Arguably the most prestigious award for any young dance maker in South Africa, the Standard Bank Young Artist Award (SBYA) for 2018 has just been given to a KZN son and a very deserving Musa Hlatshwayo.
The award has not often journeyed into KZN with only a few luminaries like Mlu Zondi and Boyzie Cekwana on its list. Hlatshwayo thus honours not only Durban and KZN with this award but also his own already impressive career as a dance maker, teacher and cultural activist. The award affords primarily the space and funding to support the creation of a full-length dance work that will premiere at the National Arts Festival’s main stage in Grahamstown next year.
Leading past awardees include Robyn Orlin, Gregory Maqoma, Dada Masilo and Mamela Nyamza, to name only a few.
I recently met up with Musa to ask what this award means to him. I am struck by his solid no nonsense presence and by a forthright gaze that often hides a very tender heart. I am of course a huge fan of this man and his work; and of him as an eager artist whose own dance pathways has seen him not abandon his roots.
The organisers of the Standard Bank Young Artist Award (SBYA) in South Africa have announced award recipients for next year’s edition. Musa Hlatshwayo does KZN proud, having won his second major award. Picture: Supplied
His rise to being nationally noticed by the SBYA committee is also in respect of his dedicated years of training and teaching fellow KZN dancers.
I asked him what he felt about the award and he humbly answered: “It is such an honour and an exciting validation. It makes me feel like my contribution to dance is being acknowledged.
“It reassures me that my voice as a young South African artist and my efforts in the development of dance is appreciated and noted as impactful”.
This award comes with a lot of pressure and media attention and I ask Musa how he plans to deal with this. In his usual down to earth way he say, “I am fortunate to have a network of friends within the industry whom I refer to as family and I am genuinely part of a dance community that really cares and is unselfish with their guidance. These range from people that I learnt from to people that I learnt with.
“These are all the giants whose shoulders I proudly stand on and I know they all have my back.”
Musa’s dance work is notable for the incredible confluence and fusion of traditional dance and storytelling within a modern framework that questions contemporary gender, race and cultural issues.
His dance work packs a punch primarily for the critical navigations of his own rural roots; which he constantly returns to with a push-pull energy. With a BA. Hons degree in Drama and Dance from UKZN, Musa’s dance work certainly provokes debate. He is a perfect choice for the SBYA.
I end our meeting hoping for a hint of the dance work to come and he simply smiles and says, “I work a lot from my dreams and so ideas and visions mostly come to me in moments when I least expect – without me even knowing where and how it will all fit together. So for now I am dreaming a little and trying see what the all the ancestors are saying …. “
I cannot wait to see what this award allows Musa Hlatshwayo to create.