DANCE
BY RACHAEL CARNES
JOY DANCER
UO hosts South African dancer Vincent Mantsoe for a
performance of KonKoriti
G
rowing up in Soweto township, choreog-
rapher and dancer Vincent Mantsoe found
strength in the daily rhythm set by the wom-
en in his life.
“My grandmother, my mother, my auntie
— I come from a family of sangoma, or traditional
healers,” Mantsoe says. “They are the shamans. And
their role in South Africa is to heal people — and
part of that is dancing.”
Mantsoe brings his new work, KonKoriti, based
on a song his grandmother used to sing him, to the
University of Oregon this weekend.
“In my family, we practiced a ritual dance form
every single day,” Mantsoe says. “At three o’clock
in the morning, we beat the drum and accessed the
spirit, before we can actually start our day.”
Soweto, like Indian reservations in this country,
stands as a living reminder of a dehumanizing
program of “native resettlement.”
The massive shantytown, spanning 41 square
miles, features predominantly improvised housing,
with many areas lacking adequate infrastructure
such as sanitation, safe water and electricity.
Mantsoe was just 5 years old in 1976 when
Soweto grabbed the world’s attention. Mass protests
erupted over the government’s policy enforcing
education in Afrikaans — a West Germanic language
spoken by the colonial ruling party — rather than in
the indigenous languages.
Ten thousand students marched — and police
opened fire.
It was the beginning of a movement that would
lead to change.
“I come up from a country under the apartheid
regime, and as a young person I didn’t understand
what was happening, but I had a feeling,” Mantsoe
recalls. “When I was young, we saw people
demonstrating, people dying, people arrested for no
reason. I was young, but I knew what I saw. I saw the
police — and their dogs.”
“And as a young man, growing up in this
situation, you are filled with anger and you don’t
know what to do,” he says. “So we formed a group
called the Joy Dancers.”
A community outreach program, the Joy Dancers
offered an alternative to membership in the township
gangs known as tsotsi.
“In creating this group of young men, we were
trying to find a way of expressing ourselves,”
Mantsoe says.
These teenagers weren’t allowed into theaters,
concert halls, libraries or cinemas — anywhere that
whites might gather. But they could watch MTV.
Once per week, a local Johannesburg station
broadcast American music videos “for the white
kids,” Mantsoe says, and he and his friends never
missed it — tuning into the neighborhood’s only
television.
Enter Michael Jackson.
“For us, as young black African men, it’s, ‘Oh, it
is possible! Look at this black man making it big in
the USA!’” Mantsoe recalls.
“The O’Jays, the Temptations, Michael Jackson,
Miles Davis — black musicians created a language
for themselves,” Mantsoe says. “And we continued
this voice — through dancing.”
The road wasn’t easy.
Though Mantsoe’s family used dance
traditionally, they didn’t readily understand his
choice to approach the form creatively. And in
1990, when Mantsoe and his peers ventured to
Johannesburg to study contemporary dance, they
discovered segregation — even in the studio.
Mantsoe’s solo work, KonKoriti, draws on these
themes.
“KonKoriti is an ancient song that my
grandmother used to sing,” Mantsoe says. “It’s
about a man, or a woman for that matter. It’s about
the pride and arrogance of this particular character.”
“My work is to create something that alludes to
where I come from and what’s happening today,”
Mantsoe says. “There are people who are doing that
today — culturally or politically, that selfishness.
In the USA today it’s the same story. But this is
something that has happened since ages ago — since
ancient times.”
Dance, Mantsoe says, offers a way forward.
“Dancing is about going somewhere.”
The UO Department of Dance presents Vincent Mantsoe at 8 pm
Saturday, Oct. 28, in the Dougherty Dance Theatre, Gerlinger Annex,
UO campus; FREE.
voces 8
Also featuring the OSU Chamber Choir
Thursday, Nov. 2 | 7:30pm
The LaSells Stewart Center, 875 SW 26th St, Corvallis
TICkETS: $35, $45 in advance | $40, $50 at the door
Free to OSU students with ID in advance, or at the door while
tickets are available. Pick up free ticket in advance at
Fairbanks 309A, or call 541-737-5592.
NEW! Food and beverages available for purchase at 6 pm
Childcare available through OSU KidSpirit
FULL SERIES AND PICk 4 DISCOUNTS AvAILABLE!
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October 26, 2017 • eugeneweekly.com
Info. and Tickets: liberalarts.oregonstate.edu/SACpresents
SAC Presents
COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS / SCHOOL OF ARTS AND COMMUNICATION
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