BY SUNNY COWELL

In print | Published February 21, 2008

This past Friday, the Soweto Street Beat Dance Theater brought Zulu music, rhythms and a whole lot of people to the Lang Performing Arts Center. This special event was sponsored by the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program as part of a five-day residence at Bryn Mawr, Haverford and Swarthmore Colleges. Several students attended the workshop as well. The company, originally formed in 1989 in Soweto, South Africa by Executive Director Peter Ngcobo and Artistic Director Isabelle Doll Ngcobo, is a South African dance and music troupe from Atlanta that aims to teach audiences of all ages, especially at-risk youth, about the cultural history of South Africa. Peter and Isabelle created the group in order to help youths in the crime-ridden Soweto Township of Johannesburg where, due to poor circumstances, school dropout rates were high. In order to keep the youth in school, the Ngcobos encouraged education by teaching them about South African’s rich history of the arts.

Friday’s performance opened with a brief introduction by Charles James, Professor Emeritus and coordinator of the Mellon Mays Fellowship Program. James first saw the Soweto Street Beat Dance Theater perform in Atlanta and has worked for over a year to bring them to Swarthmore. In the words of James, the Soweto performers “bring the flavor and complexity of [the] sound and music” of the Zulu Kingdom to the stage. The dance troupe performed an extensive piece entitled “Zulu Kingdom: a history of the Zulu Nation” for an audience of students and professors from the tri-colleges as well people from the town of Swarthmore.

The piece began with eight male performers on a stage tinted by red lighting. They played various kinds of drums and were dressed in decorative costumes and elaborate headdresses that swayed whenever the performers danced. They were adorned with necklaces, white paint on their bodies and fur around their ankles. Amplified by a microphone, one singer started the piece with a solo before the rest of the group joined in. After the troupe continued this call-and-response style, they moved front stage toward the audience performing a dance routine with high energy and intensity. Emmanuelle Wambach ‘08, who attended the Soweto workshop, said, "It was a lot more high-energy than I’m used to. The performers and drummers are amazing."

The dancers incorporated whistling sounds as they synchronized their dancing to the beat of the drums and worked their entire bodies with high jumps and fast-paced movements. The piece was composed of several parts that were characterized by different styles. During one movement, the performers even called as many as 30 audience members to the stage to dance with them. The dancers gradually got the audience to join them on stage by first asking them to clap to the rhythms.

The troupe quickly alternated between playing drums, singing and dancing. Many of the troupe members took turns performing impressive drum and dance solos during which they would stand, crouch, sit down or even dance on their backs. They encouraged audience participation by signaling them to clap at different speeds. Many parts of the piece featured traditional Zulu dances; however, some movements were distinguished by ethno-fusion styles. At one point, the Zulu performers danced and drummed to American hip hop beats easily recognized by the audience. Marshall Morales ’08, who also attended the dance workshop, said, “various members of the company taught different styles in a challenging and enjoyable manner.”

The troupe then taught the audience how to say some phrases in Zulu. Next, the dancers called about 30 students onstage to learn a few Zulu moves. To the audience’s amusement, the dancers also called several professors onstage to dance with them. After the audience participated, the Soweto Street Beat dancers resumed performing and ended the piece in high spirits. Meena Elanchenny ’10 thought the performers did an excellent job of uniting movement and rhythm. She said, “I thought it was very powerful. You were living it, seeing it and feeling it.” The Ngcobos concluded the performance by encouraging the audience and Americans in general to visit and support education in South Africa.

For more information on the Soweto Street Beat Dance Theater, visit their website at www.sowetostreetbeat.net.

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