Dance company of the week: Vuyani Dance Theatre

November 1, 11:14 AMAlbuquerque Dance ExaminerJenn Romano

Previous Next

Comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Albuquerque Dance Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

(AP Photo/Denis Farrell)

South African dance star Gregory Maqoma founded Vuyani Dance Theatre in 1999. Maqoma studied with Moving into Dance in Johannessburg and Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker in Brussels before returning to his home town of Soweto. Since its inception, Vuyani has earned both national and international honors.

Vuyani Dance Theatre (VDT) under the leadership of Aritistic Director Maqoma, seeks to enrich South Africa by producing works including a multitude of artistic mediums including theatrical and textual elements. This is particularly evident in the "Beauty Trilogy" choreographed by Maqoma.

VDT's "Beauty Trilogy" is an exploration into the beauty of humans compared to the beauty around them. The trilogy includes "Beautiful Us," "Beautiful," and "Beautiful Me" which was recently performed by Maqoma himself at the North 4th Arts Center in Albuquerque as part of their Global DanceFest. In "Beautiful Me," Maqoma is accompanied by a quartet of percussion, violin, cello, and sitar along with text that tells Maqoma's own story. All of the "Beautiful" performances are stories told in a friendly, conversational style but are all deeply meaningful.

Part of VDT's mission is to give back to the communities that fostered their creative staff. The company does so in the form of community education projects and developmental projects in the form of invitational residencies.