetrator of this surreptitious action. Political tyranny isn’t exactly easy choreographic fodder but that hasn’t stopped this dancemaker from plunging into this murky territory.
For Dominion, his 10th work, Sidiya is tackling issues of power in a local as well as universal sense. Veronica Sham’s costumes are, he shows me, inspired by imagery he has provided generated by Adolf Hitler, Muammar Gadaffi and Robert Mugabe.
This work for 10 dancers is based on research he conducted last winter travelling around the Eastern Cape with VDT’s (VDT) Xolisile Bongwana, who is from Port Elizabeth. What shocked the Gautenger, who went as far as Tsolo, was the glaring disparity between the leaders in their Land Rovers and the impoverished masses. “I was so sad,” he explains quietly. “I saw another world. Coming from Joburg I felt I was in a totally different country.”
Does this mean Dominion is depressing? “It is the rise and fall of the foolish man. Lighting designer Oliver Hauser said that after seeing my choreography. My father was in the 1960 Sharpeville massacre. Then I saw what happened at Marikana last year. Who are we fooling? As artists we have to say, ‘this is who we are’, just as Miriam Makeba went to the UN and spoke up during apartheid. What role are we playing as artists today?”
Luyanda Sidiya’s answer to this question is evident in Dominion, which has challenged him to steer away from the traditional dance-fuelled lyricism of Umnikelo (2011).
The vocabulary and the tone appear to be different, which is exactly what he has been striving for while remaining aware of the dangers of being didactic and literal.
Both works share a double bill at the Soweto Theatre from May 29 to June 8 – which ushers in a whole new era for VDT, Gregory Maqoma’s internationally renowned company which relocates to his birth place of Soweto.
But first Dominion will preview in the Wits Theatre at the SANAA Festival on May 25, Africa Day.
Sidiya is not a Sowetan. He was born and grew up in Sebokeng, where he now lives with his dancer-teacher wife Thoko Sekganye, whom he met when they were both with Moving into Dance Mophatong (MIDM), and two daughters aged four and seven. Do they dance? The proud father chuckles as he recounts how they dismiss their parents’ African contemporary dancing – they’re obsessed with ballet.
He started out as a traditional dancer. “It fulfilled my spirit. At home there were challenges. My friends were hijackers. We would buy bullets at the hostels. They called us the Sarafina Boys. That was an insult. We weren’t doing Sarafina.”
What they did dance, with relish and step by step, was Gibson Kente choreography – overalls, dustbins and all – which they called modern dance.
His first taste of contemporary theatre dance was in 1995 at The Dance Factory with the late Wendy David, who played a video of Vincent Mantsoe’s famous solo Gula. “He was amazing. I thought he was a man from the jungle who turned into a bird. I didn’t know I was seeing choreography. I thought it was a style.”
All that changed forever when the 18-year-old, who matriculated at the age of 16 and was six months short of qualifying as a boiler- maker, auditioned for the MIDM teachers’ training course. That took some guts because two years before he had failed his audition for the Expo 99 tour. His graduation solo The Worshipper was seen at the FNB Dance Umbrella.
Having danced with the MIDM the Sidiyas went to the UK to Ace Dance and Music for three years, where Luyanda created Kokuma.
Ace has commissioned him to create a work in 2014.
A decade ago he performed Mantsoe’s Gula at Finland’s Kuopio Dance Festival. Recently he and festival director Jorma Uotinen reconnected on Facebook. Uotinen was so taken with Umnikelo that straight after the Soweto season VDT leaves for Finland where Sidiya will premiere Makwande, his new solo, as well as give a two-day workshop.
The man whose dreams shine through his soulful eyes takes all this accomplishment in his creative stride – without forgetting where he comes from.
• See Dominion@Soweto Theatre in Jabulani from May 29 to June 8. Book at Computicket.