Dance Umbrella, Via Injabulo Review ★★★★★

The award-winning Via Kathlehong started life some 30 years ago as a township community project to give young people an opportunity to express their lives through music. Eight of its current 18 members brought Via Injabulo to London.

First in the programme was Marco da Silva Ferreira’s førm Inførms, a darkly-lit piece which showcased the undoubted talent of the performers in a series of strict formations, responding to Jonathan Uliel Saldanha’s syncopated music.

The piece was billed as exploring the collective identity of dance; but interesting and innovative as it was, demanding split second coordination from the dancers, it was also a little soulless.

There was plenty of soul, though, after the interval with Amala Dianor’s Emaphakathini which drew on the personal stories of the performers to pull down barriers and attempt to create a common new space, an 'in-between space' or 'emaphakathini' in Zulu.

The stage was completely open. Stage left was a sound desk lit up in bright red and yellow, providing Awir Leon's music. Wearing individual casual costumes, the dancers were hanging around during the interval, occasionally performing cheeky little dances, so that there was really not a fixed point at which this performance began.

The choreography relied heavily on Pantsula, a township culture that evolved during apartheid and soon came to include fashion, music and a vibrant dance. Obviously proud of it, the dancers called out 'pantsula' at regular intervals.

Emaphakathini was all we could have hoped for and more. With plenty of room for individual expression, it was lively, joyful and humorous, the dancing based on rhythmic stomping and much hip wriggling, and punctuated by traditional whistles, clapping and shouting.
Throughout, the dancers challenged each other – men and women alike – to ever more complicated steps and formations.

It was exhilarating to watch, and an object lesson on what Dance Umbrella should be for. More of this, please, Dance Umbrella!