Season 6 took place between 23 and 27 October 2019.

Season 6 was co-curated by architect and urban designer Thiresh Govender and dancer and choreographer Sello Pesa, alongside founder William Kentridge and co-animateurs Bronwyn Lace and Phala Ookeditse Phala. 

This season saw traditional forms of art and performance being re-imagined through free-spirited, transdisciplinary collaboration, and the gentle exploration and reiteration of varying forms of labour. As a vital part of our social and economic machinery, the idea of work in its broadest sense is investigated within the context of our turbulent, contemporary, urban lives.

Through a series of staged performances, ensembles, installations, and public processions and interventions, the work of the mind, the hands, the body and more will be unpacked, explored, and reimagined across The Centre and the city alike by a team of artists, performers, choreographers, writers, musicians, and academics.

How do we engage with work or labour in our everyday lives – physically, intellectually, or spiritually? What does work look like on the stage, in a gallery space, on the streets, or in our homes? What is to be said about the journeys we take in order to arrive at these places of work, and where will we end up once all of this work is behind us?

The sound of a drill boring into concrete, the hiss of an iron, the sanitised theatres of a hospital or the dusty reaches of a mine-dump, long forgotten. There is the chorus of voices in the inner-city market, and the high, whiney buzz of fluorescent lights in suburban office blocks. Work. Sebenza. Umsebenzi. A thing of profit, labour, love, or duty.

Speaking on the overall objectives of Season 6, co-curator Thiresh Govender explains that an attempt to produce new ways of viewing, thinking about, and curating work is central to the process of the Season. 

“I’m finding what we’ve produced at The Centre mind-blowing in terms of synchronicity, improvisation, attentive empathy, and more. Underlying all of these things is an urgent curiosity around making some magic,” explains Govender. “We’re showing sharp insight in a beautiful way, but that sharp insight is not there for indulgence. It needs to be pointing towards something we desire.”

Co-curator Sello Pesa adds that a significant portion of Season 6 will explore the pre-existing modes of performance, art, and ritual in cultural work. “There’s the work of a funeral, the work of a wedding, the work of someone who’s coming back from initiation, or a child being born. I’m interested in those things. They all have artistic influences inside of them. They have costumes, they have money, an audience, a space where people can experience it all. These are the kinds of things that have helped to inspire the Season.”

Throughout it all, a continued effort towards vulnerability, experimentation, and interdisciplinary collaboration gives way to new and exciting ways of pursuing the less good idea.    

Season 6 sees Andy Leve in conversation with the many artists and performers at The Centre in order to document and archive the work of The Centre through a podcast.

Season 6 was co-curated by architect and urban designer Thiresh Govender and dancer and choreographer Sello Pesa of Ntsoana ContemporaryTheatre, alongside founder William Kentridge and co-animateurs Bronwyn Lace and Phala Ookeditse Phala - Theatre.

See the full film here: https://vimeo.com/378545704

Lorin Sookool's durational "Sitting Still & Chocolate Cake": https://vimeo.com/375640593

Find out more: https://lessgoodidea.com/

NESTING

Hundreds of bristling hives occupy the walls, floors and ceilings of The Centre for the Less Good Idea’s Second Space. The installation, part of The Centre’s 6th Season, is visual artist Usha Seejarim’s mediation on work, domesticity, and the migratory forms of labour we encounter in city and home spaces alike.

It’s the sheer volume of these ‘hives’ that stands out, initially. Comprised of grass broom heads – the kind sold in and around the Johannesburg CBD – Seejarim’s network of vespiaries, apertures, or nests are first encountered on the stairway up to the second floor where they proceed to multiply. Close your eyes and it’s the smell that greets you: dry, prickling grass hinting at vast, open landscapes, but refined or restricted to a tool of domestic labour.

A similar incongruity sits outside in The Centre’s atrium space where a warped, dissected, and elongated broom handle hangs. It is a tool, undoubtedly so, but it has been rendered unusable through the manipulation of its form. At its highest point, arched over and pointing towards the ground, the top of the broom handle is poised like the sting of a scorpion’s tail – a warning, or perhaps a reminder, of the poisonous possibilities of an overworked tool, or an exploited form or labour.

Seejarim’s work is not without its playfulness and magic, however. While the relationship between pre-existing materials and repurposed tools in her practice is not all that distant, it is the odd and softly provoking experience of viewing these transformed objects that makes for the magic of NESTING.

An example: Two irons sewn together at the helms and welded to the legs of an ironing board. Again, the tool’s purpose is immediately recognisable, but its function has become corrupted or shifted through its new form – a Frankenstein’s monster lurking amidst the household, unable to carry out its chores, or perhaps simply refusing to.

Concept & installation by | Usha Seejarim

grass brooms, steel supports, & wire ties

Assistance by | Busani Msimanga, Zanele Ravhutulu & Jabu Tshuma

Special thanks to | SMAC Gallery

THE TYRANNY OF THE CLOCK

A great deal of how we approach the act of work, and of living, is down to the mechanical or digital workings of the clock. In The Tyranny of the Clock, this influence of time, as well as the resonances of work and silence are explored through a daily sound installation and once-off performance.

Conceptualised and created by Cape Town-based musician, composer, and sound artist Warrick Sony, The Tyranny of the Clock takes its title from the 1944 essay by Canadian anarchist George Woodcock, and is a looped, seven-minute meditation on time, timing, silence, sound, work, control and more.

As an installation, The Tyranny of the Clock presented a macabre and imminent atmosphere that is not without its playfulness. Installed in The Centre’s 2nd space, a series of clocks on the wall present time in various forms and stages – stopping, racing forwards, and even creeping backwards. There is also the lone blackboard serving as a canvas for Sony’s video projection. Here, time explodes, rewinds, oscillates between fast and slow, too late and too soon. Accompanying it all is the taped reading of Woodcock’s essay, as well as Sony’s looped composition – a sonic distillation and manipulation of the labour, activity, and daily conversations that took place during Season 6’s workshops. There is chatter, shouting, and applause. Sounds are far off and distorted, and then they are directly beside you. Bookending this, and in the sharp moments between it all, there is the undeniable presence of silence.

