blue nile to the galaxy around olodumare
Jeremy Nedd & Impilo Mapantsula
blue nile to the galaxy around olodumare
Dance
“It is notable how the dancers seem to be dancing for themselves, for their own pleasure, and at the same time to be dancing with each other as if they are giving each other the energy and imagination they need.” Javier López Piñón, Theaterkrant, 29.8.2024
Dynamic, highly virtuosic and poetic: the group Impilo Mapantsula specialises in pantsula, a South African urban dance form and subculture renowned for its rapid footwork and its significance as a resistance practice. During apartheid, pantsula became the expression of protest for an entire generation. This highly energetic dance form is the basis for the group’s latest collaboration with the Basel-based American choreographer Jeremy Nedd, whose work has already won numerous prizes including a Bessie Award in New York and the Swiss Performing Arts Award. Here Nedd and Impilo Mapantsula combine pantsula with the jazz of the American Alice Coltrane and the South African Bheki Mseleku: both jazz greats not only shared a legendary encounter, but also an awareness of the cosmic dimension as a source of poetic and spiritual inspiration for their creative music – manifest in Coltrane’s work in her world-renowned album ‘World Galaxy’, containing the track ‘Galaxy Around Olodumare’ that inspired the title of this work. From the compositions of these two musicians, Jeremy Nedd has created a “cosmic sonic map” together with Impilo Mapantsula on which the improvisations he has worked on with the five-strong company are based. Here improvisation is understood as an Afrofuturist technique that offers a forward-looking perspective on the past. Combining the powerful jive-like style of contemporary pantsula, the sound of two jazz legends and interstellar phenomena like the birth of galaxies or the death of a star, Jeremy Nedd & Impilo Mapantsula succeed in creating an extraordinarily musical and lyrical dance evening.
Tickets
Regular price: 16 €
Reduced price: 11 €
Supporters' price: 25 €
Minimum price: 6 €
Venue
Duration
60 minutes
Discussion
The performance will be followed by an aftertalk (in English).
Language
English, few words
Accessibility
27.06., 18:30: Pre Access Tour + audio description
Information
On 28.06., there will be a workshop with Jeremy Nedd & Impilo Mapantsula at 11:00 (TanzFaktur, Cologne) and a street session at 16:00 (Ebertplatz, Cologne).