«The Ecstatic» – Jeremy Nedd & Impilo Mapantsula at Sesc Dance Biennial [BR]

Performer and choreographer Jeremy Nedd likes to play with different contexts and confront predefined concepts. In «The Ecstatic», he works with South African collective Impilo Mapantsula, clashing two distinct worlds and aesthetics.

The show, which is part of the 2023 edition of Sesc Dance Biennial, in Brazil, is based on Pantsula, a historically significant South African subculture that, during Apartheid, gave a voice to a whole generation. It’s expressed as a powerful dance form, with high-speed footwork, but also through a dress code, language, music, and a particular philosophy of life.

Onstage, this virtuous dance meets Praise Break, a typical pause in the Christian Pentecostal Church service, where the dancing body, voice and music energetically merge, blurring the line between ecstatic and cathartic.

Thus, the Pantsula dancers turn to the motions that lead up to the praise break, a transcendental moment, in order to find out, and “break open” a new space of their own.

ABOUT

Jeremy Nedd is a Brooklyn born, Basel based choreographer and performer. His work focuses on the processes of dissecting, demystifying and recontextualising content in order to confront definitions of validity and contemporaneity. Nedd has choreographed and presented his own productions at spaces such as ROXY Birsfelden, Tanzhaus Zürich, Arsenic, Münchner Kammerspiele and Palais de Tokyo amongst others. Nedd is a 2017 PREMIO Finalist (Nachwuchspreis für Theater und Tanz Schweiz), the 2017 recipient of the Atelier Mondial Stipendium to South Africa. Most recently Nedd completed a Master in Expanded Theater at Hochschule der Künste Bern, and was a part of Performancepreis Schweiz 2018.

Impilo Mapantsula is a global network of high-level professional dance artists who specialise in Pantsula, a South African urban dance form. They are a professional organisation that promotes the development of Pantsula dance and culture, creates formal standards, and acts as an industry representative. The organisation aims to document and protect the living legacy of Pantsula and support dancers in professionalising and further developing their art. Impilo Mapantsula creates learning opportunities and supports artistic creation and self-expression through educational, artistic and professional programs, with an emphasis on job creation, international collaborations and exchange programs.