As a performance, Tyranny of the Clock: the ‘Daylight Saving’ version for six speakers and double bass utilised the improvisational talents of musician and researcher Catrin Dowd and presented a stirring collaboration between chopped-up, manipulated sound, and the instinctive, responsive, and reverberating notes of Dowd’s double bass. Viewed in succession, the performance and installation prompt subtle interrogations into work and labour in a time of machines, as well as the possibilities of merging work and play, recordings and improvisations, and sound and silence.

Concept, composition & installation by | Warrick Sony (2019)

Text by | George Woodcock (1944)

Performed by | Warrick Sony & Catrin Dowd (Double Bass)

MY SIZE

The medium of photography is inextricably linked to the phenomenon of the gaze. Similarly, the navigation of Johannesburg’s city spaces is always accompanied by the gaze. For women, this is experienced on an intimate level and it is this navigation of being looked at, being gazed upon or leered at by men in the city, that photographer Angel Khumalo tackles in My Size.

Part performance, part installation, My Size played out in The Centre for the Less Good Idea’s atrium space for three consecutive nights before remaining as a completed installation thereafter. Comprising a series of large-scale prints of a woman’s face and eyes, Khumalo proceeded to build the work by photographing, with a polaroid camera, the eyes of men.

These eyes came from audience members, passers-by, and strangers along Maboneng’s Fox Street and ultimately served to frame, document, and reflect the male gaze in Johannesburg’s inner-city. Striking in their candidness, the photographs belie a certain vulnerability in their subjects, while giving little away in terms of their identities, backgrounds, or intentions. So it goes in the streets of Johannesburg: a series of anonymous flickering eyes, ill-cast stares, and loaded ways of seeing.

My Size not only seeks to highlight and document this gaze, it actively encourages its viewers to engage in a simple, yet empowering act – stare back. It is through this invitation that we can begin to puzzle out the innumerable effects and intentions of a fixed pair of eyes in the city, the home, or even in the audience.

Conceptualised and performed by | Sizakele Angel Khumalo

DUNUSA MARKET

Can we place the inherent performativity of the inner-city market in a broader economic and artistic context? Performer and choreographer Humphrey Maleka’s Dunusa Market employs performance art, installation, and the choreography of the everyday hustle to probe a little deeper.

Situated in and around The Centre for the Less Good Idea’s atrium space, Dunusa Market features an array of clothing laid out on the floors, suspended from the walls, and draped over the arms of Maleka himself as he navigates the space, belting out his familiar sales pitch.

Inspired by the informal stalls and clothing piles common to the city’s sidewalks, Dunusa Market takes its name from the famous inner-city market of Johannesburg. Replicated in a space like The Centre, the piece allows audiences to stop and quietly engage with the scene that Maleka puts forward, providing an opportunity to view its inherent choreography and performative components. Having the clothes readily available for purchase each night provided a further element of participation to the piece, allowing audiences to interact with the performance, thus influencing its shape and outcome.

Finally, Dunusa Market serves as a subtle, yet crucial bridge between the bustling pavement stalls of Fox Street and the porous performance venues, restaurants, and studios of Arts on Main, blurring the boundaries between performance and labour, street and stage.

Conceptualised & performed by | Humphrey Maleka

Dramaturgy by | Sello Pesa

Clothes provided by | Thabiso Modimoeng

THE WALL OF TOOLS INSTALLATION

Part vertical stage, part innovative tool rack, The Wall of Tools is a modular installation conceptualised by co-curator Thiresh Govender for Season 6 of The Centre for the Less Good Idea.

Drills, brooms, hammers, items of clothing, tools used to build, to break, or repair, The Wall of Tools serves as a representation of work itself, while also exploring the story of a heaving, working, grinding city as told by its instruments of labour. Situated in The Centre’s main space, the installation is both a visual and functional accompaniment to the Season’s staged works as well as a permanent installation to be viewed and interacted with by audiences throughout the Season.

Viewed in conjunction with the overall works of Season 6, The Wall of Tools becomes something of a thematic touchstone or an abstract cartography of the many ways that work has been played with, picked apart, and re-imagined through the collaborative and imaginative efforts of The Centre’s various artists.

Conceptualised by | Thireshen Govender

Designed by | Thireshen Govender & Kyle Hollis

Production design by | Shruthi Nair

Built by | FODES – Fountain of Design and Electrical Solutions

SITTING STILL AND CHOCOLATE CAKE

A once-off public performance, Sitting Still and Chocolate Cake is a 20-minute offering by choreographer and dancer Lorin Sookool which explores, amongst other things, the intersections of identity, labour, and ambition.

Situated outside the entrance to Maboneng’s Arts on Main, Sitting Still and Chocolate Cake grapples with private or intimate themes on a decidedly public level. With a single balloon fixed to her hair, Sookool takes her place opposite fellow performer Kamogelo Maglaela, and a single chocolate cake replete with thick icing and decorations. Throughout the duration of the performance, Sookool makes her way through the cake, not eating it, but smearing it over her face – a slow and cloying process, startling and even stifling in its affect – before having her hair removed and packaged by Maglaela.

Small collage-like images inspired by the various street-side salons of the city are placed next to Maglaela. Populated by hairstyles and noticeably devoid of faces, the images become a shrewd commentary on identity, self-worth and belonging. The performance also marks a turning-point for Sookool – a departure from the work of commercial modelling and its reliance on particular beauty standards and identity markers.

As such, Sitting Still and Chocolate Cake can be read as both a refusal of the kinds of labour we find ourselves bound to, and a move towards work that is creatively and spiritually fulfilling. The performance also serves as a subtle bridge between public and private forms of labour and performance, highlighting the work that takes place in the city and building on its inherent performative and artistic framework.

Conceptualised by | Lorin Sookool

Performed by | Lorin Sookool & Kamogelo Maglaela

Sound by | Dave Audinary

Writing by | David Mann

Cinematography & Editing by | Noah Cohen

Photography | Zivanai Matangi

Season 6 was co-curated by architect and urban designer Thiresh Govender and dancer and choreographer Sello Pesa of Ntsoana ContemporaryTheatre, alongside founder William Kentridge and co-animateurs Bronwyn Lace and Phala Ookeditse Phala.

