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  3. Performance and the Afterlives of Injustice

Performance and the Afterlives of Injustice

Catherine M. Cole 2020
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 In the aftermath of state-perpetrated injustice, a façade of peace can suddenly give way, and in South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo, post-apartheid and postcolonial framings of change have exceeded their limits. Performance and the Afterlives of Injustice reveals how the voices and visions of artists can help us see what otherwise evades perception. Embodied performance in South Africa has particular potency because apartheid was so centrally focused on the body: classifying bodies into racial categories, legislating where certain bodies could move and which bathrooms and drinking fountains certain bodies could use, and how different bodies carried meaning. The book considers key works by contemporary performing artists Brett Bailey, Faustin Linyekula, Gregory Maqoma, Mamela Nyamza, Robyn Orlin, Jay Pather, and Sello Pesa, artists imagining new forms and helping audiences see the contemporary moment as it is: an important intervention in countries long predicated on denial. They are also helping to conjure, anticipate, and dream a world that is otherwise. The book will be of particular interest to scholars of African studies, black performance, dance studies, transitional justice, as well as theater and performance studies.
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Series
  • Theater: Theory/Text/Performance
ISBN(s)
  • 978-0-472-07458-7 (hardcover)
  • 978-0-472-12701-6 (ebook)
  • 978-0-472-05458-9 (paper)
Subject
  • Theater and Performance
  • African Studies
  • Dance
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  • Table of Contents

  • Resources

  • Cover
  • Title Page
  • Copyright Page
  • Dedication
  • Contents
  • Prologue: Returning to Remains
  • Introduction
  • One. Athol Fugard’s Statements Before and After Arrests: Performing at the Edge of the Law in Apartheid South Africa
  • Two. Movement and Stasis in the Protracted Interval: Jay Pather, Mamela Nyamza, and Sello Pesa
  • Three. Sharing the Stage, Breaking the Theater: Robyn Orlin, Jay Pather, and Brett Bailey
  • Four. Of Names and Frames: Faustin Linyekula and Gregory Maqoma
  • Epilogue: Taking Them Back Home
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • Bibliography
  • Index

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  • Chapter 11
  • Chapter 24
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Fig. 1. Male dancer in silver suit, back to camera, arms raised and bent at elbows, left leg stepping to the side in front; he’s on the move.

Gregory Maqoma in Exit/Exist

From Introduction

Fig. 1. Gregory Maqoma in Exit/Exist, 2013. (Photo by John Hogg.)

Fig. 2. Female dancer, muscular brown bare back to camera, long tulle and burlap skirt pinned with clothespins. Her arms are raised, holding a steel bucket of red laundry on her head.

Mamela Nyamza in Hatched

From Introduction

Fig. 2. Mamela Nyamza in Hatched, 2010. (Photo by John Hogg.)

Fig. 3. Promotional poster for play with two fingerprints, one darker, one lighter. Image of man and woman ghosted from within each of the fingerprints. Old typewriter font.

Original poster for Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act

From Chapter 1

Fig. 3. Original poster for Statements after an Arrest under the Immorality Act, designed and screen printed by Margaret Hillhorst, 1972. The fingerprints are those of Athol Fugard and Yvonne Bryceland. (Image courtesy of Brian Astbury.)

Fig. 4. Black man in white face paint and white suit stands on table; two women downstage in embrace, one a maid in fur, the other a spirit figure in whiteface, a long dress, and tall headdress.

Scene from Jay Pather's Body of Evidence

From Chapter 2

Fig. 4. Siyanda Duma, Ntombi Gasa, and Neliswa Rushualang in a scene from Jay Pather’s Body of Evidence, 2008. (Photo by Val Adamson, courtesy of Jay Pather.)

Fig. 5. Rainbow-colored bench tipping on a fulcrum. Formally dressed woman and man share bench. He’s pensive; she’s reaching out to the left, eyes closed.

Mamela Nyamza and Aphiwe Livi in De-Apart-Hate

From Chapter 2

Fig. 5. Mamela Nyamza and Aphiwe Livi in De-Apart-Hate, performed at JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience, 2017. (Photo by Val Adamson.)

Fig. 6. Woman in white turban hat and Dutch ruffle collar, skirt lifted as she sits on upturned bench, legs spread open, Bible at crotch, silver pumps. She licks her finger.

Mamela Nyamza with bible in De-Apart-Hate

From Chapter 2

Fig. 6. Mamela Nyamza in De-Apart-Hate, 2016. (Photo by John Hogg.)

Fig. 7. Two men wrestle with punching bag, one wearing boxing gloves, the other clutching bag with arms and legs. Bare-chested man in background, along with another male onlooker.

