Performa Arts Incubator

Writer:  Primrose Mrwebi

Art speak

Stage is a space where we can have conversation about   things we like to talk about but seldom get a chance.

Last Friday I was privileged to have been invited to the unique gathering of Rolex mentor and protégés at the Baxter Theatre.

It opened with a musical concert of two musicians Neo Muyanga and   Aurelio Martinez, it was something like a church or a jukejoint, Martinez sang like an ancestor, beat the drum and led us into a trans-like state while Muyanaga’s songs penetrated   the soul.   The music spoke to us in many different ways, there were dancing boys and one guy in staunch red outfit braved the stage and did a dance and invited a beautiful woman to do a slow dance with him, he tried to get back to his seat and be part for the audience but alas it was too late he was already in a different realm.

When the concert finished it was the usual fashion, wine and art conversation at the bar, needless to say the Friday was something like a scene in a series filmed in New York City, there was the art, the fashion, the music, the wine and lots of very intellectual and arty conversation.

Then came the Saturday night, this was a conversation between the big guns, William Kenridge, Peter Cellars and wile Soyinka. The conversation was about inspiration / the impulse how we turn the impulse into a work of art.

The lessons we drew from this conversation were that from an impulse,

From an artistic point of view is to get yourself into the studio start drawing line the repetition of the movements leads you to the idea that will turn into a piece of art says William Kenrdge

Peter Sellars was incredible in that he reminded us that we must not be afraid of telling the truth but we must strike a good balance between the truth that we are wishing to tell and have the sensitivity not to distort it. 

Wole Soyinka spoke a lot about rituals in theatre making , that we should never let go  of the truth when we tell our stories but I must confess that the most profound line  that resonated with  many of us was “ we must never underestimate the power of anger and that we should never cure our radicalism”

This was an inspirational experience but more than it reminded me that we artist are privileged to have a space to tell stories, stories that can shape thinking in our society, because we write our stories from an authentic place. This also shed some more light on the power of what we have as performers, writers and visual artist. This is why the Joule city Incubator is such a good idea and it could have never happened to better artist than, Chuma, Tebogo, Refilwe, Kabi, Chloe, Mazwi and Prim.