See the FULL FILM here: https://vimeo.com/377033802

FOX STREET PROCESSION & MOLETLO WA DINAKA

With a great deal of Season 6’s works drawing inspiration from the city and taking place on the stage, it is crucial to have works that take place in, and engage with, public space. The Fox Street Procession and Moletlo wa Dinaka are two such performances.

Conceptualised and organised by Season 6 co-curator Sello Pesa, The Fox Street Procession and Moletlo wa Dinaka are a public procession and a durational dance performance, respectively. With a key component of Season 6 being the investigation into forms of labour that are inherently artistic or performative in nature, both performances speak to the way in which artistic practice can be located in the ritualistic and cultural work of the everyday.

Comprising actors, dancers, musicians and more, The Fox Street Procession took place throughout the streets of Maboneng, gathering passers-by and attracting a sea of outstretched hands bearing smartphones and cameras as it went along. Framed as a funeral procession, the performance challenged the notions of both artistic and spiritual work in the public eye – pallbearers leading the procession were followed by brass instruments sounding out down main roads and pantsula dancers disrupting street corners.

Leading the crowd back to The Centre’s courtyard space, the performance gave way to Moletlo wa Dinaka, a durational performance by Dinaka dancers Real Madrid & Chillies Dance Group. Performed over the course of the afternoon, Moletlo wa Dinaka saw audiences form and disperse organically, allowing viewers to arrive at the performance at random and subsequently engage with the work in their own way, at their own pace.

Both performances, spread out across the afternoon and engaging with the public spaces of Maboneng and the Johannesburg inner-city, serve as investigations into the inherent artistic and performative elements of rituals and practices that take place on a daily basis. Ultimately, they challenge the dominant ideas we hold around art, culture, labour, and ritual, and how each informs the other.

THE FOX PROCESSION

Conceptualised & directed by | Sello Pesa

Performed by | Ange Bembeka, Pitchou Ngamakuli, Celestin Kamangolo, Reaghen Nsiala, Napo Masheane, Thabo Rapoo, Faniswa Yisa, Elma Motloenya, Lungile Ngwenya, Bukhosibakhe Letsekha, Paballo Phiri, Vuyani Feni & Kgotsofalang Moshe Mavundla

Music by | Groupe Kimbagist

MOLETLO WA DINAKA

Conceptualised by | Sello Pesa

Performed by | Real Madrid & Chillies Dance Group

Cinematography & Editing by | Noah Cohen

Writing by | David Mann

Photography | Zivanai Matangi

Season 6 was co-curated by architect and urban designer Thiresh Govender and dancer and choreographer Sello Pesa of Ntsoana ContemporaryTheatre, alongside founder William Kentridge and co-animateurs Bronwyn Lace and Phala Ookeditse Phala.

[A video of the FULL Performance can be seen here: https://vimeo.com/371846830]

THE WALL OF TOOLS ENSEMBLE

“Few activities have come to define us more than that of our work,” begins Season 6 co-curator Thiresh Govender, standing on stage and in the shadow of a floor to ceiling installation – The Wall of Tools. “It remains an underexplored ritual in our contemporary lives.” As he speaks, occasional verbal interruptions come in the form of fellow curator Sello Pesa who bussies himself at an ironing board, letting slip nonsensical instructions: “We’re drinking oil and cooldrink, guys. Do something different, something new.”

It is this intentional disruption of the process of repetitive work and ritualised labour that is at the heart of the performance, and of the Season as a whole.

Through The Wall of Tools Ensemble, work as an everyday formality, aspiration, and necessity is explored and unpacked across a series of performative vignettes, each forming a part of the broader curatorial inquiry of this Season: Work. As such The Wall of Tools Ensemble can be viewed as a multifaceted and staged distillation of the many themes, provocations, and streams of thought that arose over the course of this Season.

There is the continuous beating of the drum, an unending beat that oscillates between the discordant and the deeply rhythmic. There is the inner-city boxer, pumping his fists at everything and absolutely nothing simultaneously while tooled-up creatures move about the space, finding their purpose, or perhaps only adding their unique din to the greater harmony and cacophony of a city at work. Streetwise pantsulas glide across the stage while lone individuals try and assert themselves in vain, and a towering presence barks out orders and warnings alike – ‘Vimba! Baleka!’

Amidst it all, a growing chant emerges, using the energy of the audience and rising up to a resounding chorus. It is a stirring refrain that collapses without warning, the sound of stainless-steel giving way to the heavy strike of a sledgehammer echoing out into the darkness.

The Wall of Tools Ensemble puts forward an enduring curatorial inquiry: How do we engage with work or labour in our everyday lives – physically, intellectually, or spiritually? It is only through the free-flowing exploration of the body, the mind, and the spirit at work – on stage and in the streets – we can begin to make sense of work and its impact on our contemporary, urban lives.

Directed by | Phala Ookeditse Phala, William Kentridge & Nhlanhla Mahlangu

Contributions & Performances by | Napo Masheane, Andisiwe Mpinda, Faniswa Yisa, Princess Tshabangu, Lorin Sookool, Thabo Rapoo, Vusi Mdoyi, Michael Micca Manganye, Kieron Jina, Warrick Sony, Humphrey Maleka, Sello Pesa & Thireshen Govender.

Designed by | Thireshen Govender & Kyle Hollis

Props & Costumes by | Shruti Nair

Built by | FODES – Fountain of Design and Electrical Solutions

Cinematography & Editing by | Noah Cohen

Writing by | David Mann

Photography | Zivanai Matangi

Season 6 was co-curated by architect and urban designer Thiresh Govender and dancer and choreographer Sello Pesa of Ntsoana ContemporaryTheatre, alongside founder William Kentridge and co-animateurs Bronwyn Lace and Phala Ookeditse Phala.

HER CITY!

