Durban — A book to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience, will be launched at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre, UKZN, on Tuesday evening.
The special edition titled, ‘Archiving History and Memory’ is published in partnership with the University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, supported and sponsored by the French Institute of SA (IFAS) and Business and Arts South Africa (BASA).
“The book is especially significant in remembering African creative histories in a time when forgotten Southern-based archives are being politicised in decolonial frameworks,” says Dr Lliane Loots, Curator and Artistic Director of JOMBA!.
She said the book is offered as an archival project that holds an activist agenda, and fights for carefully and methodically curated creative African histories to be remembered and honoured.
The book editor, Tammy Ballantyne Webber, said it placed emphasis on offering a poetic user-friendly archive of the 25 years of JOMBA!’s history and legacy.
She continued: “The festival functions as a community of change agents; it is a living, breathing entity embracing activist artists who seek to probe, question, activate and challenge”.
She said Jomba! was special because it was one of the only SA dance platforms providing national and international opportunities and exposure for dancers and choreographers.
We have tried through the photographic and editorial content to celebrate the 25-year journey, showcasing its rich history and the incredible archive of the South African dance landscape.”
The book features a photographic essay of carefully selected festival images taken over the years by award-winning photographer Val Adamson (an eThekwini Living Legend), who has documented the festival from the very beginning. There are curated birthday messages from local, African and international choreographers, dance makers and friends of JOMBA!. And it includes a valuable archival overview detailing the programme, choreographers, and performers for every year of the festival.
“We have tried through the photographic and editorial content to celebrate the 25-year journey, showcasing its rich history and the incredible archive of the South African dance landscape and we believe it will find an audience with creative arts-based scholars, researchers and practitioners, academic institutions where performance studies are offered, humanities-based scholars, and artists and dance practitioners who seek memory/archive of their own practices, said Ballantyne Webber.
The book will be available to purchase for R150 (cash only) at the launch and during the festival from the Box Office, Sneddon Theatre, until September 10.
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