About Vuyani Dance Theatre
The Vuyani Dance Theatre (VDT) is a contemporary African dance company founded in 1999 by Creative Director Gregory Maqoma. After years of gracing international and local stages, VDT is positioned as one of the most cutting-edge, thought provoking and successful dance and theatrical organisations to have emerged in Africa. VDT is spot-on regarding its artistic objective of producing work that questions and challenges social values while, simultaneously, exploiting history as a launch pad for (material) research and development. The company has performed in Europe, the USA, Africa, Mexico and New Zealand. It has scooped top awards in South Africa for dance and choreography and has received international recognition and continues to do so. VDT constantly finds co-creators and performers from all over the world. Hitherto, the interaction that includes ideas and empirical artistic participation has led VDT in the direction of efficacy. It can be stated without doubt, at the moment, that all who have been aligned (in turns) with VDT since inception have in one way or another gained from the organization.
About Gregory Maqoma
Gregory Vuyani Maqoma became interested in dance in the late 1980s as a means to escape the growing political tensions growing in Soweto, South Africa, where he was born. He started his formal dance training in 1990 at Moving into Dance, where he, later, became the Associate Artistic Director in 2002. He founded Vuyani Dance Theatre (VDT) in 1999 while undertaking a scholarship at the Performing Arts Research and Training School (PARTS) in Belgium, under the direction of Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker. Maqoma has established himself as an internationally renowned dancer, choreographer, teacher, and director.
Amongst awards Gregory has received between 1993 and now, his first, Dance Umbrella peak of the stepping stones choreography award for “where, here and there’. In 2002, Maqoma received the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for dance and was a finalist in the Daimler Chrysler Choreography Award. He was a finalist in the Rolex Mentorship Programme in 2003. Several works in his repertoire have won him accolades and international acclaim, including the Tunkie Award for Leadership in Dance (2012), and a “Bessie”, New York City’s premier dance award for Exit/Exist for original music composition (2014). He served as a nominator in the 2016-2017 Rolex Arts Initiative as well as curating the 2017 Main Dance Programme for the National Arts Festival.
The French government honoured Maqoma with the Chevalier de L’Ordre des Artes et des Lettres (Knight of the Arts & Literature) Award in 2017. The following year, 2018, Maqoma collaborated with William Kentridge as a choreographer and performer in “The Head and the Load,” an opera which premiered at the Tate Modern Gallery in London, and is still touring Europe, and the United States. Maqoma collaborated with Idris Elba and Kwame Kwei-Armah in the production, “Tree,” produced by Manchester International Festival and the Young Vic (2018). In 2020, Maqoma was honoured to deliver the prestigious International Dance Day message under the auspices of the International Theatre Institute and UNESCO.
Recently he was commissioned by Ballet De Lyon to create, “The Valley of Human Sounds” and Ballet Black to create, “Black Sun”. Maqoma wrote and directed his first musical in 2022,“Third World Express” in collaboration with Shadrack Bokaba which premiered at the Mandela at Joburg Theatre. Shortly after he choreographed for another new musical, “Mandela”, directed by Schele Williams with music created by Greg and Shaun Borowsky produced by the Young Vic in London. ZO!Mute, a new double-bill with Vincent Mantsoe premiered at the Lesedi at Joburg Theatre in February 2023.
Maqoma celebrates his fiftieth birthday in 2023 and he has curated a number of legacy projects that he will be revealing as the year progresses.
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For Enquiries contact:
Siyandiswa Dokoda
Production and Marketing Manager
siya@vuyani.co.za
0712616625
Tickets available through Webticket and at the door
Ticket prices: R300
Discounted @ R120 only available when you contact Anthony Ezeoke 011 832 1641ext 203/ 083 246 4950