[FULL Performance can be seen here: https://vimeo.com/371842418]

A collection of devised, performative vignettes by the women of Season 6 of The Centre for the Less Good Idea, Her City! is a sharp and affecting bit of theatre.

Employing sound, live music, movement, power tools, items of food and more, Her City! puts forward a metaphor-laden performance that investigates the various expectations and everyday nuances and antagonisms of labour and identity, using the body as a conceptual springboard.

Opening with the full cast carrying a double-bass over their heads and onto a raised platform while donning heels, the piece maintains a decidedly precarious and sombre tone throughout. Be it the faint stroke of bow on double bass, the sharp cry of a new-born child, the frantic kneading of dough, or the act of stuffing minced, blood-red tomatoes into the pockets of an apron, Her City! is a piece alive with compelling and intimate imagery and choreography.

Taking place on a temporary stage in The Centre’s atrium space, the performance also challenged the broader public to view and engage with the piece on a more communal level than is achieved through conventional theatre spaces.

It is this semi-public component of Her City! that manages to lend a unique and unexpected element to the performance – No matter how difficult, how distressing, or how painfully familiar the scene before us may be, we only look on en masse, waiting for it all to pass.

Conceptualised & performed by | Napo Masheane, Andisiwe Mpinda, Faniswa Yisa, Princess Tshabangu, Teresa Phuti Mojela, Lorin Sookool & Catrin Dowd

Directed by Faniswa Yisa

Cinematography & Editing by | Noah Cohen

Writing by | David Mann

Photography | Zivanai Matangi

Season 6 was co-curated by architect and urban designer Thiresh Govender and dancer and choreographer Sello Pesa of Ntsoana ContemporaryTheatre, alongside founder William Kentridge and co-animateurs Bronwyn Lace and Phala Ookeditse Phala.

QUBULA – A Deep Red Chant!

[FULL Performance can be seen here: https://vimeo.com/371844617]

In Qubula, the many possibilities of a single story are picked apart and explored through language, perspective, movement and more.

Conceptualised and performed by collaborators Nhlanhla Mahlangu and Catrin Dowd, Qubula forms part of Mahlangu’s ongoing ‘Chant’ body of work and tells the myriad tales of a character in pursuit of joy, purpose, and the good life by way of vocation or, at the very least, through sheer hard work.

Opening with a seated and suited-up character with his back to the audience, and the precarious show of a double-bassist dragging her instrument into place across a concrete floor, Qubula sets a curious scene at first. Low strokes on the double-bass and itinerant mumbling bring about a darker atmosphere before the seated character spills out of his chair, revealing a dishevelled man – belt and buttons undone leaving his belly exposed. This is where the story begins.

Through the use of live music by Dowd and the fractured and affecting storytelling of Mahlangu, Qubula weaves together a complex and devastating narrative gathered from the fragments of working life in South Africa.

There is a scene, halfway into the performance, that sees Mahlangu embodying the effects of work and laborious ritual on the body and the spirit. He is singing, singing, singing! – his voice growing louder and higher before whipping his body into a frenzy of frantic screaming and shaking. It is the distillation of countless memories and narratives embedded in the body and it is a scene that is simultaneously rapturous and terrifying, driving to the very heart of the performance and of its audience.

The story (or stories) being told in Qubula can easily be read as belonging to Johannesburg – the ever-shifting migrant city built up and kept moving by the dreams and bloody-minded pursuits of its many people. The broader question we are left with, though, is what we lose or leave behind as a result of this journey towards a certain kind of life. A journey that, ultimately, is as long as life itself.

Conceptualised & performed by | Nhlanhla Mahlangu & Catrin Dowd

Directed by | Gerard Bester

Music by | Nhlanhla Mahlangu & Catrin Dowd (double bass)

Cinematography & Editing by | Noah Cohen

Writing by | David Mann

Photography | Zivanai Matangi

Season 6 was co-curated by architect and urban designer Thiresh Govender and dancer and choreographer Sello Pesa of Ntsoana ContemporaryTheatre, alongside founder William Kentridge and co-animateurs Bronwyn Lace and Phala Ookeditse Phala.

PROGRAMME 2

PAUSE

[See FULL Performance here: https://vimeo.com/371571303]

The mask has a long history in performance and dance. In PAUSE, choreographer Kieron Jina employs masking as a means of puzzling out identity and expression in contemporary African narratives.

Emerging on stage in a costume of blankets, gumboots and skin-tight materials, Jina’s character is completely concealed and anonymous to the audience. Hidden beneath multiple layers, the character’s movement are made thick and weighty, so much so that each step is a burden. Juxtaposing this is a series of projected videos showing traditional dances and performances across the African continent, each performer donning a different mask and costume, and moving freely across the frame. Sparse text intersperses the performance, white lettering appears on an empty black background, while distorted spoken word sounds out at key moments.

Throughout the compact and entrancing physical performance, Jina begins to shed the costume, bit by bit. Layers and masking serve as shrewd cultural commentary, here. For Jina, the performance serves as a channel through which to revisit contemporary understandings of race, culture, history, and representation with the purpose of including queerness as a valuable and equally important part of African narratives. Part staged chorographical work and part performance art, PAUSE also challenges the boundaries between public space and theatre stages.

Finally, the piece interrogates – by way of choreography, imagery, and pointed text – the relationship between work, practice, identity, capitalistic labour, and innate ritual. It is the sum of this multi-media performance, rather than its individual components, that troubles our ways of thinking about identity and labour in a contemporary African context.

Conceptualised & Performed by | Kieron Jina

Text by | Kgosi Motsoane

Video by | Kieron Jina & Negiste Yesside Johnson

Sound Design by | Yogin Sullaphen

Costume Design by | Roman Handt

Dramaturgy by | Phala Ookeditse Phala

UNCHINI WENA!

[See FULL Performance here: https://vimeo.com/371571959]

The seemingly simple acts of singing, playing, and music-making take on deeper meaning in Micca Manganye’s Unchini Wena!

Taking to the stage in the character of a delightfully upbeat child, Manganye proceeds to recreate a scene that is sobering and painful to witness, before employing percussion as a tool for storytelling and healing. Three conga drums become the vehicle for this narrative, with Manganye oscillating between the performance modes of actor and musician with ease.

