• AT THE CENTRE
    • COLLATION 3 | THE UNEXPECTED CITY (2025)
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The Centre for the Less Good Idea is an interdisciplinary incubator space for the arts based in Maboneng, Johannesburg

  • AT THE CENTRE
    • COLLATION 3 | THE UNEXPECTED CITY (2025)
    • COLLATION 2 | SOUNDING PICTURES: LIVE SCORES TO SHORT SILENT FILMS (2024)
    • COLLATION 1 | ON AIR: VISUAL RADIO PLAYS (2024)
  • SO Academy
    • ABOUT
    • SO | PRACTICE & TÊTE-À-TÊTE
    • THINKING IN (2020 - 2025)
    • IN CONVERSATION ARCHIVE (2017 – 2025)
    • HOW | Showing the Making (2022 - 2026)
    • THE OPEN MOMENT (2024 - 2026)
    • DR JAMES BARRY WORKSHOPS (2024)
    • THE HEAD & THE LOAD | ACTIVATIONS (2023)
    • MOTLHANA KALANA INCUBATOR (2023)
    • A GATHERING IN A BETTER WORLD (2023)
    • The Centre of Somewhere (2022 - 2023)
    • 2ndary REVISIONS (2022)
    • WOVEN WITH BROWN THREAD (2021)
  • THE CENTRE OUTSIDE THE CENTRE
    • ABOUT
    • 2026
    • 2025
    • CFLGI x FONDATION CARTIER (2024)
    • 2024
    • 2023
    • 2022
    • 2021
    • 2020
    • 2019
  • FOR ONCE
    • ABOUT
    • FOR ONCE ARCHIVE (2017 - 2024)
    • A KAFKA MOMENT (2021)
    • A CONSIDERED 3 MINUTES (2020/2021)
    • THE POETRY MINUTE (2021)
    • A GODOT MOMENT (2020)
    • ODD PORTRAITS OF THIS PLACE (2021)
    • THE HIGHWAY NOTICE PROJECT (2020/2021)
    • THE LONG MINUTE (2020)
  • Season Archive
    • SEASON 11 | NOVEMBER 2025
    • SEASON 10 | OCTOBER 2023
    • SEASON 09 | October 2022
    • SEASON 08 | October 2021
    • Season 07 | April 2020 / September 2021
    • Season 06 | October 2019
    • Season 05 | April 2019
    • Season 04 | October 2018
    • Season 03 | April 2018
    • Season 02 | October 2017
    • Season 01 | March 2017
  • Tickets
  • SO | ACADEMY BOOKINGS
  • THE TEAM
  • FRIENDS OF THE LESS GOOD IDEA
  • About

 THE OPEN MOMENT | VENUS IN FOUR ACTS

On Friday 20 March 2026, The Centre for the Less Good Idea presented The Open Moment | Venus in Four Acts with scholar, curator, and critic Tiffany E. Barber; poet and performer Lebogang Mashile; and musician and performer Ann Masina.

Together with musicians Bongile Gorata Lecoge-Zulu, Nosipho Qhayiso, Mapule Moloi, Vhahangwele Moopo, and Larissa Johnson, this Open Moment follows a four-day workshop at The Centre, exploring notions and representations of the body in opera, Black feminisms, institutional critique, and the ethics of looking.

While this Open Moment can be engaged as a stand-alone offering, the work shared here is also to be viewed in the context of Collation 4 | The Maskandalification of Opera, which took place at The Centre from 23 to 25 April 2026. From the work developed here, the short-form, experimental opera Venus in Four Acts emerged. 

Anchored in an imagining of the many lives of Saartjie Baartman, the Open Moment demonstrates some of the written and embodied practices employed by the artists in their research and exploration. 

— David Mann

PHOTOGRAPHER | Zivanai Matangi

CREDITS: 

CONCEPTUALISERS | Ann Masina, Lebogang Mashile & Tiffany E. Barber
PERFORMERS & MUSICIANS | Ann Masina, Lebogang Mashile, Tiffany E. Barber, Bongile Gorata Lecoge-Zulu, Nosipho Qhayiso, Mapule Moloi, Vhahangwele Moopo, Larissa Johnson & Dimakatso Motholo-Miya
CHOREOGRAPHER | Tiffany E. Barber
MUSICAL DIRECTORS | Larissa Johnson & Bongile Gorata Lecoge-Zulu
MOMENTEUR | Athena Mazarakis 

INDIVIDUAL COMPOSITION CREDITS: 

ONZALA BANTU

COMPOSER | Ann Masina
PERFORMERS | Ann Masina, Mapule Moloi, Vhahangwele Moopo, Nosipho Qhayiso
ARRANGERS | Bongile Gorata Lecoge-Zulu & Larissa Johnson
LIBRETTO | Lebogang Mashile

NJIBABA 

ORIGINAL COMPOSER | Georges Bizet
PERFORMERS | Ann Masina, Lebogang Mashile, Tiffany E. Barber, Bongile Gorata Lecoge-Zulu, Nosipho Qhayiso, Mapule Moloi, Vhahangwele Moopo & Larissa Johnson
ARRANGER | Ann Masina
LIBRETTO | Ann Masina & Lebogang Mashile 

NGIBUYISE IGAMA LAMI

ORIGINAL COMPOSER | Jethro Louw
PERFORMERS | Ann Masina, Mapule Moloi, Vhahangwele Moopo, Nosipho Qhayiso, Larissa Johnson, Bongile Gorata Lecoge-Zulu, Dimakatso Motholo-Miya 
ARRANGER | Larissa Johnson 
LIBRETTO | Ann Masina 

HANGWE

ORIGINAL COMPOSER | Vhahangwele Moopo
LIBRETTO | Vhahangwele Moopo
ARRANGERS | Larissa Johnson & Bongile Gorata Lecoge-Zulu 

CNN TALKING HEADS

LIBRETTO | Tiffany E. Barber & Lebogang Mashile
PERFORMERS | Tiffany E. Barber, Lebogang Mashile & Bongile Gorata Lecoge-Zulu 

HE-AAA

ORIGINAL COMPOSER | Mapule Moloi
PERFORMERS | Ann Masina, Lebogang Mashile, Tiffany E. Barber, Bongile Gorata Lecoge-Zulu, Nosipho Qhayiso, Mapule Moloi, Vhahangwele Moopo & Larissa Johnson

ADVERT

ORIGINAL COMPOSER | Léo Delibes
ARRANGER | Ann Masina & Vhahangwele Moopo
LIBRETTO | Tiffany E. Barber & Lebogang Mashile