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JOMBA! FEMME FORWARD Screen Dance Residency 2026

The 2026 JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience, hosted by the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s award-winning Centre for Creative Arts, calls for applications for its JOMBA! Femme Forward Screen Dance Residency, which takes place during the festival from 24 August to 29 August.

Besides presenting edgy live contemporary dance, as well as workshops, talks and its dance-writers - and female-focused residencies, JOMBA! also supports, hosts and nurtures a digital dance platform that has an open call for submissions to be featured at the festival.

Darkroom Contemporary Artistic Director Louise Coetzer with company dancer Tania Mteto. Image by Oscar O’Ryan.

This year’s continuation of the JOMBA! Femme Forward Residency focuses on the development of female-identifying dance artists who are eager to develop their digital screen dance practice.  Having screened almost 50 dance films over the past 5 years JOMBA! is dedicated to investing in the craft of screen dance making and following the 2023 screen dance residency run by Mozambican duo Pak Ndjamena and Ivan Barros JOMBA is thrilled to be partnering with Cape Town based Darkroom Contemporary Dance Theatre to execute this year’s 6-day residency.  

The residency offers space for 5 female-identifying dancers / dance makers aged between 18 and 35 years who have some dance training and have a keen interest in upskilling themselves to become digital screen dance creators. 

This JOMBA! Femme Forward Screen Dance Residency is being run in partnership with  Darkroom Contemporary Dance Theatre (Cape Town, South Africa),  a project-based company which was founded in 2010, and formed as a vehicle to reimagine dance through its innovative approach to staging and presenting contemporary works.

Founders Louise Coetzer, a dancer and choreographer, and Oscar O’Ryan, a photographer and filmmaker, bring together expertise from their respective fields to form a dynamic partnership. Their projects provide platforms and create opportunities for skills development and exchange among all artists involved. They focus on the use of new technology and digital media frame their artistic approach. Similarly does interdisciplinary exploration, with project collaborators including visual artists, musicians, designers, filmmakers and digital artists.

“We remain deeply committed to creating accessible, inclusive spaces for dance-makers,” says JOMBA!’s Project Manager, Thobile Maphanga. “The Femme Forward Residency is about amplifying young female-identifying voices in dance, and this year specifically in screen-dance, giving them the tools and confidence to tell their stories in powerful new ways, making their work accessible to wider global audiences.”

“We are excited to collaborate with JOMBA! on this residency,” says Louise Coetzer of Darkroom Contemporary Dance Theatre. “Screen dance opens up fresh possibilities for choreography and creativity, and we want participants to experiment, take risks, and discover their own unique voices in the digital space.”

The Residency will focus primarily on developing dance filmmaking skills (from conceptualisation, pre-production planning, filming to editing considerations). The outcome will be a short screen dance film, created individually by each participant. Included in the residency will be access to dance workshops by choreographers visiting the festival, assistance in forging a professional image and instilling good work ethic that will aid the young makers to promote their future work.  The residents will also have access to the full festival programme and have the opportunity to meet and engage with professional companies and choreographers that are visiting the festival.

The selection will be done through an application process that requires the applicant to motivate why they want to be a part of the residency.  Participants will be expected to be available for the full 6-day duration (24-29 August 2026) with the outcomes of the residency presented at the JOMBA! Forging Futures platform on Saturday, 29 August 2026.  There is no cost to participate, and a nominal stipend is paid to support residents with transport and food for the 6 days. Applicants must reside in and around Durban.

For more information about the application criteria and selection process, go to https://jomba.ukzn.ac.za/jomba-femme-forward-screen-dance-residency-2026/.

Applications can be made here https://forms.gle/8BcWYQVZgyPx4twf7 . Applications close on Monday 22 June 2026 at 5pm.

FLATFOOT DANCE COMPANY presents new works in ENKUNDLENI in May

KZN’s premier contemporary dance company presents a new season called ENKUNDLENI for two performances only at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre on Friday, 8 May at 7pm and Saturday, 9 May at 2.30pm.

Referencing open spaces where we gather, ENKUNDLENI offers audiences four new cutting-edge works created by company dancers, Sifiso Khumalo, Jabu Siphika, Siseko Duba, and Zinhle Nzama, with direction and dramaturgy by company artistic director Lliane Loots.

Siseko Duba and Sbonga Ndlovu in FLATFOOT's new season of work titled ENKUNDLENI  at Sneddon Theatre on 8th and 9th May 2026

“It’s a programme of dance that reminds us of the power of our bodies to tell stories; stories of pain and triumph, of deep self-reflections and of community,” says Loots. “These works honour the storyteller in all of us, as we see the six incredible dancers of FLATFOOT tackle the most personal and most beautiful parts of being human at this time in our difficult geopolitics”. 

The season begins with Siseko Duba’s quartet “iPupho” that dives into the powerful and mysterious terrain of dreams. The work captures the uncanny experience of awakening within a dream - where the body moves through worlds that feel intensely real, yet remain just beyond reach. Given the deep African connection to ancestral presence and dreams, this work navigates a very contemporary world of memory, self, and belonging. 

Jabu Siphika in FLATFOOT's new season of work titled ENKUNDLENI  at Sneddon Theatre on 8th and 9th May 2026

Zinhle Nzama’s duet “BRIGHTEST DARKNESS” explores the deep paradox of finding light within darkness. It is an intimate duet between a man and a woman, where these two figures navigate tension, resistance, connection, and letting go, as an act of courage rather than defeat. Ultimately, Nzama’s work offers audiences a testament to survival and triumph – beautiful and painful!