Sello Pesa's Bag Beatings

From Chapter 2

Fig. 7. Choreographer Sello Pesa tests movement and noise on the boxing bag with dancers and collaborators Humphrey Maleka and Brian Mtembu in Bag Beatings, 2016. (Photo by Stella Olivier, courtesy of the Centre for the Less Good Idea.)

Fig. 8. Raised stage shot from above, covered in red plastic plates. Black woman and two others placing the plates; white woman with gag fake eyeglasses slips on a plate.

Toni Morkel slipping on plates in Orlin's Daddy...

From Chapter 3

Fig. 8. Toni Morkel slipping on red plates in Robyn Orlin’s Daddy, I’ve seen this piece six times before and I still don’t know why they’re hurting each other, 1999. (Photo by John Hogg.)

Fig. 9. Brown-skinned ballerina shot from above on black stage floor as she sifts white powder onto her thighs. Stage floor covered with footprint silhouettes.

Overhead shot of foot silhouette from Orlin's Daddy...

From Chapter 3

Fig. 9. Nelisiwe Xaba in Robyn Orlin’s Daddy, I’ve seen this piece six times before and I still don’t know why they’re hurting each other, 1999. (Photo by John Hogg.)

Fig. 10. Solo black female dancer in front of screen mirroring her image. Dancer in white lace skirt, white tights, bra, and powdered hair. Moving stage left, arms bent at elbows.

Nelisiwe Xaba in Uncles & Angels

From Chapter 3

Fig. 10. Nelisiwe Xaba’s Uncles Angels, 2012. (Photo supplied by Goodman Gallery.)

Fig. 11. Ensemble of six black men in dark suits, five of whom are blowing up white balloons; three have pants undone, dangling at their ankles. One man sits with red tie, legs crossed, composed.

Pather's Qaphela Caesar

From Chapter 3

Fig. 11. Qaphela Caesar by Jay Pather and Siwela Sonke Dance Theatre, 2012. (Photo by Val Adamson, courtesy of Jay Pather.)

Fig. 12. Four male dancers pose in black gumboots, white shorts and bras, plastic buckets in hand. Behind them, ethereal woman and projection of Gray’s Anatomy drawing of bone.

Gumboot dance from Pather's Body of Evidence

From Chapter 3

Fig. 12. Body of Evidence by Jay Pather and Siwela Sonke Dance Theatre, 2008. (Photo by Val Adamson, courtesy of Jay Pather.)

Fig. 13. Bare-chested black woman in kerchief, chained at neck to a bed. She faces back wall, looks in mirror; a colonial tableau with old photos on wall.

Baily's Exhibit B, woman chained to bed

From Chapter 3

Fig. 13. Brett Bailey’s Exhibit B, 2016. (Photo by Cristos Sarris for Onassis Stegi.)

Fig. 14. White male artist puts finishing touches on human zoo installation. Black performer clad in white suit and pith helmet, white body paint, holds basket of severed human hands.

Exhibit B rehearsal with Brett Bailey arranging bowl of hands

From Chapter 3

Fig. 14. South African playwright and installation artist Brett Bailey (right), working with an actor during a rehearsal of Exhibit B at the Musée Sainte-Croix in Poitiers, France, 2014. (Photo by Marlene Awaad/New York Times/Redux.)

Fig. 15. Two male performers in chrysalis-like bulbous costumes evocative of the Michelin Man. One crouches, the other stands with arm raised. Facing camera.

Linyekula's more more more…future, two bulbous dancers

From Chapter 4

Fig. 15. Pappy Ebotani (left) with Faustin Linyekula in more more more . . . future, 2011. (Photo by John Hogg.)

Fig. 16. Two male nightclub singers at microphones. One clad in glittery suit, the other in a jacket that looks like it’s made of money. Both look offstage.

Linyekula's more more more…future, two nightclub singers

From Chapter 4

Fig. 16. Pepé Malumba Musema, aka Le Coq (left), and Patient Muftala Useni, aka Pasnas, in Faustin Linyekula’s more more more . . . future, 2011. (Photo by John Hogg.)

Fig. 17. Male dancer, black pants and jacket, red shirt. Bent over, left leg lifted high behind, knee bent; both arms behind him to his right. Focused gaze ahead.

Gregory Maqoma in Beautiful Me

From Chapter 4

Fig. 17. Gregory Maqoma in Beautiful Me, 2007. (Photo by John Hogg.)

Fig. 18. Three male performers playing African soldiers in World War I. They march, desperate, exhausted, determined, shadows looming behind them on a screen. Black and white photo.

Maqoma and other dancers in Kentridge's Head & the Load

From Epilogue

Fig. 18. From left: Xolani Dlamini, Gregory Maqoma, and Thulani Chauke in The Head the Load by William Kentridge, 2018. (Photo by Stella Olivier.)

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