I love you, choreographers. Through contemporary dance, you say what cannot be said in words alone. You have the power to bring ideas, feelings and beauty to life in ways that others cannot. Contemporary dance matters; thus, you matter. You are important and worthy of my love because of the potential creativity and cogency that you can manifest on your stages.
Participating as both a writer and virtual audience member of the 23rd Annual JOMBA! Contemporary Dance experience left me seated with a lot of questions. I believe this is a great way to conclude a festival, or any interaction with art. There is something enticing about dangling threads waiting to be pulled; loose ends can feel much more satisfying than answers.
Closing out the 23rd JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience was “SHE POEMS,” by 2021 Pina Bausch Fellow Aïda Colmenero Dïaz. Of the 20 films she produced since the project’s inception in 2013, the seven chosen for viewing here (according to her website), “question the stereotypes that the western collective imaginary imposes on Black African female bodies…”
I had just started my junior year in college; my first (and only) semester as a resident assistant. I became an RA mostly because they get their own rooms, but I think, in hindsight, I also genuinely wanted to support people.
When a plane struck the World Trade Center, I was in the computer lab at Barat College, a tiny liberal arts school in Lake Forest, IL. I was checking my email because the dial-up connection was too slow in my room. Another student burst into the lab and told us classes were cancelled because the White House was on fire.
“She Poems,” a project by Aïda Colmenero Dïaz, takes the poems and texts of African women to inspire and create dance short films. A handful were shown virtually as the final platform of the 23rd JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Festival. The films are based widely geographically, in Tanzania, South Africa, Senegal and Togo, among several other African countries.
GRASS is a new dance theater work from The Seldoms about turf grass and cannabis, investigating the war on weeds and the war on weed. Through dance, text, and animation, GRASS shows how the lawn and marijuana have each been used to measure morality, impose ideals of citizenship, and to stigmatize, criminalize, and exclude those who don’t conform.
The Chicago SummerDance in the Parks series returns this summer, presented with the Chicago Park District. Dancers of all ages and skill levels are invited to take part in family and creative activities from 4:30–5:30pm and introductory dance lessons by professional instructors followed by live music and dancing from 5:30–7:30pm. Salsa in the Park with music by Chicago Latin Groove, dance instruction by Latin Street
Directed and Choreographed by Meghan Frederick
Conversation Moderated by Laura Paige Kyber
Yaseen Manuel, a Cape Town dance artist and the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s 2021 Mellon Foundation Artist in Residence, premiered two dance films for the 23rd JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience: “Al-Kitab” and “UNHINGED.” Both films, brought to life by filmmaker Kieshia Solomon, shifted JOMBA!’s curatorial provocation of “Border Crossings” to the terrain of the self: in mind and matter.
“Al-Kitab” looks at Manuel’s life as a contemporary South African Islamic dancer, as he traverses realms between his religion and his art in search of common ground.
Directed by Andy Hines and choreographed by Rauf “Rubberlegz” Yasit, the dance film “Same Sky” is a tender display of vulnerability, filled with close-ups and lingering shots that meditate on simple moments exploring the hopeful spark of connection. Part of Jacob Jonas The Company’s Films.Dance series, this piece was created as one of 15 short films designed to facilitate diverse interdisciplinary dance collaborations shot during the COVID-19 pandemic.