Internationally renowned choreographer and dancer Luyanda Sidiya wants to capture imagination of dance lovers when he presents two of his works at the South African State Theatre (SAST) in Pretoria this weekend.
Siva will be performed on Friday and Amawethu on Sunday as part of Kucheza African Dance Festival happening at SAST. As a result, the dance teacher and mentor has been rehearsing 24/7 with his dancers, making sure they end this year’s dance edition in a spectacular way.
Sidiya regards having his show chosen as one of the productions that will close the festival on Sunday as achievement. His dance piece Umnikelo is one of the productions that opened Kucheza Festival last Friday.
Sidiya tells Time Out that his works are largely influenced by sociopolitical issues.
“I am looking forward to present the two shows on Friday and Sunday. I’m putting final touches to the two pieces with the dancers because I want to mesmerise the audience. It is great opportunity for me to be part of this festival and representing three pieces,” explains the Sebokeng-born dancer.
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Speaking about his work Siva (which means seven), the Standard Bank Young Artist award recipient used seven in his show because it was a powerful and holy number. The dance piece premiered in 2015 at the Market Theatre in Newtown. According to Sidiya, the work is an electric trip into the notion of God and is a sophisticated reflection on how African and contemporary dance forms coexist.
“Religiously, God created heaven and earth in seven days. In the dice game, number seven is an important number. We also have seven continents of the world, seven colours of the rainbow and seven seas of the world.”
Siva explores and investigates individual internal conflicts. “As human beings tangle in our own disorder, disruption and disassociation we constantly yearn for that which guides us to completeness and oneness. We are in constant search within ourselves in others, and all around us, for connectedness and peace. It questions a lot of things.
“Take the people who go to churches where they were made to drink paraffin, Doom or ate snakes, they do that in search of spiritual fulfilment. Some went to TB Joshua in Nigeria and unfortunately died when the church collapsed. It looks like we are never satisfied.”
With Amawethu, which was performed for the first time at the SAST in 2019, Sidiya, who has toured the world and worked in the UK, seeks to highlight all the distortion in African cultures. The piece aims to create a system for the black child to appreciate and learn more about who they are – as a revival of sorts.
“Amawethu seeks to enact the wealth of character long lost in our customs and manner of life. It tells a human story that seeks to rectify or reclaim who we are as a people who practice culture and customs.
“It looks at the distortions that predate the African slave trade that led us to believe that our own spirituality had a demonic, uncivilised and godless origin. One example of this is the issue of mourning using a black outfit which was never an African thing. This is a western trend that we adopted as tradition of ours.”
Sidiya, who now owns Luthando Arts Academy with his wife Thoko in the Vaal, started at a young age. His professional journey began in 1996 when he joined Dance Factory in Newtown.
He has acquired a lot of knowledge while participating in different productions and touring different countries. Sidiya has travelled extensively with his work to places like Botswana, the UK, US, Sweden, Austria, Finland, Italy and Luxembourg.
Some of the highlights of his successful career include working abroad for Moving into Dance Mophatong, where he facilitated workshops through a range of dance companies and universities, specifically in the Afrofusion style.
In 2007, Sidiya won the award for the Most Outstanding Dancer in the Contemporary Style for the Dance Umbrella Festival.