Jabu Siphika’s solo work, next on the programme, “Ngibize Siphi?” explores the search for identity through the question of one’s surname. The solo reflects a deeply personal journey of belonging, loss, and self-discovery as Siphika navigates her own fragmented amaZulu histories and the need for recognition through how we are, or are not, named. 

FLATFOOT veteran, Sifiso Khumalo ends the programme with his new work, “in transit”. Echoing a nation that sits, stands, and waits in long queues, this extraordinary male trio delves into how we stop, move on, wait to continue, and endlessly begin again and again. The work infers a deep-seated distress at the waiting on broken promises – be these local, personal, and further global politics.  

FLATFOOT partners again with lighting designer Wesley Maherry whose evocative designs see these four works sculpturally find a home on the Sneddon stage. Maherry’s lighting intensifies the narratives of each work and pulls the audience into the visions and contemporary world of ENKUNDLENI.

FLATFOOT’s ENKUNDLENI has two performances only at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre, on Friday 8 May at 7pm and Saturday 9 May at 2.30pm.

Tickets are R100 each (students, scholars and pensioners pay R80). Booking is via Webtickets  - https://www.webtickets.co.za/event.aspx?itemid=1592907018

This season is made possible through a partnership with the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre (UKZN).

Flatfoot to Dance in the Park - Botanic Gardens, Durban, 7 - 11 April at 5pm

FLATFOOT DANCE COMPANY 

in association with the Durban Botanic Gardens Trust, 

presents  “PARK DANCES #1” Durban Botanic Gardens

 7 – 11 April @ 5pm

COST: R100 per ticket 

 

Join Flatfoot Dance Company for its inaugural “Park Dances #1” in the lush surroundings of Durban’s exquisite Botanic Gardens for an outdoor sundowner dance experience from 7 to 11 April at 5pm each evening.

 

This short outdoor season, allows the audience to relax and safely watch Durban’s much-loved dance company in a celebration of joyous dance with good music in true Flatfoot style.

 

This hour-long explosion of dance has been collaboratively created by the full company: Sifiso Khumalo, Jabu Siphika, Lliane Loots, Zinhle Nzama, Mthoko Mkhwanazi, Sbonga Ndlovu, Siseko Duba and Ndumiso Dube. It offers a rich confluence of African rhythms, with classical and contemporary influence and execution.

 

This is the first Flatfoot’s “Park Dances” taking place during 2021 that will engage the natural environment of Durban’s parks as renewed and reimagined spaces to watch dance. 

 

“We are delighted to start off our Park season in collaboration with the Durban Botanic Gardens Trust and to have this opportunity to share this incredibly beautiful living space with audiences,” says Artistic Director Lliane Loots.

 

This is a family-friendly performance and audiences may bring picnics and blankets to sit on. Entrance opens at 4.15pm for patrons to settle in, enjoy a picnic or a stroll around the gardens before the show begins at 5pm. 

 

There is ample safe parking at the main Botanic Gardens Visitors Complex entrance. All COVID-19 safety protocols are in place, and masks must be worn. There is a maximum audience of 50 per show with demarcated areas to sit. Tickets are R100 and must be booked and paid for in advance – there are no door sales. To book contact Clare on flatfootdancecompany@gmail.com.

JOMBA! Dance and Choreographic Workshops

Media Release

JOMBA! Dance and Choreographic Workshops

 

The annual JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience will host a variety of workshops open to the general public from 29 August to 8 September at various venues around Durban. 

 

JOMBA! is hosted by the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Centre for Creative Arts and celebrates its 20th edition this year under the theme ‘Legacy’. These workshops fall within the festival’s ongoing endeavours to develop the South African contemporary dance landscape, and are offered free of charge to participants, however booking is essential as places are limited. Unless otherwise stated these workshops are open to dancers 18 years and older of all abilities.

 

An Afrofusion session for youth from 6 to 18 years of age conducted by Johannebsurg-based Moving Into Dance Mophatong kicks off the workshops at KwaMashu Sports Hall on Thursday 29 August from 4pm to 5:30 pm.  On the same day, other dance-makers from Moving Into Dance Mophatong will conduct an Adult Afrofusion session from 4:30 to 6 pm. This and all other workshops take place at the UKZN Dance Studio, Drama Studies Practical Block.

 

From India, celebrated dance-maker Anita Ratnam will facilitate a workshop on Saturday, 1 September from 10am to 12noon. This choreographic workshop looks at some of the styles and techniques that Anita uses to create her dance work. No prior knowledge of Indian classical dance is needed and this workshop.

 

Award-winning Durban dancer and choreographer, Musa Hlatshwayo will facilitate a session which focuses on growing the lexicon of dance language that includes an encounter with both traditional and African contemporary dance styles. This workshop takes place on Tuesday, 4 September from 4pm to 6pm.

 

Malagasy dance-maker Gaby Saranouffi and South Africa’s Moeketsi Koena will facilitate a workshop that will look into exploring some of the unique contemporary styles and techniques that are seen at the confluence of their collaborative dance work. This takes place on Thursday, 6 September from 5pm to 6:30 pm.

 

Spain’s extraordinary Aida Colmenero Diaz takes a session on September 8 from 10am to 12 noon where she will explore her African dance and Spanish roots in a fire-filled and energetic workshop.

 

Swiss choreographer and dancer Ioannis Mandafounis will facilitate a closed workshop between with 12 invited young professional Durban dancers where he will be pushing technique and improvisational skills.

 

To book a place email jombafestival@gmail.com no later than 2 days before the workshop.

 

ends