A View into the Heart of the Dancer with Johnny Clegg in Joburg
Walking through an informal settlement, you are greeted by children wanting to show off their ability to speak English, Maskandi music crackling from car speakers, and caged chickens calmly awaiting their fate. Mutters, murmurs and audible exclamations of “abelungu!” White people! Handshakes and hand holding, followed by more handshakes. You pass through a white-washed entrance […]
Walking through an informal settlement, you are greeted by children wanting to show off their ability to speak English, Maskandi music crackling from car speakers, and caged chickens calmly awaiting their fate.
Mutters, murmurs and audible exclamations of “abelungu!” White people! Handshakes and hand holding, followed by more handshakes.
You pass through a white-washed entrance labelled DENVER MENS HOSTEL. Broken windows, face-brick walls, peeling paint, darkened halls.
The floor is wet as you make your way down a curved stairwell into… well, you don’t know where it goes. You merge with a sea of people flooding down the stairs. Deeper into the unknown.
Emerging into the light, you are in what appears to be a courtyard nestled within four balconied walls. Laundry and onlookers peer over the edge.
Enter the warriors into the coliseum.
The chanting is an echoing hum. You feel the ground shake. The rhythmic clapping sounds like drums. It carries your heart away.
Competing dance teams from eight hostels celebrate the end of year before returning home. Each team has a leader that guides them. The audience is the judge – the louder they cheer, the more popular the team.
Bicycle helmet, monster mask, monkey around the neck, cooking pot tied to the arm, a hessian-bag cape. All to make the dancers more memorable in the minds of the viewers.
Hostels like this were born of the migrant labour system; its residents mobile figures that hold the line between urban and rural. This place becomes a gateway to the past, and a bridge to the future.
It is through dance that the participants make social commentary, take back control, disrupt the norm, deviate from the expected, interact with others, formulate an identity, and share their story.
Sitting next to Johnny Clegg, he shares some insight – in his storyteller way – about this hidden world. He is a gatekeeper that holds the key. And, for a moment, you get a glimpse into the heart of the dancer.
By: Marguerite de Villiers
Watch Dancers in Video below:
Marguerite de Villiers: “This is a video clip of my favourite performance of the day – Johnny Clegg points out that the team leader is blaming the audience for one of the dancers making a mistake.”
End of year celebration dance at Denver Men's Hostel in #Joburg w. Johnny Clegg. Filmed by Marguerite de Villiers – https://t.co/9HG0XOrUFj
— South Africa People – SAPeople.com (@sapeople) November 19, 2016