28 days left until DanceWeekend!
For today’s countdown we are featuring Mafa Dance Village! Mafa Dance Village will be teaching an interactive virtual workshop: African- Contemporary Sunday July 17 at 11am and will be performing at 5:15pm on the #DanceWeekend stage. Mafa Dance Village is presented in partnership with dance Immersion.
FB: @mafafdancevillage
IG: @mafadancevillage
TW: @mafadancevillage
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself/your company?
Mafa Dance Village uses dance as a vehicle to invoke and inspire stories that impact social unity to break the cultural silence by sharing our stories in movement, singing and drumming. Our pedagogy approach as a dance ecosystem looks to diversify who is seen, rather than diversify a limited spectrum of dance genres, I always feel the needs to advocate a paradigm shift where we value any given arts form as part of its larger cultural ecosystem. Sharing safe open space for more arts forms to widen the arts’ in reach.
What will you be sharing at DanceWeekend’22?
“Lentswe la Setjhaba” Voice of the Nation a choreography that hybrids the Africa tradition aesthetic with African contemporary and Afro-House in relation to the rhythm of our everyday life memories. “What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead,” by Nelson Mandela. The work is inspired by the legacy of Nelson Mandela’s idea of “Rainbow Nation”, his passion to move forward by acknowledging the past to advocate a space that allows freedom of imagining a future of a diverse and inclusive rainbow nation that promote the Nation Mental Health Wellness.
How has the pandemic shifted your work as a professional dance artist?
The pandemic has allowed me to reincarnate with my South African Traditional healing practice cultural background of creating with nature to ground me the idea that African Contemporary dance performance in public space is an act of cultural healing transformation and an attempt to reunite art with the daily life of the village, in a holistic entry point of Black Mental Health Wellness practice art accessible to all.
Please share what you are most looking forward to at Dance Ontario’s return to live performances at DanceWeekend?
A safe space to reimagine the future that give us free rein to imagine the art we can create when we acknowledges our shared history.