≈ 60 minutes · No intermission
Last updated: February 22, 2023
Cathy's Note
Gregory Maqoma wears so many hats: he is a remarkable performer, choreographer, creative director, teacher and producer, and by extension, an inspiration for hundreds of his fellow South African artists. Born in Soweto, he first discovered his love for dance in his late teens, and has, over the last three decades, distinguished himself as a highly respected visionary. Gregory’s work is both personal and universal, and whether creating for Lyon Opera Ballet or the UK’s Ballet Black, collaborating with actor Idris Elba, or contributing to the creative vision of the recent musical Mandela, his signature choreographic style illuminates the human spirit above all. In Broken Chord, created with composer Thuthuka Sibisi he challenges the relationship between the coloniser and the colonised, and offers a work that is, at its core, about human triumph. In Maqoma’s hands, we are emotionally charged to address and confront urgent societal issues through the beauty of voice and dance.
Enjoy!
Directors' notes
Between 1891-1893 a group of young African singers travelled by boat to Britain, Canada and America. This ensemble of the missionary-educated black elite, named The African (Native) Choir, were on a mission to raise funds for a technical school in Kimberley, South Africa. Using traditional Xhosa and contemporary dance styles alongside atmospheric soundscapes, we weave together recorded personal accounts of the African Choir, revealing a drama of truly global dimensions , whilst simultaneously looking at the black body as a political site. Further, questioning the relationship between the colonised and the coloniser; and either’s complicity in shaping and shifting a South African narrative - past and present. Broken Chord not only reflects on an archive but looks to trigger, critique and comment on urgent issues of migration, dispossession, borders and paths of forced closure - a deliberate and disturbing gesture on the part of the West against the other.
We come from, and have been taught in, a music and movement tradition that stipulates itself according to this binary of the West vs the other. What then comes to the fore is how the West concretely safeguards itself and its boundaries. We want to disrupt this positioning by planting ourselves at the centre of this dichotomy thus becoming the friction that can summon, envision and engender a newer, more original conversation concerned with sonic-gestured worlds: who do we write these worlds for; whose stories are we to tell through these movements, sounds and text practices? Ultimately, this work serves as a deliberate and fiercely subjective act of self-beatification.
In this work we focus on the voice not only as a bearer of loss, hope, wisdom, and affection but also as an instrument of witnessing - of seeing and re-membering. What makes this work unique is the origin of the musical material - renderings and sketches adopted from a meagre and faint program of songs. From this arises a severe provocation; encouraging a want to dance, dart, ripple and rip apart; a desire to dive deep and far into imagining what these songs looked, tasted, sounded and felt like. Central to this we find our instigator; the messenger, the saviour, the destructor, the disembodied figure of a broken past.
Gregory Maqoma et Thuthuka Sibisi
Artists
Born in Soweto in 1973, Greg became interested in dance in the late 1980s as a means to escape the political tensions growing in his place of birth. He started his formal dance training in 1990 at Moving into Dance wherein in 2002 he became the Associate Artistic Director. Maqoma has established himself as an internationally renowned dancer, choreographer, teacher, director and scriptwriter. He founded Vuyani Dance Theatre (VDT) in 1999 when he was undertaking a scholarship at the Performing Arts Research and Training School (PARTS) in Belgium under the direction of Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker.
Maqoma is respected for his collaborations with artists of his generation. Since 2000 he has collaborated with choreographers including Akram Khan, Vincent Mantsoe, Faustin Linyekula, Dada Masilo, Shanell Winlock and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui.
Several works in his VDT repertoire have won him accolades and international acclaim. They include FNB Vita Choreographer of the Year in 1999, 2001 and 2002 for Rhythm 1.2.3, Rhythm Blues and Southern Comfort respectively. He received the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Dance in 2002. Maqoma was a finalist in the Daimler Chrysler Choreography Award in 2002 and the Rolex Mentorship Programme in 2003. He is the recipient of the 2012 Tunkie Award for Leadership in Dance, which is presented annually to a South African who has elevated the standard and visibility of dance in South Africa.
In 2017 the French Government awarded Maqoma the honorific Chevalier de L’ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
Thuthuka Sibisi’s musical education began at the world-renowned Drakensberg Boy’s Choir School where his passion for performance was born. He subsequently went on to graduate with a Bachelor of Music at Stellenbosch University in 2011. Alongside his music studies, he completed studies in Physical Theatre and Movement with Sam Prigge and Estelle Olivier. He is a graduate of the MA (Performance Making) program at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK.
Thuthuka has toured extensively, performing throughout South Africa as well as Asia and South America. Further tours include Stockholm, as Musical Director of Philip Miller’s opera Between A Rock and A Hard Place (premier) in collaboration with Cape Town Opera. Further, he was Associate Conductor and Chorus Master for Bongani Ndonana-Breen’s oratorio Credo, which was written to commemorate UNISA’s 140th anniversary of its founding. Other engagements include Chorus Master for UCT Opera School: Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites, Rossini's Il Viaggio a Reims and Four:30 - South African Operas.