In Unchini Wena! drums become characters, metaphors, tools both curative and destructive in a story that’s pace is controlled by rhythm as much as it is by script. Manganye is, at times, a chaotic blend of pain and rage, laying down a furious and rasping percussive sentence. Other times he is calm and introspective, an open palm sliding contemplatively over the skin of a single drum, or that of a bare chest.

There is a moment when, after considering his own hands and the potential they hold, Manganye begins to beat out an extraordinary percussive solo on his own cheeks, each slap reverberating out across the stage. Following this, he correlates a single beat of the drum to a single wound on his body.

It is this reconciling of instrument and body into tools for percussion and expression that is at the heart of Unchini Wena! Through the hands of Manganye, then, the music being performed is as embodied as the memory that informs it.

Conceptualised & Performed by | Michael Micca Manganye

Directed by | Phala Ookeditse Phala

Dramaturgy by | Nhlanhla Mahlangu

Cinematography & Editing by |Noah Cohen

Writing by | David Mann

Season 6 was co-curated by architect and urban designer Thiresh Govender and dancer and choreographer Sello Pesa of Ntsoana ContemporaryTheatre, alongside founder William Kentridge and co-animateurs Bronwyn Lace and Phala Ookeditse Phala.

PROGRAMME 1

VUKA KLEVA

It begins with a bit of housekeeping – the clearing of the stage following a previous performance. It is in this seemingly insignificant theatrical procedure that the lines between labour and performance begin to blur.

Donned in overalls and aprons, bearing paintbrushes, brooms, dustbins, teacups and more, the cast slowly unfolds across the stage, mirroring the all-too-familiar routines of the city and the home. Conceptualised and directed by Vusi Mdoyi, Vuka Kleva is a 20-minute musical and physical performance exploring the everyday rhythms of systems of labour, capital, and human energy through the art of pantsula, tap, and gumboot dancing.

While the energy of Vuka Kleva is fast and frenetic, the choreography is filled with nuance. Blink and risk missing percussionist Micca Manganye rubbing the skins of his drum to mimic the sweeping of a floor, or dancer Elma Motloenya interspersing the stampede of boots on stage with the shrill, rasping effect of spoon on teacup. Dancing, here, is something of an endurance sport, a shrewd and visceral commentary on the effects of work on our bodies and this can be seen seen in a particularly draining gumboot solo, or an ensemble drenched with sweat but dancing on nonetheless.

Then there are the tangible effects of our labour – the flotsam we allow to build up before casting it aside, dismissing it as necessary by-products of a city at work. We see this best in a series of black rubbish bags filled with air, tied up and discarded around the stage, or the many pieces of paper floating about in small dust storms kicked up by an ensemble of workers.

There is no work without respite, however. A nightclub scene replete with music, consumption, and even more dancing calls into question the practices we engage in as a means of countering the effects of labour on our minds and bodies.

Ultimately, Vuka Kleva is a performance that complicates the ritualistic nature of labour and respite, and amplifies the pace, the syncopation, and the complicated human mechanics of work and embodied labour in order to present a troublesome framework for a life led by labour – a collection of bodies whipped up into a routinised frenzy before collapsing each day, only to begin again tomorrow.

Conceptualised & directed by | Vusi Mdoyi
Dramaturgy by | Phala Ookeditse Phala
Performed by | Elma Motloenya, @Lungile Ngwenya, Bukhosibakhe Letsekha & Paballo Phiri
Percussion by | Micca Manganye & @Vuyani King Gaba Feni
Creative & production contributions by | Vusi Arts Projects (VAP), Kgotosofalang Moshe Mavundla & Petros Lephoto

For the full version of the piece go to | https://vimeo.com/371332566

THE STONE CRUSHER

A story of physical, spiritual, and emotional labour, Princess Thandi Tshabangu’s The Stone Crusher is a 20-minute narrative performance told through the lyricism of the body and the voice.

Taking its lead from the work that takes place both in the informal mining sector and as a result of that sector, Tshabangu explores the tale of a character tasked with the heavy load of caring for the dead – a job that has long since been ignored. Those lost to the mines need to be adequately cared for and remembered, and it is the Stone Crusher who must consult the gods.

Tshabangu, armed with nothing more than a bucket full of stones and a pair of wooden rods, employs the restrained use of body and of voice to tell her story. These strained vocal elements and the sparse movement of the body become a base for beautiful rhythmic interruptions – the crushing or spilling of the stones, the stomping of feet, or the crooning to the gods.

Choreography by Thabo Rapoo announces itself in deeply visceral and affecting moments such as the crushing, crunching act of bare feet on hard stones, or the precarity of wooden sticks threatening to break under the heavy weight of labour, spirituality, and time.

Finally, The Stone Crusher begs the question: What effect does the kind of work we take on and put ourselves through have on our minds, our souls, our bodies? And what are the repercussions for those who allow their commitment to labour to take priority over all else?

Conceptualised & performed by | Princess Tshabangu
Directed by | Phala Ookeditse Phala
Choreography by | Thabo Rapoo

For the full version of the piece go to | https://vimeo.com/371331753

Cinematography & Editing by | Noah Cohen
Writing by | David Mann

QUBULA – A DEEP RED CHANT!

Conceptualised & performed by | Nhlanhla Mahlangu & Catrin Dowd
Directed by | Gerard Bester
Music by | Nhlanhla Mahlangu & Catrin Dowd (double bass)

Qubula – A Deep Red Chant tells the tale of a character who has left home in pursuit of work, joy, and the idea of a better life in a city as brutal, industrial, and multifaceted as Johannesburg.

Collaborators Nhlanhla Mahlangu and Catrin Dowd employ vocal and physical storytelling, and the use of intuitive and experimental sound in order to convey the myriad tales of this complex character from their own points of view. Audiences traverse the city’s side streets, main-roads, office spaces, marketplaces, hospital theatres, and more, exploring the cruel contradictions that make up the city of Johannesburg in order to find resonance in the disarray.

Qubula – A Deep Red Chant is a performance exploring the journeys we embark on, and the things (or people) we lose through a life-long, bloody-minded search for the good life.

Cinematography and Editing by | Noah Cohen
Writing by | Dave Mann

Architect, urban designer, and educator, Thiresh Govender is the co-curator for Season 6 of The Centre for the Less Good Idea.

A keen observer of the urban world – particularly South Africa’s cities and how we occupy, influence, and navigate them – Govender’s obsession with space as an instrument for change forms the basis for much of his work. Interdisciplinary collaboration, improvisation, and the creative intervention of the human genus are all things he sees as being necessary for the continued growth and impact of the architectural discipline in society.

Season 6 of the Centre for the Less Good Idea sees Govender co-curating with dancer and choreographer Sello Pesa to help tease out, guide and refine the works conceptualised by this Season’s many artists and collaborators. Through his unique process of documenting the workshopping period of Season 6, Govender has also produced a series of drawings, notes, and schematics that can serve as an overview of the themes, efforts, and insight-driven outcomes of this Season.

PHOTOGRAPHER | Zivanai Matangi

Sello Pesa is a Soweto-born dancer, choreographer, teacher, and co-curator for Season 6 of The Centre for the Less Good Idea.

Pesa is interested in the ways in which ideas and concepts can dictate the medium of expression. He sees performance as being nothing more than an active thing – the result of an ordinary activity, ritual, or movement being carried out – while ideas exist as the true vehicles of expression and meaning. In this way, Pesa is also interested in exploring media of expression that are not necessarily confined to discipline.

Season 6 of The Centre for the Less Good Idea sees Pesa co-curating alongside Thiresh Govender. A playful and free-spirited, but intentionally quotidian and physically repetitive approach to the ideas of work and ritual by Pesa have given way to many of the works that make up this Season. Season 6 will also see Pesa exploring his ongoing interests in public space, and the ordinary cultural and spiritual work that takes place in the everyday.

PHOTOGRAPHER | Zivanai Matangi

Her City! sees the women of Season 6 of The Centre for the Less Good Idea collaborating on an incisive performance exploring the physical and emotional labour that comes with navigating the world as a woman.
    

A devised performance directed by Faniswa Yisa, Her City! investigates the fears, joys, vulnerabilities, expectations and various everyday nuances and antagonisms that arise as a result of gendered divisions of labour as well as the effects of patriarchal energies in the workplace, the city and the home.

Through the use tools, sound, food, the body and the voice, various objects, symbols, and metaphors become the driving forces behind a performative vignette of the realities of being a woman in the city, in the arts, and in contemporary society as a whole.
  

Conceptualised & performed by | Napo Masheane, Andisiwe Mpinda, Faniswa Yisa, Princess Tshabangu, Teresa Phuti Mojela, Lorin Sookool & Catrin Dowd
Directed by | Faniswa Yisa

Princess Tshabangu is a singer, composer, guitarist, lyricist, actor, theatre writer, and director. 

Having previously worked with The Centre in a predominantly musical capacity, Tshabangu has used the workshopping sessions of Season 6 to allow physical performance to guide her conceptualisation process. Illegal mining, the physical and spiritual work of men and women, and South Africa’s gold and mineral industries are a few of the key themes she dealt with during this period. 

A keen interest in the politics of power, gender, and traditional forms of work and labour have guided much of Tshabangu’s explorations throughout Season 6, as well as her penchant for free-flowing collaboration and improvisation with other performing artists and musicians. 

PHOTOGRAPHER | Zivanai Matangi

Lorin Sookool is a Durban-based, independent choreographer, performer and dance facilitator.

Much of Sookool’s work, from her dance pieces to her experimentations with performance in public spaces, takes its inspiration from the personal and public politics of the everyday. Hair, the body, the gaze, identity, and the ability to heal or make sense of past traumas through art have been some of Sookool’s areas of exploration during the workshopping sessions of The Centre for the Less Good Idea’s 6th Season.

Citing her time with The Centre as a transitional period in her practice, much of Sookool’s work this Season has been characterised by her willingness to collaborate with other artists and artistic disciplines, as well as her own fascinations with Johannesburg, particularly the bustling reaches of Maboneng and Jeppestown.

PHOTOGRAPHER | Zivanai Matangi

Work is inextricably tied to spirituality, and the kind of work we do impacts our lives in varying capacities. So, what happens to those who ignore or become disconnected from the spiritual component of their lives through their commitment to labour?

Inspired by tales from the mines, singer, composer, and theatre-maker Princess Tshabangu delves into the role of ritualistic and spiritual labour in the city through her performance of The Stone Crusher.

Further exploring her own musical and physical performance, Tshabangu tells the tale of a narrative song healer who, through the frantic nature of the city and the pressures of the informal mining trade, forgets her role of singing to, and appeasing the gods in her work. Now, it is time to return to the earth and to collect the spirits lost to the mines.   

The Stone Crusher is a performance which reflects on the kind of work we choose to engage with, the ways in which spirituality is included or forgotten in daily practice, and the effects of contemporary industrialisation and systems of labour on our lives. 

Conceptualised & performed by | Princess Tshabangu
Directed by | Phala Ookeditse Phala
Choreography by | Thabo Rapoo
Cinematography by | Noah Cohen
Writing by | David Mann

Napo Masheane is a Johannesburg-based spoken word poet, director, playwright, and performer.

Season 6 of The Centre for the Less Good Idea sees Masheane’s interests around labour, gender, silence, and migrancy taking shape in a number of performance-based explorations. Water, blood, sweat, and written and oral history are some of the key themes that Masheane explored during Season 6’s workshop sessions while the migration of both labour and resources from Lesotho into Johannesburg served as another area of interest.

An ongoing attempt at interdisciplinary collaboration outside of her own specialisations, channeled through the framework of labour and routine in the city have informed much of Masheane’s work across the Season.

PHOTOGRAPHER | Zivanai Matangi

Faniswa Yisa is a multi-award-winning actor, director, theatre-maker, and producer who has performed in 19 countries.

With a background in physical theatre, Yisa’s interests lie firmly with the body – what its capabilities are as a vehicle for narrative, as well as how people interpret the body when they view it on stage or in the public space. Having recently moved from Cape Town to Johannesburg, much of Yisa’s explorations during the Season 6 workshopping sessions involved the limitlessness and the overwhelming nature of the city. Humility, visibility, identity, and self-worth are a few of the themes that have arisen through her practice during this period.

Season 6 of The Centre for the Less Good Idea sees Yisa exploring the possibilities of interdisciplinary practice and collaboration through performative meditations on labour, as well as generating new material through the deliberate disruption of one’s core practice.

Opening night of Season 6 features VUKA KLEVA

Conceptualised & directed by | Vusi Mdoyi
Dramaturgy by | Phala Ookeditse Phala
Performed by | Elma Motloenya, Lungile Ngwenya, Bukhosibakhe Letsekha & Paballo Phiri
Percussion by | Michael Micca Manganye & Vuyani Feni
Creative & production contributions by | Vusi Arts Projects (VAP), Kgotosofalang Moshe Mavundla & Petros Lephoto

Since its inception in 1950s South Africa, panstula has been an artform that is at once evocative of the environment it is being practiced in, and responsive to the ongoing political and cultural on goings of the broader country. 

In Vuka Kleva, pantsula is used to trace the everyday rhythms of systems of labour, capital, and human energy. Dancer, teacher, choreographer and pantsula Vusi Mdoyi and his ensemble of dancers use performance as a means of speaking to the night shifts and nine-to-fives, the commutes in and out of the city, the frenetic energy of the assembly line, the grinding nature of a city gridlocked by labour, or bodies caught up in ritualistic toil.  

Vuka Kleva is a performance that speaks to the nature, syncopation, and the complicated human mechanics of work and embodied labour.   

Cinematography by | Noah Cohen
Sound by | SoulFire Studio
Writing by | Dave Mann

Catrin Dowd is a musician and visiting researcher and collaborator for Season 6 of The Centre for the Less Good Idea.

Currently working towards her PhD at the University of Chicago, Dowd is interested in the history of music, theatre and performance, as well as the use of performance as research. During her time with The Centre for the Less Good Idea, Dowd is exploring the possibilities of performing city spaces.

Season 6 sees Dowd both researching and participating in the various iterations of performance over The Centre’s workshopping period. She will also be lending her skills as a double-bassist to the Season’s work.

PHOTOGRAPHER | Zivanai Matangi

Kieron Jina is a multidisciplinary artist, choreographer, and teacher based in Johannesburg.

Working primarily in the realms of dance and performance art and with a background in film, Jina is interested in the ways in which performance can help to make sense of the body, the effects that work has on the body, and how performance can generate empathy through harnessing certain intimacies and vulnerabilities.

Identity, physicality, animality, technology, and sound were a few of Jina’s areas of exploration throughout the workshopping sessions of The Centre for the Less Good Idea’s 6th Season. This Season sees Jina collaborating with a number of performers to further experiment with the vocabulary of movement.

PHOTOGRAPHER | Zivanai Matangi

At the Centre Space Programme 1, 2 and 3 takes place at 7pm on 23, 24 & 25 October. The second half of each programme ends with the full cast in an ensemble.

A direct result of The Centre’s workshopping sessions, The Wall of Tools sees the coming together of the various artists, creative practices, and thematic investigations of Season 6.Through the abstract repetition of the mundane, and the use of the human body and various tools of labour, the physical and psychological effects of labour in the city are unpacked and explored.The sound of a drill boring into concrete, the hiss of an iron, the sanitised theatres of a hospital or the dusty reaches of a mine-dump, long forgotten. How do we engage with work or labour in our everyday lives – physically, intellectually, or spiritually?In

The Wall of Tools, many of Season 6’s themes and lines of thought will converge and find meaning through a series of devised and improvised, free-flowing performances as well as through a daily installation at The Centre.

Directed by | Phala Ookeditse Phala, William Kentridge & Nhlanhla Mahlangu
Contributions & Performances by | Napo Masheane, Andisiwe Mpinda, Faniswa Yisa, Princess Tshabangu, Lorin Sookool, Thabo Rapoo, Vusi Mdoyi, Michael Micca Manganye, Kieron Jina, Warrick Sony, Humphrey Maleka, Sello Pesa & Thireshen Govender.
Designed by | Thireshen Govender & Kyle Hollis
Props & Costumes by | Shruthi Nair
Built by | FODES – Fountain of Design and Electrical Solutions
Cinematography and editing by | Noah Cohen
Writing by | Dave Mann

Usha Seejarim is an award-winning visual artist and sculptor, and is The Centre for the Less Good Idea’s invited artist for Season 6.

With a longstanding fascination around the concepts of work, labour, functionality, domesticity and more, Seejarim’s work explores, amongst other things, the gritty nature of everyday labour, the use and value of tools, and the daily rituals that keep the household, the city, and the world turning.

Season 6 sees Seejarim presenting a series of grass broom heads, installed as a collection of vespiaries or apertures and speaking to the idea of homes, nests, or dwellings, as well as alluding to the many men and women of Johannesburg who craft and sell hand-made brooms in the city. 

PHOTOGRAPHER | Usha Seejarim

Warrick Sony is a Cape Town-based musician, composer, and sound artist.

With a deep-seated interest in sound and politics, Sony’s approach to the sonic arts is rooted in a solid DIY-aesthetic. Silence, machinery, and the binaries of work and play have all informed his explorations throughout the workshop sessions of Season 6 of The Centre for the Less Good Idea. The links between work and punishment, and productivity and virtuosity have also been key interests to Sony throughout this period.

Season 6 sees Sony further exploring the impossibilities of silence through the concept of work and play, as well as collaborating with the various artists and performers at The Centre. Finally, an emphasis on improvisation and the haphazard process of crafting sonic forma and narrative out of the events of each day have formed the basis of Sony’s work across the workshopping sessions.

