Gregory Maqoma relieved his dance show has finally hit the stage

Choreographer and contemporary dancer Gregory Maqoma is relieved that his dance show Scion: Requiem of Ravel’s Bolero finally hit the stage after many postponements last year.

Scion: Requiem of Ravel’s Bolero opened on Sunday at Nelson Mandela stage at the Joburg Theatre in Johannesburg and received a standing ovation.  The show was scheduled to open last year but was postponed due to Covid-19 regulations.

The Sunday performance was dedicated to Soweto Gospel Choir general manager Mulalo Mulovhedzi who died last week after a short illness.

Maqoma, who is currently in London where he is creating work for Ballet Black that will be used to celebrate the company’s 20th anniversary, watched the show online. He watched as his 19 dancers and 20 musicians presented a highly charged one-hour-and-twenty-minute show.

Maqoma is blown away by dancers’ performance since the rehearsals started and he says he wept as he watched the show on Sunday. The seasoned choreographer who has created many shows in his career spanning over 20 years believes the return of Scion was perfect.

“I am relieved and the timing is also perfect because as a country we are experiencing these senseless killings. Many people are quite despondent in terms of what has been playing out in the politics of the country.  

“To have this show this time when we have been seeing artists dying in this short period of time is difficult. This work is giving us a moment to congregate as artistic family, as dancers and musicians,” Maqoma says.

The 49-year-old was inspired to create the show by a character called Toloki, a professional mourner at funerals, in Zakes Mda’s 1995 novel Ways of Dying.

According to the Orlando east-born, Soweto, dancer, different circumstances including the Covid-19 pandemic have turned all of us into professional mourners, burying loved ones and people close to us almost every day.  

The show, which also deals with the subject of death, premiered at the Market Theatre at the time that the country had xenophobic attacks and senseless killings of women. Scion boasts powerful music and highly-charged dance moves infused with Afro-fusion and a bit of scathamiya (a cappella genre with soft steps dance moves) and Zion traditional church movements.

“There is a quartet of singers that I work with and who always tour with the original group. In this amplified version I used the Soweto Gospel Choir because I just wanted to amplify the message of death. I decided to make it bigger to make it more of a spectacle and visual appealing to a wider audience who are believers of music and love to congregate.

“Scion is like going to church, it is like being at Zionist Church where people sing and chant. Everybody moves in a circle while singing and praying. It was critical for me to bring it home and I wanted to sit in a movement that was created as a form of defiance.

“Isicathamiya is a story of hardship of miners and their resilience. That is how it was developed. It reminded me about the story of those miners who died in Marikana fighting for a better salary.

“To achieve all this I worked with Nhlanhla Mahlangu, the person that I have been collaborating with in the past 20 years,” adds Maqoma, who also owns Vuyani Dance Company.

With the performing arts closed in the past two years, Maqoma has been fortunate to be able to keep busy and stage shows. With his company, Maqoma has had three international premiers, including a film of his work in France and Spain.

“As Vuyani Dance Company, we were quite fortunate to keep our dancers on full-time contracts. As tough as it was, we had to change our plans and focus on our dancers and make sure that we maintain their salaries.

“We knew that they needed this more than anything else for their security for their own health and they had bills to pay and have taken loans. To be that busy it was incredible.”  

Maqoma has created and choreographed shows such as Rhythm Triology, The Beautiful Triology and Exist/Exist, among others.

Scion: Requiem of Ravel’s Bolero ends on February 6 and will in August tour internationally.