UBUHLE BESINTU (The Beauty of culture) | Entertainers | DJ SA

Ubuhle Besintu is a one stop musical of all South African Indigenous Traditional dances told against a contemporary backdrop.

It is a pure celebration to enjoy cultural diversity where Traditional meets Contemporary dance.

Watching the performance of Ubuhle Besintu production is like flipping through the pages of a South African indigenous heritage photo album. As the pages of the album unfold on stage, the audience will find itself adjusting to the edges of their seats, clapping, ululating and in no time standing up and dancing with the cast. It’s a thrill an opportunity to release pent up energy after a hard days work and celebrate cultural diversity. At the end, the audience will feel rejuvenated with a memorable experience and have something to take home to share with family, friends and work colleagues.
The traditional dances of the 10 indigenous South African Nations are featured as the main focus.Elements of Contemporary dance are employed to provide a frame. These are intricately condensed into a 1.30 minutes performance with a continuous flow of action, changing images, melodic voices in song and praise poetry with the roaring thunder of the drum and percussion.
Supporting the above is a backdrop of ancient and modern architectural landscape, authentic and colorful costumes, make up, recorded music, and use of special lighting, sound effects and electronic image projection. Narration and praise poetry is employed as elements to weave a storyline and provide a light historical account in highlighting aspects of the way of life, cultural values social and political events of the people who practice the various dance genres.
An outstanding cast of 25 youthful male and female artists comprising of; dancers, singers, praise poets and drummers, display an array of electrifying talents. These artists have been recruited from Soweto, where the diversity of cultures is expressed as a daily occasion, which contributes to the uniqueness of Ubuhle Besintu and the thrilling performance.

The show was conceived by Thembinkosi Nkabinde, the co-founder and Artistic Director of Umkhonto (The spear of indigenous talents). As an artist himself and having observed other shows, he realized that indigenous dance was not given the center stage and as such remained in the peripheral of the mainstream. Where some productions have included traditional dance elements in their productions, the representation has been imbalanced with other forms taking dominance over others. Therefore with Ubuhle Besintu, Thembinkosi Nkabinde is creating an opportunity for all traditional dance genres to be featured equally under one platform.
Nkabinde together with Moses Madlazi, a member of Umkhonto who specialises in Traditional Dance Choreography and dance teachers sourced from the African Heritage Trust, have been hard at work with Ubuhle Besintu artists in developing the traditional dance vocabulary and technical abilities of the Ubuhle Besintu artists in order to enhance their skills required for the production.
In seeking assistance to realise his dream, Nkabinde approached Thembinkosi Collen Hlatshwayo the co-founder and Executive Director of Mbonise Production House, to provide Creative Directorship in developing the concept and business strategy with the aim of growing Ubuhle Besintu into a substantial brand to the level achieved by mainstream productions such as; Sarafina, African Footprint and Africa Umoja.Through this Mbonise and Umkhonto have now joined hands as co-producers for the production of Ubuhle Besintu.
Hlatshwayo is currently engaged in the further development of the concept and the creative aspect of production. In this he is lobbying other relevant stakeholders for partnerships in the various components of the production.
Although the production is at its infancy, it has already enjoyed an extensive audience in South Africa and Abroad since it’s inception in 2001. From all its national and international performances, the production has received an overwhelming response from the audience, making it one of the most sort after dance productions in South Africa and abroad.

A CONTEXTUAL OVERVIEW OF THE SHOW

Length:

The running of the show length is currently 1hr 30 minutes. There are a number of items that have been kept in the shelf to be incorporated in the later stages of the show’s development. Therefore the show has a potential to run for a Maximum of 2hrs excluding intermission/interval.

The show is structured into various scenes which stretch through various eras to cover the historical evolution of the South African history starting at the era ancient era of time when the different people found in Southern Africa were slowing down from the nomadic life into forming settlements.

Prelude:

In setting the tone, the opening of the show is set to depict a village scene set as an ancient African village before the San had made contact with other nations who were coming down from other parts of the African continent. The latter includes a portrayal of the arrival of other African Nations to include; the Khoi and the Bantu people. At this stage a portrayal of the interaction between the San, the Khoi and the Bantu speaking people is explored to reveal the various cultural and social dynamic.

The story board and content overview:

As the show progresses the people found in the ancient village encounter various invasions by the different nations arriving in the South fighting for land. Subsequently the European invaders dominate to highlight aspects of colonization and apartheid. Through the latter we see on stage a transformation of the rural ancient setting into a modern today’s South African City and Township life.

In the sheebeen we find a group of modern youth gathered to celebrate the Heritage month (one of the South African National Calendar Days).However the youth in the sheebeen seems not to understand the meaning of African indigenous heritage. As such they engage in their own interpretation which comprise of urban cultural dynamics as expressed in Pantsula, Kwaito, Kwasa Kwasa and Hip Hop. A big party ensues.

The latter is diffused when one of the youth suddenly collapses on the floor leaving the other youth bemused and surprised. As the youth is collapsed on the floor, she transcends into a dream. Trough the dream she is taken back to the ancient era of Southern Africa as mentioned in the prelude. As the youth grows in the Dream she is taken through a historical journey by spirits who teach her the various dynamics of the different cultures of the San, Khoi, Bantu Speaking and the European cultural influences through Narration, Praise Poetry, Indigenous dance, Music, Drumming Costumes and other special technical effects. The indigenous dance explored includes
(Xhosa, Pedi, Ndeble, Tshonga, Tswana, Venda, Swazi, Xhosa, Sotho, San, Khoi)

This journey provides the audience an entertaining and educational cultural window which most of the main Musicals that have come from South Africa have missed out.

The last part of the show, takes us back to the sheebeen whereby the collapsed is seen to re-awaken from the dream. As she gets out of the dream she teaches the other youth a new dance which fuses all the other dance genres and cultural influences including modern and urban.

South African National performances

• Toured to Durban: Performed at the South African Traditional Music Awards 29 September 2007

• Toured to Grahamstown: Performed at the NATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL. July 2006.

• Toured to Cape Town: Performed at the Alton Stadium for the President at the closing ceremony of TEN YEARS OF DEMOCRACY.11th February.
Johannesburg, Nasrec, Performed at AUTO AFRICA EVENT.25th October.

African continent performances

• Toured to Algeria, Performed at the All Africa Games. 07th – 16th July 2007
• Toured to Zambia, Lusaka. Performed at AFRICA FREEDOM DAY DANCE FESTIVAL. 25 May.

• Toured to Rwanda, Kigali. Performed at the FESPAD DANCE FESTIVAL.

• Mozambique, Maputo. Performed at the INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF THEATRE.20th –30th August.

International performances:

• Toured to China, Suzhou, and Beijing. Performed at the 7th China International Folk Festival 25 September to 06 October 2007.

• Holland Teenage group performed at The Netherlands on the world children festival from 26 May to 21 June.

• Toured to China, Beijing. Performed at the BEIJING SUMMIT of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.

• Brazil, Salvador. Performed at the WORLD CARNIVAL-SOUTH AFRICAN 10 YEARS OF DEMOCRACY CELEBRATIONS. February.

• Cuba, Jamaica and Spain. Performed at the SOUTH AFRICAN -10 YEARS OF DEMOCRACY CELEBRATIONS. May.

• Korea.2 of our dancers went to the WORLD CUP to represent South Africa 29th May.