In November 2025, Miami Light Project and The Centre for the Less Good Idea deepened a five-year Miami–Johannesburg exchange with an intensive performance residency at The Light Box Studio at Miami Theater Center. 
Throughout the residency, artists from South Africa and Miami co-developed new methods and material.

This weeklong exchange culminated in The Open Moment, a work-in-progress sharing that opens the studio doors to experimentation, discovery, and the first spark of new performance.

The Centre’s two artists were Pertunia Msani and Xolisile Bongwana, who presented Amazwi and The Dreamers, respectively. 

Msani’s interest is in izwi, the voice, in community. Working with the voices in the room—audience members and fellow artists alike—Msani leads an exercise in vocalisation and breath, rooted in a guided call and response. What follows is Amazwi, a choral swell, a symphony of refrains generated by the voices in the room and woven together by Msani.

In The Dreamers, Bongwana merges dance and musicality to present a layered, narrative-based performance that draws on the histories and afterlives of migration—by boat, plane, train, and foot—that is at once intimate and universal. An effective two-hander, the work is equally impactful when staged with an ensemble of performers. 

FEATURED ARTISTS:

Johannesburg – Pertunia Msani, Xolisile Bongwana & Athena Mazarakis

Miami – Britney Tokumoto, Nicole Pedraza, Nina Osoria Ahmadi, Diego Melgar, Diago León Lang, Clinton Harris, Gaiya & Junior Domingos.

This is the second year of a unique five-year international cultural exchange project. This initiative centres on extended creative residencies between Miami and Johannesburg, fostering the creation of new, innovative works through cross-cultural collaboration.

The partnership between MLP and CFLGI is made possible by the generous support of Valerie Dillon and Dan Lewis.

Photos courtesy of Miami Light Project.