Vincent Mantsoe’s 1998 offering, Barena, is the initiating archival point through which the documentation and the anarchival experience of re-embodiment and reimagination of the living archives of David April and Vincent Mantsoe’s (creative archive, choreographic archive and pedagogical practices) existed, re-exist and continue to exist. Barena (chiefs), an offering originally created and performed by Mantsoe, delves into questioning whether power is drawn from symbols or ‘is inherent in the ruler?’ Furthermore, it probes whether ‘when one examines oneself, is humanity not the most important thing?’ Through a case study practice-led approach, this paper will recognise and report documentations of the collaborative process between April, Mantsoe and myself as a performer and performance ethnographer of Barena…Reimagined (2022). This paper will delve into the findings acquired from a series of interviews conducted with April during the creative process of reimaging Barena. These were conducted with a specific focus on the process of preparing for the 2022 Kucheza Afrika Festival at which Barena…Reimagined (2022) premiered. This practice-led research is also oriented towards an interpretive analysis of the method utilised in locating the process between and outside the archive-anarchival spectral dichotomy. This paper offers a space in which the liminalities between form and formless (Parker, 2020:38) are articulated through this creative research and reflective report. Lastly and more pertinently, this paper prioritises the embodied/archived experience of (South) African dance resident in both practitioners’ practice of Afrofusion and the forms thereof – it prioritises the dancer/teacher/performer and choreographer as a whole person through their “intellectual, emotional, physical, social, aesthetic, creative” and more so “spiritual being” which provides intermediaries between the archive and anarchive (Soot & Viskus, 2014:291).
Smangaliso Siphesihle Ngwenya is a dancer, performer, writer, director, choreographer, videographer and founder of Isifiso SakaGogo Performance Theatre. The essence of all his craft is rooted in dance and movement. He acquired his first traces of dance and movement training from First Physical Theatre Dance Company while completing his Bachelor of Journalism at Rhodes University (2013-2016). While at Rhodes University he performed at the National Arts Festival (2015 and 2016) as well as being a cameraman for Mark Freeman’s “dancedance/Revolution”. After completing his studies in 2016, he began his journey with Vuyani Dance Theatre in 2017 where he started as an aspirant and later progressed, trained and choreographed his path to being a senior dancer in 2019. During his time at Vuyani Dance Theatre (VDT) he has performed alongside Gregory Vuyani Maqoma, Simphiwe Dana, Wouter Kellerman and Soweto Gospel Choir amidst travelling nationally and internationally with acclaimed “Cion: Requiem of Ravel’s Bolero”. He has performed and dance his way to Russia, Romania, Amsterdam and New York amidst others. Thus far he has choreographed six works: “Mask-your-linearity” (2017), “Dictated Democracy” (2018), Standard Bank Ovation award winning screendance “Fragmented Scribbles” (2020), “Glare” (2020), “Home?” (2020) and Descent (2021) by Jake Natane. In 2020 he also completed his Masters of Arts in Cultural Policy and Management at the University of Witwatersrand. He has directed the award-winning “Ithemba” by Thulisile Binda, “Mtwan’Omntu” by Thulisile Binda and Xolisile Bongwana as well as “Inkosazana” by Lungile Mahlangu and Thulisile Binda.