Art Happens

On 12 January 2022, NASA published the first images from the James Webb Telescope of distant galaxies from over 10 billion light years ago. While the ability to capture images of ancient galaxies propel us closer to an idea of futurity, they also serve as a reminder that perhaps we are not as far along as we think.

Collaborating once again for this new creation, the artists of Impilo Mapantsula and Jeremy Nedd dig deeper into topics that navigate various entangled avenues of Black diasporic, cosmologic and Afrofuturist experience. This through the lens of Pantsula, a powerful dance form which is well known for its high-speed virtuosic footwork, an expression that during Apartheid gave a voice to a whole generation. Focusing on the improvisational potential of Pantsula’s movement vocabulary in response to cosmic and spiritual jazz music of Alice Coltrane and Bheki Mseleku, the performance draws upon phenomena found in the cosmos as metaphoric inspiration: from the birth of a galaxy to the death of a star.

Connecting the powerful and lyrical jive style of today’s Pantsula while echoing oppressive struggles of the past, the performers contemplate the compression of space and time, and our allusions of progress towards a future.