Hosted by Thobile Maphanga, the JOMBA! FORGING ALLIANCES platform provides dance makers with industry specific information that assists in building relationships and partnerships across creative technical spaces that border digital and live dance. This 3-panel platform will engage industry professionals on increasing market reach and marketability, behind the screen technical preparation and legally sound collaborations. We will pose and answer questions of how, when and where to best engage so as to ensure world class, above board dance content for both live and digital spaces.
Thobile Maphanga in conversation with Sharlene Versfeld (Versfeld & Associates Marketing and Publicity) and Sasha Fourie (dancer/choreographer)
Sharlene Versfeld is a Durban-based publicity specialist with interest in the arts, culture, film, tourism, travel and environment sectors. She has worked as an independent publicist since 1993 and is most noted for her work as an arts marketer. She was a winner of the inaugural Arts & Culture Trust Award of the President (Nelson Mandela) for publicity in 1998.
Sasha Fourie completed her tertiary education at UCT School of Dance. Sasha has been creating artistic digital content for the past two years. Since the pandemic began, she has shifted her focus and energies to this as it was one of the few avenues which allowed her to continue creating art within the constraints of Covid-19.
Thobile Maphanga in conversation with Thabo Pule (Stage & Production Manager) and Wesley Maherry (Lighting Designer & Production Manager).
Thabo Pule is Gauteng based and is an experienced theatre and dance lighting designer and stage manager. He is also skilled in sound and video operation and has worked as a Production Manager for various South African festivals.
Wesley Maherry holds a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Drama and Performance Studies from the former University of Natal. As a lighting designer, Wesley has worked locally, nationally and internationally and was awarded a KZN Dance Link Award for Lighting in 2012. He has worked on the Jomba! Contemporary Dance Experience since 2003 and been the Production Manager since 2009.
Thobile Maphanga in conversation with Nomfundo Nyakale (Capasso), Thando Philison (Capasso)and Sifiso Khumalo (Dancer/Choreographer)
CAPASSO is a Digital Rights Licensing Agency based in Johannesburg – South Africa, which collects and distributes royalties to its members: music publishers and composers.
Nomfundo Nyakale (Licensing) and Thando Philison (Legal)
Sifiso Khumalo is a senior company member of Durban’s Flatfoot Dance Company – where he has worked since 2006. He has performed intensively with the company and is a facilitator and teacher in the dance development project in KwaMashu (Siyakhula Dance Project) and in Uthukela. His newest choreographic works include, amongst others, Walls (Intimacies of Isolation – Jomba Digital EDGE 2020) and Ndlelanhle (2018).
Thobile Maphanga is a Durban based dance practitioner, creative collaborator and emerging writer whose current preoccupation is with Black female narratives and how Black women are writing themselves into history in the now. Through her research, which is theory and practice led, she explores where and how Black women use their voices and where these voices can be found. Through self-study she journeys to find her authentic voice and learn her true self through processes of questioning and unlearning. Her research methods include, but are not limited to, sitting in wait, listening and improvisation.