This year, the Centre for Creative Art’s JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience reaches its 25th year anniversary.

As part of celebrating this longevity of South Africa’s longest-running dance festival, CCA has formed a partnership with the Market Theatre to collaborate in sharing a smaller and carefully curated “JOMBA! @ THE MARKET”.

Selected local and international dance companies will travel to Johannesburg and the Market Theatre and will feature in a week-long celebration of some of the world’s most profound and provoking dance makers and dance companies. Gauteng and Market Theatre audiences will have an opportunity to revel in the performance excellence of “JOMBA! @ THE MARKET” between 12 to 17 September.

The 2023 JOMBA! festival curatorial theme (or provocation) is “(in)tangible heritages” and of special interest will be new work by Ms Mamela Nyamza who has been named the JOMBA! 2023 Legacy Artist.

JOMBA! Curator and UKZN Dance lecturer, Dr Lliane Loots said, ‘Nyamza’s cutting edge and deeply interrogated dance work spans over two decades of dance-making in South Africa and internationally, and as JOMBA! hits its iconic 25th year, we can think of no better artist to celebrate as our JOMBA! Legacy Artist. We celebrate Mamela for her vision and practice, and for significantly contributing to our country’s rich critical contemporary dance history and legacy.’

Alongside a fascinating special bouquet of dance work on offer, JOMBA! @ THE MARKET will also offer a series of workshops and masterclasses in a bid to support dance skills development and training, and will include a special focus on workshops/masterclasses for lighting dance, a technique of dance.

For more information about JOMBA!, go to https://jomba.ukzn.ac.za/.