It was a momentous occasion, Joburg Ballet’s first UK season at the Linbury presenting a mixed bill under the collective title Communion of Light, with a mostly South African choreographic team. Artistic Director Dane Hurst, former Rambert, Phoenix and Wayne McGregor dancer, took up the interim position earlier this year and will become full-time in January 2026. It’s looking promising.
There were five offerings of various genres and while the programme felt overly long and exhaustive, it did at least give the audience a chance to get to know the company. The dancers were pushed to the limits with each piece becoming ever more demanding.
It opened with Veronica Paeper’s 1979 Concerto for Charlie, the Charlie of the title referring to Revlon’s popular perfume of the time. Set to Shostakovich’s Second Piano Concerto, MacMillan’s 1966 masterpiece Concerto, lingered heavily in the air. Costumed in peachy, flesh-coloured leotards and unitards and in the close proximity of the Linbury’s intimate auditorium, it left the dancers no room for error. We felt their effort and commitment alongside a large dose of determination.
No one could be blamed for wanting to create a work to such beautiful music but I think if you’re going to have ensemble work that requires absolute precision, it needs to be realistically manageable. The men displayed strong partnering skills and athletic leaps, the women also pushed hard to achieve, but extremities, feet and hands in particular, were at times strained. The slow movement was beautifully executed by Ryoko Wagyu and Mario Gaglione but couldn’t quite escape the shadows of MacMillan’s famous pas de deux.
South African Tumelo Lekana, who was part of The Royal Ballet’s International Draft Works earlier this year, brought Camagwini (Kago-Entle), a solo which he danced himself. A prayer in motion, an offering of gratitude to the ancestors for Kago-Entle, this was a sacred dialogue between the seen and the unseen and it was over way too fast! Lekana is an extraordinary performer, diminutive in stature but with a personality that could light up Wembley Stadium. And what a dancer! Wearing pointes shoes, he simply bewitched his captive audience. To music by Miriam Makeba and Mama Africa, Camagwini has the potential for expansion.
Hurst’s own Resonance, which closed the first half of the evening, was similarly a work that explored South African history, appropriate since the evening honoured 30 years of democracy, but the episodic way it has been crafted felt a bit too fragmented. Hurst has wonderful ideas and a gift for working with groups as well as creating innovative passages of choreography. What was less clear was the direction of the piece as a whole. It covered violence, discrimination, the nightclub scene, community and so on, but I lost focus at times.
The second half comprised Spanish choreographer Jorge Pérez Martínez’ Azul and the late Dada Masilo’s Salomé, both of which suited the company well. Martínez has vast experience as a dancer, teacher, choreographer and director. This showed in the structure, the shapes and his response to various different guitar concertos. Azul (the Spanish word for blue) came together with more cohesion and fluidity than in the previous works. The dancers appeared to revel in this with confidence and there were some first rate individual performances.
It was Masilo’s Salomé which made the biggest impression. Based on Oscar Wilde’s play, musically it seemed to move swiftly with consistent acceleration. Richter, Reich, Beethoven and various percussive interludes provided the background to an unfolding story of lust, passion and power struggles. Graphic depiction in each scene was tremendously well-delivered by Revil Yon as Jokanaan, Latoya Mokoena as Salomé, Tammy Higgins as Queen Herodias and Thando Mgobhozi as Herod. Mokoena had shone earlier in the programme but in this, she was sensational. Yon too, was heavily invested in his tragic role, emitting a guttural cry before his inevitable demise. The statuesque, imposing presence of Mgobhozi dominated the stage during the final scenes.
If the evening got off to a slightly apprehensive (but understandable) start, as the performance progressed the company persuaded me that there was a great deal to appreciate, some really big talents and enormous potential. Hurst needs a little more time to settle in and find a balance with programming but the tools are there and the raw energy of the dancers, abundantly apparent.
