Cion; Requiem of Ravel’s Bolero

Toloki earns his living as a mourner in a large, violent city in South Africa. He is paid to comfort families who have fallen victim to violence, racial hatred and poverty. Toloki – the main character in the novels Ways of Dying (1995) and Cion (2007) by the author Zakes Mda – comes to life in the dance performance Cion; Requiem of Ravel’sBolero by the internationally acclaimed dancer and choreographer Gregory Maqoma. Taking inspiration from Toloki, and with eight dancers from his Vuyani Dance Theatre, Maqoma examines the dark history of his native country. As a preliminary study for Cion, Maqoma made Requiem Request at William Kentridge’s The Centre for the Less Good Idea, which can be seen at Frascati theatre. Maqoma used the Bolero as musical inspiration in this piece.

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In 1995 the South African writer Zakes Mda published his novel Ways of Dying. Mda had already been living in the United States for some time, but his focus was on the violence and large number of deaths

that took place during South Africa’s transition to democracy. The novel’s protagonist, Toloki, is a professional mourner who goes from funeral to funeral to offer consolation to the stricken families. Just over a decade later Toloki featured again in Mda’s novel Cion, which is set in the United States where the professional mourner is now based because of ‘the lack of interesting deaths in a South Africa that has become a stable society’. In this novel Toloki lives with a family descended from runaway slaves and during the year he is with them unravels their hidden history.

In Cion: Requiem of Ravel’s Bolero the South African dancer and choreographer Gregory Maqoma uses the character of the professional mourner to relate himself to the recent history of his native country. Because of the developments there, and because of the political dynamics of the whole world, Maqoma’s point of view is that everyone is now a professional mourner. In Maqoma’s interpretation Toloki discovers death again in a contemporary context, in a world in which death is not a natural phenomenon but is caused by ‘decisions of others over the other.’ We ‘mourn the death by creating death’, according to Maqoma. Just as others use hashtags for critical commentary, Maqoma uses art to comment on the way we treat each other as human beings. Nevertheless Maqoma believes this is an optimistic work that counters the dark cloud, giving us the hope that humanity still exists, even in our darkest times.

Maqoma draws his inspiration not only from Zakes Mda’s novels, but also from the work of the French composer Maurice Ravel. He has previously used Ravel’s most famous composition, the Bolero, in Requiem Request, a work he developed in William Kentridge’s The Centre of the Less Good Idea. This work can also be seen at this year’s Holland Festival. Because of its structural simplicity, coupled with its insistent and haunting qualities, Bolero feels very African to Maqoma. To emphasize this African character Maqoma has changed the usual instrumentation, replacing this with voices, chanting and church hymns, sung by a choir of Isicathamiya singers. Isicathamiya is South African Zulu in origin and is a harmony-based style of singing which can best be compared to a cappella. This style developed from, and contrasts with, the loud and powerful Mbube style of singing. The name Isicathamiya also refers to the tightly choreographed dance moves the singers make while performing.

The reworking of the music lifts the choreography into a space of love and hate, a fight for survival, creating a bond with those that have died, as the professional mourner once did. In Maqoma’s words: ‘The Requiem of Ravel’s Bolero is our healing, the song to the departed souls, to pause for a second and think about life, what it means. Maybe, just maybe, we can value life again’.

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credits

concept, choreography, dance Gregory Maqoma supporting movement analyst, dramaturgy Shanell Winlock rehearsal assistant Lulu Mlangeni musical direction, composition Nhlanhla Mahlangu composition assistant Xolisile Bongwana costumes BlackCoffee set design, technical direction Olivier Hauser light design Mannie Manim props Wesley Mabizela sound design Ntuthuko Mbuyazi sound engineer apprentice Katleho Mokgothu dancers Otto Andile Nhlapo, Roseline Wilkens, Thulisile Binda, Smangaliso Ngwenya, Katleho Lekhula, Itumeleng Tsoeu, Lungile Mahlangu, Ernest Balene, Nathan Botha musicians Thabang Mkhwanazi, Sbusiso Shozi, Simphiwe Bonongo, Xolisile Bongwana production Vuyani Dance Theatre co-production The Market Theatre founded by The National Lotteries Commission media partner Creative Feel media sponsorship Kaya FM author of Cion Zakes Mda

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Eddy de Clercq

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