Gregory Maqoma - Beautiful Me

NZ Premiere.

For the first time in New Zealand, internationally renowned South African dancer and choreographer Gregory Maqoma performs Beautiful Me, a solo piece that has mesmerised audiences with its blend of unlikely dance elements – Michael Jackson’s moonwalk, contemporary Indian kathak and Afro-fusion.

“Once you have seen Maqoma … his torso twisting, his feet stamping out an obsessive rhythm, he is not easy to forget”
- San Franciso Chronicle (USA)

“engaging and deeply textured”
- Seattle Dances (USA)

Calling himself a “cultural cocktail”, Maqoma mixes it up. An eclectic range of instruments including the sitar, cello, violin and percussion produce live backing music in response to his staccato movements.These are blended with songs, chants, and the clicking of the Zulu language Xhosa to entrancing effect. Maqoma’s performance takes audiences on an extraordinary journey, leading them through difficult periods of great social and political change in recent African history, but always returning them to the personal. He becomes a moving portrait representing the emotions, histories and traditions which inform his life.

In Beautiful Me Maqoma worked with three contemporaries, choreographers Akram Khan (UK), Faustin Linyekula (Congo) and Vincent Mantsoe (South Africa). An exciting opportunity to experience one of the most fascinating and interesting facets of the FranceDanse programme.

Culturesfrance
Through its initiatives within France and beyond its borders, through bilateral operations with countries, through its development activities especially on the African continent and in the Caribbean region, Culturesfrance is committed to establishing long term and equitable relations amongst the world’s cultures. Culturesfrance dance department focuses on touring companies and choreographers throughout the world, ensuring their presence at festivals and in the international spotlight. Since 2007, eight FranceDanse projects have been launched across Europe, Canada, Russia and China creating the opportunity for partnerships to develop and present a diversity of styles and aesthetics in the dance field.