John Matshikiza
WITH THE LID OFF
South Africa, the new kid on the African block, scored heavily at the Sanga Festival of African and Indian Ocean Choreography, held in Antanarivo, the capital of Madagascar, last week. Ntikelelo Boyzie Cekwana’s Floating Outfit Project walked away with first prize in a field of 10 strong contenders for their powerful piece, Rona (Us).
Robyn Orlin’s City Theatre and Dance Group took third place with a piece entitled Daddy, I’ve Seen This Piece Six Times Before and I Still Don’t Know Why They’re Hurting Each Other. In second place was Beatrice Kombe Gnapa, from Cte d’Ivoire, who presented a work called Sans Reperes.
There was some controversy at the outcome, although the losers did not express this in resentment against the winners. The discontent was rather directed against the organisers and the jury for not being clear about their criteria for deciding what was good and what was not so good.
In some ways the controversy was inevitable. Dance is not like chess or rugby, where the rules are rigidly set, and you either get the necessary object to the touchline or you don’t. Dance is subjective, its success or failure largely depending on the eye of the beholder.
The discontent was even greater because one of the strongest companies, the Cameroonian group Nyanga, had been led to believe that their work, Ezezam (Vice) was one of the winners, and were angry and depressed when they had learned, later the same night, that it had been a misunderstanding. They would not, as they had thought, have a chance to present their item a second time in the finals on the following night. The jury had meant to say that they would be giving Nyanga a special “encouragement award” for their challenging piece, and they were not, therefore, in the running for one of the prestigious cash prizes.
Perhaps to be given an “encouragement award” is more demeaning than to be given no award at all. “Encouragement” sounds like a pat on the head, whereas Nyanga, like the other losing groups, felt that their skill and the engaging content of their work had taken them well beyond beginners’ stage. The jury had acted with the best of intentions, but had succeeded in opening up a can of worms that they would have to try and seal up again during the feedback session on the final day of the festival.
“Those who didn’t win a prize shouldn’t be disheartened,” was how festival director Germaine Acogny opened up proceedings at the feedback session. “Being selected to participate at this festival isn’t just about winning. Besides, there’ll always be a next time. Maybe you’ll have better luck then.”
“It’s all very well for you to say that,” said one of the losing participants after listening politely, “but when we return to our respective countries as losers, what do we do next? If there’s going to be a next time, how are we supposed to know what to prepare so that we match up to the demands of the jury? “
It was a loaded question, delivered with an uncompromising glare towards the jurors. The subtext was: what did the jury really know about African contemporary dance, anyway?
Privately, some of the dancers had muttered that it made no sense that an African dance festival should be judged by people who either came from Europe, or, if they were of African origin, had lived in Europe for 20 years and more, and therefore had taken on a different sensibility. Nyanga and other groups were expressing themselves from a contemporary Africa that had its own codes and internal commentaries, full of the witty contradictions of urban African realities.
One of the French jurors bravely ventured into these choppy waters. “Contemporary dance is still a new form in Africa,” he said. “It needs time to develop its own identity – just like what is now called world music developed its own identity. Perhaps you should be holding your own internal festivals so that you yourselves develop a style and a strength that represents what African contemporary dance itself wants to be. I’m sure there are European funders who would be prepared to support such a project.”
Another juror added that it was early days in the life of the Sanga Festival as much as in the life of African contemporary dance, and that the festival’s ways of selecting and judging probably also needed to mature.
But this was scant consolation for dancers who felt that this all represented that age-old problem of the African south perpetually going to the European north with cupped hands outstretched, for money and for guidance. It was a relationship they thought they had got beyond.
The two South African winners were in a relatively strong position in this scenario because, as some French observers pointed out, their work was more visibly attached to the accepted conventions of European and American contemporary dance. This is inevitable, given South Africa’s greater access to these forms.
But as Boyzie Cekwana pointed out, “What is African contemporary dance, anyway? Do we talk about ‘Jewish contemporary dance’ or ‘Greek contemporary dance’? People who observe African contemporary dance from Europe have a kind of romantic view of what they think Africa, and therefore African dance, should be. They don’t take into account the leaps and bounds of intellectual development that have taken place.” Therefore they are missing the point of what is being placed before them.
It’s not a new issue, and, regrettably, it seems likely to be one that will still run on for some time to come.