Visual collaborations include work with Johannesburg-based photographer and sculptor, Jake Singer, on Joburg City Hustle (2015) and Intersections To This City (2014) - presented at Sustainable Empires (Venice, Italy) and Los Angeles Centre for Digital Art (USA). Other exhibition work includes a reiteration of the short opera Between A Rock and A Hard Place into a live-art installation – renamed Extracts from The Underground (2013) - presented at The Cape Town City Hall; in collaboration with Gordon Institute of Creative Arts. This installation was later presented at Wits Art Museum in 2014 as part of The Migrant Journey Series. In 2016 a new work, a sound/image installation, The African Choir 1891 Re-imagined was presented as part of the Black Chronicles Archive Laboratory display at Autograph ABP (London).
In China, he served as Musical Director to Philip Miller’s Pulling Numbers (premier) and performed as Musical Director for Ciné-Concert presented as part of Notes Toward a Model Opera by William Kentridge. 2016 also saw Thuthuka make his Italian debut as Music Director for William Kentridge’s Triumphs and Laments to be presented in Rome, Italy. Further projects include a commission by Cape Town Opera for Musiques Sacrées d’Afrique et d’Europe, in residence at Festival International d’Aix-en-Provence (France).
Most currently he is the Musical Director and co-composer alongside Philip Miller for William Kentridge’s The Head and The Load to premier in July 2018 at London’s The Tate Modern. He is a recipient of the Mail & Guardian 200 Young South Africans 2017 award and the 2018 Ampersand Foundation Fellow.
The Capital Chamber Choir (CCC) is an auditioned ensemble of experienced choral singers from the National Capital Region. The choir and Artistic Director, Jamie Loback, are committed to bringing a diverse range of choral music—particularly modern, Canadian, and local works—to audiences through high-calibre and engaging performances. Founded in 2009 by Dr. Sara Brooks, the choir is a true collaboration, emphasizing the importance of collegiality in generating an integrated choral sound. The CCC is a volunteer-led organization that draws executive board and committee members from within the ensemble.
Each season, the CCC presents a concert series in addition to undertaking collaborative projects with other musicians. The choir has collaborated with notable ensembles, including the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Thirteen Strings Chamber Orchestra, the Elmer Iseler Singers, and the Canadian Chamber Choir and hosted masterclasses or performances with composers, including John Rutter, Morten Lauridsen, Ola Gjeilo, and Ēriks Ešenvalds. The CCC released its all-Canadian debut album, The Delight of Paradise, in April 2017. In 2018, the choir performed a Spotlight concert in St. John’s, Newfoundland, as part of the Podium Choral Conference and Festival. The CCC won second prize in the Mixed-Voice Adult Choirs category of the National Competition for Canadian Amateur Choirs in 2019 and was invited to perform at Rideau Hall for recipients of the Order of Canada.
Though the COVID-19 pandemic halted live performances in 2020 and 2021, the CCC took advantage of the break to record two video sessions on YouTube. The choir re-emerged on stage in Fall 2021 and has been building up to consistent seasons since! The CCC looks forward to its 2024-2025 season program, including innovative works on the National Arts Centre stage, exploring soundscapes with a local connection, a revival concert, and celebrating our 15th anniversary!
Credits
Artistic Team
- Concept
Gregory Maqoma and Thuthuka Sibisi - Choreographer
Gregory Maqoma - Composer and music director
Thuthuka Sibisi - Dramaturg
Shanell Winlock - Technical Design
Oliver Hauser - Sound Design
Nthuthuko Mbuyazi - Costume Design
Maxhosa by Laduma Ngxokolo
Performers
- Gregory Maqoma
- Tshegofatso Khunwane
- Lubabalo Velebhayi
- Xolisile Bongwana
- Zandile Hlatshwayo
Production Team
Executive Producer
Gregory Maqoma Industries
Production Manager
Siyandiswa Dokoda
Assistant to Composer
Mhlaba Buthelezi
Movement Understudy
Katleho Lekhula
Wardrobe Assistant
Nathi Mnisi
Co-Production
Festival Grec – Barcelona
Manchester International Festival
Théâtre de la Ville – Paris
Weimar Arts Festival (National Theater) Festpielhaus St Pölten
Torinodanza Festival / Teatro Stabile di Torino - Teatro Nazionale
Festival Aperto / Fondazione I Teatri – Reggio Emilia
Stanford Live at Stanford University
Sadler’s Wells
Special Thanks to
The Market Theatre Foundation, Tshwane University of Technology Performing Arts (Vocal Arts) and Carlos Cansino Pérez.
Local Artists
Choir
Capital Chamber Choir
NAC Dance Team
Executive Producer
Cathy Levy
Senior Producer
Tina Legari
Special Projects Coordinator and Assistant to the Executive Producer
Mireille Nicholas
Company Manager
Sophie Anka
Education Associate and Teaching Artist
Siôned Watkins
Technical Director
Brian Britton
Communications Strategist
Julie Gunville
Marketing Strategist
Marie-Chantale Labbé-Jacques
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees