Gregory Maqoma: My Life, My Dance

Having a dance company is always difficult. But founding a troupe and keeping it going for 25 years is even more challenging. Add to that the political, cultural and economic landscape of South Africa, and the odds might seem unsurmountable. But Gregory Maqoma, who was born in Soweto in 1973 and has been hailed by CNN for his fusion of “tradition and history into his world class performances,” has not only bucked those odds, but has also received numerous accolades for himself and his choreography for Vuyani Dance Theater (VDT), which he co-founded in 1999 with Shanell Winlock Pailman, and whose name means “joy” in Xhosa.

“The Land We Carry” by Gregory Maqoma. Photograph by Helen Griffith

Angelenos will get the chance to experience one of VDT’s most lauded works, Maqoma’s 2017 creation, “Cion: Requiem of Ravel’s Boléro,” when it has its Los Angeles premiere at CAP UCLA’S Royce Hall September 21, and, on December 12, Maqoma’s “The Land We Carry,” will be performed at another UCLA venue, the Nimoy.

Indeed, since founding VDT, Maqoma, who has made more than 40 choreographies, has snagged handfuls of accolades and international acclaim, including FNB Vita Choreographer of the Year in 1999, 2001 and 2002 for “Rhythm 1.2.3,” “Rhythm Blues” and “Southern Comfort,” respectively. Maqoma received the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Dance in 2002, and was a finalist in the Daimler Chrysler Choreography Award in 2002, and the Rolex Mentorship Program in 2003.

In addition, the artist is the recipient of the 2012 Tunkie Award for Leadership in Dance, which is presented annually to a South African who has elevated the standard and visibility of dance in South Africa; and, in 2017, the French Government awarded Maqoma the honorific Chavalier de L’ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Maqoma, who is of Xhosa descent, became interested in dance in the late 1980s as a means to escape the rising political tensions in Soweto, and began his formal dance training in 1990 at Moving Into Dance. Since co-founding VDT, Maqoma has also collaborated with world-class choreographers, including Akram Khan, Faustin Linyekula, Dada Masilo and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui.

An inspirational leader as well as a creative force, Maqoma has served as associate artistic director of Moving Into Dance Mophatong, the Dance Umbrella festival and the Afro-Vibes festival in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. He is currently serving on the dance committee of the National Arts Festival.

Maqoma has also taught at various universities in Africa, Europe and America, including at the University of California, as well as taking part in several international residencies. He’s created repertoire, as well, for Moving into Dance Mophatong, Jazzart Contemporary Dance Theatre, the South African Ballet Theatre and the Cape Academy of Performing Arts, among others.

Fjord Review had the chance to catch up with the fiendishly busy Maqoma by Zoom, covering topics that included his upcoming L.A. performances, why he loves collaborations, his memoir, My Life, My Dance, My Soul, and why he decided to stop dancing.

“The Land We Carry” by Gregory Maqoma. Photograph by Helen Griffith

It may be hard to believe, but Vuyani Dance Theater is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. What are your thoughts on reaching this milestone?

Being able to celebrate 25 years, particularly in the context of South Africa, it’s not a small thing: To be able to say I’m having a company for 25 years in the context of South Africa, where it is not easy to have a full-time dance company, to be able to sustain it for 25 years, it is something that I don’t take for granted. I’m grateful that we’re still able to carry on.

And so are your many audiences! How do you define “classical African dance,” and when did you know you wanted to be a dancer?

It’s hard to define African dance. The term in itself is so broad, the best way I can describe it [is] it’s all about identity, and we’re defining identities for ourselves in terms of being clearer in terms of what we want to make or be seen. To try to give it a definition in one sentence would be creating a disservice to the richness [of the] culture that exists, and the way in which artists themselves are making work in this country. It is so unique, and differs for each one of us.

When I started dancing my parents wanted me to be a medical doctor. I was also convinced that I would be a medical doctor, [but] when I finished my schooling, my parents couldn’t afford to take me to university to study medicine, so I thought, “Let me dance for one year fulltime,” and I never stopped. That’s when I decided this is what I wanted to do. I was 18 or 19 years old then.

I’ve read that watching the late pop star, Michael Jackson, on TV, had a big impact on you.

Absolutely! I grew up in the township of Soweto, and I lived quite close to a hostel which housed migrant workers coming from different parts of South Africa, and they would bring traditional forms with them. That was my exposure to African traditional forms. I’d watch them dance, and at home, we had a small television, and I saw Michael Jackson appear, doing simple gestures and moving people to tears. I thought it was phenomenal.

Also, it was the first time I’m seeing a Black person on a screen; we were still in apartheid when all of this was happening. Without knowing, I started taking what I was seeing within traditional forms and started fusing that with pop culture—Tina Turner, Michael Jackson, [for example]—at the time. I call it a cocktail—a fusion of different aesthetic forms, culture and traditions, with modern traditions and cultures.

Vuyani Dance Theater in “Cion: Requiem of Ravel’s Boléro” by Gregory Maqoma. Photograph by John Hogg

Indeed! You’ve also said this cocktail wasn’t one that gets you intoxicated, but that it takes you on a rollercoaster of emotions, which your stunning work, “Cion: Requiem of Ravel’s “Boléro,” certainly does. Your company will soon be making its debut at Royce Hall with this piece that borrows the first part of its title, and the character of a professional mourner, from a South African novel, “Cion.” New York Times critic Roslyn Sulcas called the work, “an artistic prayer for collective betterment.” What was its genesis?

Yes, the theme of “Cion,” by Zakes Mda, was around grief, because I was experiencing a lot of death around me; a lot of people in South Africa were experiencing death. There was so many atrocities and death around the world, and we didn’t have time to grieve, to mourn.

