Mzwamadoda Vava: At Zolani Thusong Centre in Nyanga East, the air pulsed with rhythm, sweat, and the spirit of movement as Impande YamaNguni unfolded on…

From the first beat of the drum, the dancers commanded the space. The energy was relentless bodies leaping, bending, stamping, channelling something ancient and deeply familiar. This was not dancing as mere spectacle; it was invocation. It was memory made flesh. The performers did not just move; they became conduits of something greater than themselves – perhaps the ancestors, perhaps history itself, pulsing through muscle and breath.

The performance had an underlying structure, but not in the way a playwright would traditionally define it. It was shaped by waves of energy – peaks of ecstatic movement, moments of quiet tension, then eruptions of rhythm again. The choreography wove elements of traditional Nguni dances with contemporary gestures, creating a fusion that felt both raw and refined. Transitions were seamless, each sequence bleeding into the next, like chapters of an unwritten history.

The music, an unrelenting heartbeat, propelled the performance forward. Percussion dictated the pace, voices lifted in song, and at times, the absence of sound was just as powerful as its presence. Silence, punctuated by breath and footfalls, carried its own weight, amplifying the ancestral resonance of the piece.

Gasa, in describing the production, emphasizes that Impande YamaNguni seeks to promote Indigenous dance forms such as Zulu dance and pantsula within theatrical environments. He highlights its dual function as both artistic expression and therapeutic healing – a theme that was palpable in the performance itself. The piece was a celebration of culture, an assertion of identity, and a reclamation of space for often-underrepresented artists in mainstream theatre. This mission was not simply a backdrop; it was alive in every movement, every stomp that reverberated through the floorboards.

At its core, Impande YamaNguni is about lineage, about the roots (impande) that tie one to land, to past, to spirit. There were moments of defiance, of struggle – bodies resisting invisible forces – before surrendering to something inevitable, something cyclical. This tension between resistance and release was perhaps the strongest narrative thread, not told in words but etched in the sinews of each performer.

As someone accustomed to analysing character arcs and dramatic structures, I found myself instead surrendering to the rhythm of the work. Impande YamaNguni does not seek to explain itself in the way a play might; it demands to be felt. And in that demand, it succeeds powerfully.

This was not just a performance. It was an experience. An offering. A remembering.

Mzwamadoda Vava
bavulele@poppiehuis.info
064 893 0274
PoppieHuis Theatre Workshops
http://www.poppiehuis.info

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