This year’s Standard Bank Young Artist Award winner for Dance Musa Hlatshwayo – who premieres his new work at the festival today – is not afraid to provocatively express his inner being through his medium.
He is inspired by his own life experiences, his past, the present and the future – from everyday happenings, things, incidents and people who make him think.
“My work always seeks to negotiate identity from my personal perspective as a young black man.
“It interrogates issues of black identity, masculinities, rites of passages, the clash between tradition and modernity, rituals and customs and the likes,” he said.
Hlatshwayo was born and raised in a Christian family in rural KwaZulu-Natal. His paternal grandfather was a reverend, his grandmother a politician and activist, his maternal grandmother a Sangoma, his mother a dressmaker and his father a builder, so the education he received from the “creatives” around him have influenced his artistic expression.
“It’s contemporary movement, dance theatre and everything else. It’s imagery in motion, design in its various forms – all creatively interwoven into a postmodern African contemporary experience.
“The language is unapologetically raw and does not try to fit into western and academic standards and definitions of dance. It shifts and changes according to what I feel the need to articulate. It borrows from my traditional, cultural and religious background. This is all part of how I choose to work.”
For Hlatshwayo, being honoured as a young artist winner is encouragement for him to continue pursuing his artistic voice in the manner he dictates, interspersed with emotional and political themes.
“I’m delighted to know that my work is seen and received well and that my artistic voice is seen as worthy to be encouraged. I’m humbled, inspired and encouraged to keep on keeping on,” he said.
Hlatshwayo has performed at the 11-day event since the early 2000s, culminating at last year’s festival where he presented two pieces: Kubili(2) which featured Doda and Dudlu ... Dadlaza, for which he won an Ovation Award.
“I have also come a few times with no performances scheduled, just to observe, absorb, connect, gather as much mojo as I can from the many artists and productions while feasting on the entire experience without panicking about performing.”
Some of Hlatshwayo’s highlights at the festival include connecting with artists from all over the world, experiencing the diversity of the arts scene and its growth in the country and “being part of an experience of 11 days where you feel understood and embraced”.
Hlatshwayo’s latest production, Udodana, promises to be a showpiece like none other.
“Udodana, like any of my works, is a moving piece. It’s artistically sound and beautiful. It’s personal and very political.”
Hlatshwayo has a BA Honours in Performance Studies from the University of KwaZulu-Natal and a Dance and Choreography certificate from the Copenhagen School of Modern Dance. He founded Mhayise Productions, the company under which he conducts much of his own dance theatre work and corporate projects. He also initiated the Movement Laboratory, a development programme that offers free training to young artists and the arts community in and around Durban.
Udodana is at the Rhodes Theatre today at 6pm, and tomorrow and on Sunday at noon or 6pm.