What kind of connections can be forged between the human body and the machine in motion? In Not a Machine, music, sharp choreography, and the narrative of breath and body are used to probe the duality and the dynamics of these two modes of performance.

From the onset, there is no ambiguity between human (Thulisile Binda) and machine (Muzi Shili). Shili’s movement is sharp and mechanical, Binda’s fluid and free-flowing. A dynamic is soon established, that of instruction. Human commands machine who follows, slowly, but diligently. Human demonstrates, while machine replicates, allowing himself to be corrected, tweaked and tuned.

There is music, then, industrial, percussive sounds that activate the duo. It is here that the dynamic takes on a new shape. Where the human body allows for slight deviations in form, the machine is consistent. When the human slips up, the machine never tires. A question emerges: who does it best? And another: What can the one learn from the other?

Ultimately, there is union. Human instructs machine once more, this time to bend and manipulate his rigid limbs towards an embrace. She tweaks his facial features, codes them into a smile that is almost believable. The embrace is electrifying and stirring. As the lights fade, he winds his arms like a turbine. She circles him, jogs, and gains speed. She runs and runs and does not stop, charged in the way of a machine, a human dynamo.

– David Mann

CREDITS:

CONCEPTUALISER & DIRECTOR | Nhlanhla Mahlangu
PERFORMERS | Thulisile Binda & Muzi Shili