JOMBA! Calls for Abstracts: Exploring Contemporary Dance’s Engagement with Tradition and Identity

In its ongoing commitment to fostering critical dialogue and exploration within the realm of contemporary dance, JOMBA! MASIHAMBISANE DIALOGUES 2024 is calling for abstract submissions for its upcoming conference. Hosted by the UKZN’s Centre for Creative Arts, the conference will take place online from May 22 to 24, providing a platform for scholars, practitioners, and enthusiasts to engage with the theme “(RE)TURN TO THE DRUM?”.

Lliane Loots, the curator and dialogues chair of JOMBA!, elaborates on the theme, emphasizing its focus on contemporary dance’s interactions with traditions, cultures, memory, hybridity, and contested identities. The conference seeks to provoke discussions on how contemporary dance can negotiate and reimagine ideas of culture and tradition in today’s evolving world.

Key areas of interest for abstract submissions include critical discussions in dance studies that challenge conventional definitions of tradition, culture, and hybridity. The conference also aims to examine how contemporary dance practices engage with feminist, decolonial, and postcolonial perspectives, as well as diasporic experiences and spiritual practices in performance-making.

The steering committee, comprising esteemed scholars and practitioners from institutions across South Africa and the United Kingdom, underscores the diverse and interdisciplinary nature of the discussions to be held during the online conference exploring the intersection of contemporary dance with tradition, culture, and identity.

Abstract submissions are invited until April 5, 2024, at 4:00 PM. Full details regarding submission criteria and guidelines can be accessed on the conference website.