In addition to nine dancers, there are four vocalists that make use of Isicathamiya, an a cappella singing style that originated from the South African Zulus, with the singers’ interpretations of Ravel’s iconic work then composed by Nhlanhla Mahlangu. You’ve said that Ravel’s “Boléro,” sounds both like a funeral procession and at the same time, like African music? How so?

When I was listening to “Boléro,” this brings so much sadness to me. I know it was not written as a requiem or as moment of grief, but when I listened to it, I thought, “This comes from Africa. It’s repetition, secular motion, it builds up to this crescendo.” It felt like a process of grief. I wanted to use that music, but not as it is—I wanted to bring it to the Continent and allow the voice to speak to the melody of “Boléro.”

And you, of course, danced in all the productions, but I understand that after having toured “Broken Chord,” which had its US premiere last year in New York, you said that that would be your final production as a performer. Some would consider your age, 51, relatively young. I must say that I saw the fabulous Germaine Acogny dance this past February, when she was on the cusp of 80. So, why not continue to dance?

I love Germaine, and her work, [but] for me, my aesthetic and my form requires a certain kind of energy and performance ability, and it comes a time in your life when you have to accept, you reach a peak in your life, and that’s why I’m feeling at that peak, [so] this is my last year of being onstage and performing.

I was at the right peak for my dancing, and I’ve always wanted to retire when I’m at my best peak—apart from the body having a feeling that it’s also done enough. I also feel I accomplished the standards I always wanted to accomplish in dance. It’s the right time for me to stop performing and being onstage, but it doesn’t mean I’m stopping to dance. I will always dance for other things, for other productions. It’s something I’m already doing, [but] it’s not for me to be on tours, to be able to perform. I’ve done it for 35 years.

“Broken Chord” by Gregory Maqoma. Photograph by Julieta Cervantes

Ah, Gregory! I understand, but that doesn’t mean I won’t miss seeing you perform, although you will be onstage for, “The Land We Carry,” which will be at UCLA December 12. Will this be your final onstage performance and what is the work about?

Yes, that’s my last show. [Although] the piece was not made to be a touring piece, it was made as a response to the BMW Art Fair in South Africa. BMW commissioned me to curate a piece that will be in a space, in a museum space. I created this last year, and the success of it led to it going to Maputo in another festival, and now to UCLA.

It questions the ideologies of land, and who owns it, who has the right to it, and where is home, really? And what defines home, what defines land, what parameters define land, who’s entitled to it? It’s a bunch of questions around land. We’re still struggling with it in South Africa.

The distribution of land has raised so many questions: Eighty percent of the land—rich land—still belongs to the White minority who have continued to benefit from land, and the majority of people in South Africa continue to struggle without land. That was the question around that piece.

That said, I understand you love to collaborate, and have done so with a number of prominent choreographers, including Dada Masilo, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Akram Khan. What draws you to collaboration?

I’m fascinated by my peers, my contemporaries. I’m fascinated about how they make work and I want to tap into their mind, into their space. It’s my own curiosity that really draws me to that. As much as I know them on a personal level, as friends, I also want to know their process that draws me into wanting to make work with them. They inspire me, and I want to get closer to them.

What prompted you to write your memoir, My Life, My Dance, My Soul, which was published last year?

When I was turning 50 last year, I thought about what is it I want to leave behind, apart from the body of work. I wanted also to have an inspiration of hope that was speaking to young adults, speaking to young dancers, for them to learn my story, to see the possibilities. They can also see themselves if they put their minds in the right space and persevere to reach their dreams, then it’s all possible.

How beautiful. Speaking of young people, what advice to you have for aspiring choreographers?

To be who they want to be, and not to conform to any stereotypical demands of what or how dance should look like. Let them be themselves. By being themselves, they tap into their truth. I think when you tap into your truth, you’re much more likely to make something interesting.

Retrace-Retract, a dance film by Gregory Maqoma

And continuing both the “Cion” theme, and youth, what is “Cion: Cothoza?”

It’s for kids, for young people that range from 9-16. It’s an interpretation of “Cion,” and they understood the whole concept. Our children are the most vulnerable in South Africa, because most of them experience such traumatic events in their lives, and they understand what death is. They understand what it means to grieve.

It was a version about their innocence, that they protect their own innocence as children. It was performed the first time as part of my 50th birthday year celebration, and [also] celebrated June 16, Youth Day in South Africa, [which] celebrated the 1976 youth uprising in South Africa. I thought it was important to bring that work again for the youth to perform in front of other youth.

Gregory, where do you see yourself in the next five to ten years?

Making films! It’s been my desire, but because of Covid, during lockdown, I got two commissions to make dance films. I was in my own apartment and I started making those films and the interest grew from there. One, [Retrace-Retract], was for the Edinburgh International Festival. It was my first film, and then there was ADF. American Dance Festival commissioned me with Marc Bamuthi Joseph, a poet [and Haitian actor] to make a film, [Untold Secrets of the Heart Chamber].

Ah, the silver lining of a global pandemic…

Yes, there was a bright side. I got those two commissions, [and] I wanted to expand the language of dance, but also to work with others on other subjects in order to expand the language. It was Covid that made me tap into it more and more.

Victoria Looseleaf

Victoria Looseleaf is an award-winning, Los Angeles-based international arts journalist who covers music and dance festivals around the world. Among the many publications she has contributed to are the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Dance Magazine and KCET’s Artbound. In addition, she taught dance history at USC and Santa Monica College. Looseleaf’s novella-in-verse, Isn't It Rich? is available from Amazon, and and her latest book, Russ & Iggy’s Art Alphabet with illustrations by JT Steiny, was recently published by Red Sky Presents. Looseleaf can be reached through X, Facebook, Instagram and Linked In, as well as at her online arts magazine ArtNowLA.

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