Jeremy Nedd & Impilo Mapantsula: How a falling star lit up the purple sky

August 25 – 27, 2022
Grand Theatre, Noorderzon, Groningen, the Netherlands

Clichés tumble and fall in this new ‘Wild West’ Pantsula-reverie, as choreographer Jeremy Nedd and the extraordinary South African dancers of Impilo Mapantsula set out new story lines in search of fresh myths for today’s changing world.

Dancing away from Western clichés in a Southern dance
Flapping saloon doors, a duel in the dusty main street, tumble weeds tumbling through deserted small towns – constantly blown further and further away: we are all familiar with these Wild West clichés. Choreographer Jeremy Nedd and his nine Pantsula dancers of Impilo Mapantsula global dance network take the Western as a starting point for their accounts of new stories en myths.

This genre arguably offers the clearest distinction between the ‘hero’ and the ‘other’, visualised in a vast landscape which oddly enough they both inhabit. Recognisable characters and images which have all become so deeply engrained in our collective imagination, yet prove to be as far removed from Pantsula as can be: an energetic South-African dance, created during the apartheid regime. How a falling star lit up the purple sky manages to merge these worlds in a quite overwhelming fashion. A dynamic visual poem which will for ever alter the way you view Westerns, the (Wild) West and the South.

Participate in the workshop (Studio Folkingedwarsstraat 16)
Learn to dance as well as the dancers of Jeremy Nedd & Impilo Mapantsula in an hour and a half? You may not succeed, but you will learn a lot for sure. Dance experience is not necessary.

Jeremy Nedd is a Brooklyn (New York) born choreographer and performer who has been living in Basel for some time. Nedd has had commissions at the Semperoperin Dresden (2010-2012) and Ballett Basel (2012-2016). He is a guest artist at Schauspielhaus Zurich, where he worked with Trajal Harrell, among others.

Impilo Mapantsula is a global network of high-level professional dance artists specializing in pantsula, a South African urban dance form. Impilo Mapantsula is a professional organization that promotes the development of pantsula dance and culture, creates formal standards and acts as an industry representative.

Concept / Choreography: Jeremy Nedd
Performance / Choreography: Sicelo Xaba, Vusi Mdoyi, Sello Modiga, Thomas Motsapi, Sonakele Masethi, Kgotsofalang Moshe, Vuyani Feni, Sibongile Mathebula, Elma Motloenya
Lighting Design / Technical Management: Thomas Giger
Stage Design / Technical Management: Laura Knüsel 
Audio Design: Fabrizio Di Salvo & Rej Deproc
Musical consultation: Brandy Butler
Costumes: Rosa Birkedal 
Dramaturgy: Anta Helena Recke
Production Management: Regula Schelling / produktionsDOCK

Co-produced by: Kaserne Basel; Arsenic – Contemporary Performing Arts Center, Lausanne; International Summer Festival Kampnagel; Wiesbaden Biennale; The Center for the Less Good Idea, Johannesburg
Thanks to: Fachausschuss Tanz & Theater BS/BL, Pro Helvetia, Swiss Arts Council, SüdKulturFonds, Stanley Thomas Johnson Stiftung, Kulturfonds of the Société Suisse des Authors (SSA), GGG Basel, Jacqueline Spengler Stiftung, Scheidegger-Thommen-Stiftung, Schweungizerische Interpretenstift

photo: Jeremy Nedd

more on Noorderzon’s webite