PHOTOGRAPHER | Zivanai Matangi

Vusi Mdoyi is a dancer, teacher, choreographer, artistic director, and pantsula.

Mdoyi is the founding director of VAP Dance Academy and Studios, a pivotal Katlehong Township first Dance Academy and Studio that trains young people in Katlehong Township. Mdoyi is also a co-founding Director of Impilo Mapantsula Global Movement, a structure that unites, promotes, research, documents and contributes towards building Industry standards. Mdoyi’s contributions to the creative awareness and continued fascination with the culture of pantsula are inspired by his upbringing in the township which connects to the history, culture, politics, fashion, music, and language of the art form. Introducing Isipantsula to traditional theatre, academic, and experimental art spaces, as well as contextualising the artistic tradition on a global scale are some of his key interests.

Season 6 of The Centre for the Less Good Idea sees Mdoyi lending his skills to the various works that arose throughout the course of the workshopping sessions, as well as pushing the limits of form and style through his continued collaboration with the Season’s many performing artists.

PHOTOGRAPHER | Zivanai Matangi

SEASON 6 | 23 - 27 October 2019.

Season 6 is co-curated by architect and urban designer Thiresh Govender and dancer and choreographer Sello Pesa, alongside founder William Kentridge and co-animateurs Bronwyn Lace and Phala Ookeditse Phala.

At the Centre Space Programme 1, 2 and 3 takes place at 7pm on 23, 24 & 25 October.

The second half of each programme ends with the full cast in an ensemble.

A direct result of The Centre’s workshopping sessions, The Wall of Tools sees the coming together of the various artists, creative practices, and thematic investigations of Season 6.

Through the abstract repetition of the mundane, and the use of the human body and various tools of labour, the physical and psychological effects of labour in the city are unpacked and explored.

The sound of a drill boring into concrete, the hiss of an iron, the sanitised theatres of a hospital or the dusty reaches of a mine-dump, long forgotten. How do we engage with work or labour in our everyday lives – physically, intellectually, or spiritually?

In The Wall of Tools, many of Season 6’s themes and lines of thought will converge and find meaning through a series of devised and improvised, free-flowing performances as well as through a daily installation at The Centre.

Directed by | Phala Ookeditse Phala, William Kentridge & Nhlanhla Mahlangu
Contributions & Performances by | Napo Masheane, Andisiwe Mpinda, Faniswa Yisa, Princess Tshabangu, Lorin Sookool, Thabo Rapoo, Vusi Mdoyi, Michael Micca Manganye, Kieron Jina, Warrick Sony, Humphrey Maleka, Sello Pesa & Thireshen Govender.
Designed by | Thireshen Govender & Kyle HollisProps & Costumes by | Shruti Nair
Built by | FODES – Fountain of Design and Electrical Solutions
Cinematography and editing by | Noah Cohen
Writing by | Dave Mann

Thabo Rapoo is a Pretoria-based dancer, choreographer, and performing artist.

Rapoo cites the act of observation as a crucial factor to his creative process. As a result, much of his work is concerned with human nature – how we move through certain spaces as well as our various forms of non-verbal communication. Labour, exercise, fatigue, and the electric energy of the inner city contrasted with the darkness and silence of its abandoned buildings are some of Rapoo’s areas of exploration for Season 6 of The Centre for the Less Good Idea.

This Season sees Rapoo lending his performative skills to many of The Centre’s collaborating artists, as well as exploring artistic disciplines outside of his own through a series of improvisational, collaborative works over the course of the Season’s workshopping sessions.

PHOTOGRAPHER | Thabo Rapoo

Andisiwe Mpinda is an actress and academic currently completing a Masters in Cultural Policy and Management.

While Mpinda typically works with text to guide her work, she is currently interested in exploring movement and the body as a vehicle for narrative expression. With a fascination in the improvisational and responsive nature of performance art, Mpinda’s work is also concerned with the emotional context of physical performance, and how the performing body is perceived both on and off stage.

Season 6 of The Centre for the Less Good Idea sees Mpinda exploring, amongst other things, narrative-driven physical theatre and the interplay between spirituality and corporeality. 

PHOTOGRAPHER | Zivanai Matangi

Micca Manganye is a Johannesburg-based musician and performer specialising in percussion and live performance.

The restorative and healing possibilities of music and performance are of particular interest to Manganye, while the relationship between work and play in the act of percussion is another aspect of the craft he has been exploring throughout Season 6’s workshopping sessions.

This Season of The Centre for the Less Good Idea sees Manganye drawing on his own lived experience as inspiration, while stepping outside of musical performance and into the realms of theatrical performance and improvisation have also shaped much of his work throughout the Season.

PHOTOGRAPHER | Zivanai Matangi

Humphrey is a Johannesburg-based dancer, choreographer, and performer.

With a background in contemporary dance and performance, Maleka is currently interested in exploring non-movement and the unconventional and non-formal performance and dance that’s found in the everyday. Throughout the course of Season 6’s workshopping sessions, Maleka played with improvisation and movement to conceptualise performances inspired by Johannesburg’s many street vendors and informal traders, specifically the clothing traders at the Dunusa Market.

An ongoing process of collaboration and interdisciplinary exploration, as well as a series of performative meditations on the relationships between labour and money, and work and chores, have informed much of Maleka’s work across The Centre for the Less Good Idea’s 6th Season.

PHOTOGRAPHER | Zivanai Matangi

Angel Khumalo is a photographer, social documentarian, and founder of Platinum Sketch Studios.

Since acquiring her first camera at the age of 16, Khumalo has been working with the medium of photography. Engaging with the youth and with creativity in predominantly disadvantaged spaces are key interests for Khumalo, with Jeppestown – the area she lives and works in – serving as a particular source of inspiration for her. Language, identity, sound, and the everyday performance of navigating city spaces are a few of the themes that Khumalo has teased out during the workshopping sessions of Season 6.

This Season of The Centre for the Less Good Idea sees Khumalo stepping out of her comfort zone and experimenting with varying forms of creativity, collaborating on, and conceptualising new works with the Season’s many artists and performers.

PHOTOGRAPHER | Zivanai Matangi