The fragility of the Black male body. With Pina, South African dancer Kwanele Finch Thusi is building a new mythology of Black and queer bodies and identities.
With this he wants to reduce the image in our society that sees masculinity mainly as strong, powerful and masculine, by showing the vulnerability and gentleness of the male body. For Kwanele Thusi, his own black queer identity is the starting point for all his work, in the clothes he wears, the way he makes up his body, his behaviour and the physical training of his body.
Pina is based on stories of old and young Black men and the power that expression, movement and dance have in telling their stories. In Pina, Finch turns against society's perception of a Black male identity and the Black body. The words we use and the movement of the body suggest that a Black male body must be strong and physical. Kwanele Thusi decolonizes this image of the Black man and shows in his solo and in his duet the fragility and softness of a Black male body and a Black identity. His PINA is a CRY, A SCREAM, a queer response to the canonized historical image of the Black man.
PINA – Quote van Kwanele Finch Thusi
PINA asks for a revision around prehistoric implications that still subjugate the black person as 'less than, inadequate and to be feared'. As black people, our bodies are still seen as exotic exhibitions for freedom.
"In the discourse, black bodies are de-textualized, recognized as exigent beings unto themselves, but also beings which exist in a complex system of others. And as such, the work helps us to trace back knowledge about the perceptions of the black body, showing how these bodies have been conceived through colonist frames and re constructed to generate knowledge about the contemporary black body which displaces it in positions of mist trust, fear and anxiety".
Within these parameters, the black body is seen through the eyes of pain and trauma. I ask the complicated questions in this work, what do you see when you look at me? With so much of conflict that arose in 2020 & 2021, the black live matter movement underpinned the necessity and purpose of this work.
Choreography - Kwanele Finch Thusi Dance - Kwanele Finch Thusi, Tiiestso Mabuza
On 13 and 14 October the 19th edition of Afrovibes Festival will land in Theater Kikker in Utrecht. Artistic director Jay Pather (South Africa) and programmer Marjorie Boston (Netherlands) have again created a program that shows the diversity and power of change in the African continent. This year with dance, theater and music in Utrecht by contemporary choreographers and theater makers from Guinea/France, South Africa, Ivory Coast/France, Kenya and the Netherlands. And of course music with DJs and discussions with the makers.
The theme of the 19th edition of Afrovibes is RUPTURE | RAPTURE. The division and disruption that can arise between people and cultures. But also the intense pleasure and delight we get from our contact with others. It is the tension between encounter and disruption that Afrovibes is putting to the fore this year. This year's program has a special focus on theatre makers and artists from West Africa and the African diaspora in Europe. The program of Afrovibes takes place at Theater Kikker and Stadsschouwburg Utrecht.