My Body My Space Festival to shifts conventions, celebrates democracy and human rights
By CityLife Arts Writer
Celebrating its 10th year – and the 30th anniversary of the Forgotten Angle Theatre Collaborative (FATC) – My Body My Space: Public Arts Festival (MBMS) continues its incredible mission to shift conventions around bodies, environments, and the human. Intentionally focused on being a large-scale international festival of public performances, exhibitions and cultural events, it is curated by FATC and hosted annually in the broader Emakhazeni Local Municipality in rural Mpumalanga, this year from 10 to 16 March.
Honouring this significant milestone and taking stock of how far it has come, FATC realises that supporting vulnerable groups and marginalised communities and art forms must continue and take centre stage. Thus, MBMS25 becomes more than a cultural event; running during Human Rights month, the festival is curated to emphasise human rights, and transforms into a movement, a testament to the power of democracy, women’s empowerment, and creative excellence. The programming will foreground local dancers, choreographers and traditional/indigenous dance forms, as well as emphasise human rights, with a strong focus on the climate and environment.
From its initial inception in 2015, this annual festival has continued to grow by developing a unique rural identity deeply entrenched in beautiful Emakhazeni communities, and bringing people to the art and communities rather than following urban conventions. MBMS focuses on social cohesion in an area that is still palpably lacking in socio-political and socio-economic integration, bringing the diverse rural citizenry of Emakhazeni together by perforating and disrupting the familiar ways in which people traverse shared social spaces. By integrating existing organisational programming, the festival primarily engages children, youth and people with disabilities in Machadodorp/Emthonjeni, Belfast/Siyathuthuka, Dullstroom/Sakhelwe and Waterval-Boven/Emgwenya communities.
This, along with a socially relevant programme of cutting-edge work, attracts the interest of international and local artists, visitors, and promoters to the beautiful villages and communities in the area. The festival demonstrates the power of art and the creative industries as strong drivers for social and economic development, boosting the local economy and tourism, as well as arts and culture by developing local, national, and international audiences.
The MBMS festival’s strong commitment to the local Emakhazeni economy, growing job creation opportunities, and developing a vibrant arts and culture tourism sector in the region, sees a unique rural public arts festival experience, showcasing the highest standard of work to create a vibrant arts experience destination.
The festival’s programme includes:
- The Arteries Programme (10-14 March)
- The Central Nervous System (CNS) Programme (14-15 March)
- A Workshop Training/Development Programme
Festival co-curator PJ Sabbagha says “FATC in her 30th year is profoundly excited to see this incredible festival and its unique voice continue into its 10th year as we work to inspire and engage audiences, bringing a diverse range of rural artists (and South African artists at large) to work across disciplines; re-stitching communities and spaces that have been geographically, politically, economically and socially separated. We celebrate vulnerable members of communities and bring them into the mainstream, and our programme – which is curated this year to focus on human rights, climate change and the environment – delivers on art’s purpose in constantly questioning the status quo and demanding a higher standard of accountability and care for everyone.”
About the programme
The Arteries Programme is the Fringe programme promoting cultural engagement and shaped by community activations and performances in Machadodorp/Emthonjeni, Belfast/Siyathuthuka, Dullstroom/Sakhelwe and Waterval-Boven/Emgwenya. Tailored for children, youth, and people with disabilities, the Arteries Programme collaborates with FATC’s LEAP (Local Education in Arts Programme) participants, and also partners with Wits: Drama for Life, which has been essential in MBMS reaching over 2000 learners in schools and centres across the Emakhazeni Local Municipality each year.
The CNS Programme takes place in Machadodorp and surrounds. This Main programme comprises a selection of commissioned performances of diverse dance forms in line with the festival’s curatorial focus, and encourages new works and collaborations presenting traditional/indigenous and contemporary dance, audience participation activations, and public workshops. Priority is given to new works by young and emerging artists, while FATC mobilises its national and international partner network to bring on board works from more established artists. Side-by-side in an act of democratisation, local and provincial community-based artists present mostly traditional and street performances alongside works of established, national and international artists. The meeting of artists from diverse backgrounds and locations during the CNS programme creates a generative community in which new collaborations and future projects are imagined and ideated.
Curated works are selected based on their resonance with the festival’s thematic drive of socio-political activism, as well as a focus on works that allow for the sites and places of the towns, rural communities and natural and cultural heritage sites of Emakhazeni to be re-imagined.
During the CNS programme, the audience (of largely rural children and youth, as well as national and international visitors), are bussed into activated Emakhazeni festival sites for participation in the festival activities. The audience is guided on foot and by combi through an array of happenings, performances, installations and exhibitions that are held in various public sites such as school-playgrounds, community halls, street corners and abandoned buildings.
The Workshop/Training and Residency Programme includes skills exchange workshops, arts processes and mini-training programmes offered by visiting dancers, choreographers, facilitators and technicians. It promotes collaborations between local and visiting artists, enhancing the skills of young people, women, and people with disabilities. It accesses FATC’s extensive and on-going Emakhazeni Local Municipality LEAP partner network of local schools and centres, and brings together local artists and visiting artists in new short-term, small-scale collaborations, with outcomes subsequently presented as part of MBMS’s CNS Programme. Annually, a group of young people interested in advancing their skills, knowledge and experience on theatre technology are appointed as technical trainees who undergo an intensive technical training and work as festival technicians under the mentorship and guidance of appointed senior technicians.
Participants include:
- FATC
- WITS: DRAMA FOR LIFE
- MOVEMENT STORY TECHNOLOGY NPC
- BODY ABILITY
- CIE – VINCENT SEKWATI MANTSOE
- ISIFISO SAKA GOGO
- MANDYLIN PRODUCTIONS
- SIBIKWA ARTS CENTRE
- MOVING INTO DANCE
- PERZANI DANCE THEATRE
- VUYANI DANCE THEATRE
- ASANDA RUDA
- BODY SOUL COLLAB / DAMO
- CRYING OUT LOUD
- FANA TSHABALALA
- HUGE SILLYTOE
- KWANELE FINCH THUSI
- LULU MLANGENI
- OBUSITSWE “OBI” SEAGE
- OUPA SIBEKO
- QUEENETH MHLANGA
- BODY MOVES and THAPELO KOTLO
- SONGEZO MCILIZELI
- TWICE EUPHORIC
- LOCAL GROUPS
The festival is presented by the Forgotten Angle Theatre Collaborative with the support of the National Lotteries Council of South Africa; the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture’s Presidential Employment Stimulus Programme; the National Arts Council; the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust; Business Arts South Africa; and Pro Helvetia.
Numerous local partners such as The Emakhazeni Local Municipality, Absolute Leisure Cottages, GoodersonKloppenheim Country Estate, and Chazon Tekna School, amongst others, are a critical backbone of the festival’s infrastructure.