Multi-hyphenate Gregory Maqoma is a visionary for the advancement of artists and dance on the African continent
His narratives of township life are as as much about extraordinary creativity and the human spirit as they are political tension
Gregory Maqoma was born in Soweto in 1973, almost three years before the uprising. He remembers the quality of the air, oppressive with plumes of acrid smoke billowing from household chimneys, as coal was a form of fuel for heating and cooking, but also from burning buildings and tyres the youth set alight in defiance against the apartheid government.
He had to learn a new language at school besides wrapping his head around the subject material. ‘Seeing men with rifles stood at the classroom door monitoring my teachers to make sure they stuck to the syllabus, at the same time trying to concentrate, was traumatic,’ he recalls.
But he was fortunate to live close to a hostel that housed migrant workers from various parts of Southern Africa who’d perform isicathamiya. This is a Zulu style of performance characterised by a cappella singing and tightly choreographed dance moves that emerged in the ’20s and ’30s as a form of nostalgia for men’s separation from their families when they left their homes to look for work in the cities.
‘We also had community groups, places we could be creative. In someone’s backyard, we’d act out drama plays and choreograph dances, away from the blazing tyres and houses and the soldiers who occupied the township. If I hadn’t had that space, perhaps I would’ve picked up bricks and stones and thrown them at the opposition parties.
I could’ve been one of those young people who were arrested or disappeared. But dance was a haven where I could process my trauma differently. It was a space to heal.’
Then, Maqoma discovered ballet and contemporary dance, a gender-coded art form even today. In the context of Black South Africa, boys are indoctrinated to believe anger is masculine, but they can’t show other emotions. It’s okay to be a dancer in a traditional setting.
For example, isicathamiya references the value of competition in Zulu society, the role of the bull in daily life and the leader of the kraal surrounded by huts of women and children. ‘But it’s harder for a Black man to be a ballet or contemporary dancer, which conveys the entire spectrum of feelings using the body, including vulnerability, because people perceive using art as an outlet for emotion as gay or soft. And it used to be much harder in those days. My father didn’t like it.’
Interestingly, he attributes a noticeable decline in Black women entering the profession since traditional households still expect them to be in the kitchen, not in a dance studio.
He started his formal dance training in 1990 at Moving Into Dance, where in 2002, he became its Associate Artistic Director. ‘I saw an advertisement for auditions in a newspaper my father was reading – he’d make me read part of it to him, which was part of his education. I attended it, but I didn’t tell my parents.
‘Walking into that space was the first time I experienced dancers of different colours, different races, all fighting for the same thing. I was accepted and became a member of the company, albeit part-time, as I still attended school and finished my matric. I applied to study medicine, but my parents couldn’t afford the fees. So, I asked them if I could take dance full-time for one more year.’
Today, Maqoma runs an outreach programme that visits schools and parents, helping them realise they must let their children live their dreams, not their own failed ambitions. ‘My parents wanted me to be a medical doctor because they hadn’t had that opportunity. They saw it as a “proper” profession, whereas dancing was just a hobby.’
He founded Vuyani Dance Theatre (VDT) in 1999 and, more recently, the GMI Artist Development Fund to support artists already creating work by providing them space to perform and nurturing their career development.
Maqoma is a self-described chameleon of the arts. What makes his choreography unique is that you can’t label it as one thing. ‘I call it a cocktail of genres, history, present and future, not one that gets you intoxicated, but that takes you on a rollercoaster of emotions.
‘It’s very much in the now, it’s in the making. When we’re on stage, our response to the music, its time signature, will always be different. See a show today, you’ll come tomorrow and get a different feel about it because it’s in the reality of it, it’s in the moment.’
His joint efforts with multiple creatives across disciplines harken to the back-yard creations of his youth. He’s collaborated with many artists of his generation: Idris Elba and Kwame Kwei-Armah on the 2019 production Tree, produced by Manchester International Festival and The Young Vic, fashion designer David Tlale on Exit Exist in 2011, singer-composer Simphiwe Dana, French-Swiss musician and trumpeter Erik Truffaz on Kudu in 2013, which premiered at the Festival De Marseille, and the South African Youth Orchestra on Full Moon in 2014.
During the pandemic, Maqoma started creating and directing films to evolve from grief and isolation and continue to connect with the world in a different context. The Edinburgh Festival commissioned him to produce and direct Retrace-Retract, in which he collaborates with poet and performing activist Jefferson Tshabalala, to capture life in Soweto and the township’s battle with economic transformation.
‘I love collaboration. You can be in a shared brain instead of on your own, where it can be lonely. I think it allows for the expansion of an idea beyond your small space. For me, it’s opened up avenues I mightn’t have come across had I not worked with a particular person or form. It’s my curiosity about other traditions, forms, writers and artists that allows my body of work to continue to evolve.
‘It also ensures dance is the leading element. When I was growing up working with artists, particularly musicians, dance would often become the stepchild of music, but I wanted both disciplines to be respected equally. So, the choreographer leads the composer, who writes in response to the dancing.’
He’s written his first musical, Third World Express, a jazz musical produced by Joburg Theatre and Shadrack Bokaba, providing opportunities to at least 30 artists, and is engaged with Mandela Musical, which opened at London’s Young Vic in December last year.
These form part of his legacy, work that allows South Africans to continue to shine on the world stage. It’s not just Mandela’s politics but his human spirit that he wants to show the world, and that our townships are as much places of incredible artistry as they are unrest.