The clarity and consistency of rhythm

Gregory Maqoma celebrates his milestone 50th birthday on October 16 and will honour his final curtain call with a journey of work that is sentimental to him. Exit/Exist will run at the Market Theatre from June 22-25 and at the National Arts Festival (NAF) from June 27-28.

“I will be taking a step back from performing. I’m fulfilling my contracts until 2024, because the physical and mental pressure that comes with performing and travelling takes a toll on the body.” It is a well-deserved semi-retirement from an artist whose work broke new ground and captured SA’s socioeconomic injustices through movement and music.

Born in Orlando East, Soweto, Maqoma grew up in a loving two-parent household. “At home I was introduced to jazz and soul music. My parents bought one of the first black-and-white TV sets in our area and I remember seeing Tina Turner for the first time. I would imitate her videos while wearing my mother’s wigs. I was devasted to learn of her death earlier this year.”

Maqoma adds that seeing the reaction people had when Michael Jackson performed was the first time he considered performing as a vocation. “Michael, with his sparkly glove and white socks, made me realise I could have an impact on people — just by the way I moved!

“I also lived near a hostel that housed miners from all over Southern Africa,” Maqoma says. “Over weekends the labourers would relieve themselves of their stress by dancing and performing, and that’s what first piqued my interest in dance,.”

Maqoma’s father coached a soccer team in Orlando and naturally expected his son to follow in his footsteps. “My dad wanted me to play soccer as a hobby and become a medical doctor once I completed school,” he says.

“I was about nine or 10 when my father gave me a defensive position on his team. On the day of the match, the ball seemingly fell from the sky. I did everything but kick it. I woke up from what felt like brief dream, in the fetal position with the ball snugly wrapped in my arms, my father’s faint voice shouting in the background. I had awarded the other team a penalty kick and as they were lining up, I just remember abandoning the match and running home to my mother in tears. That was the last match I ever played.”

While his father didn’t approve of his oldest son’s passion for dance, Maqoma met with his neighbourhood friends to practice. “We didn’t even know what choreography was back then; we called it ‘steps’”.

On June 18 1990, a 16-year-old Maqoma saw an advertisement in The Sowetan. “The advertisement was for an audition in Braamfontein, and so my fellow dancers and I went. When we walked into the establishment, it was surreal; young dancers of different races in a legitimate studio environment wearing tights, stretching, preparing for the audition and looking professional. We’d never seen anything like it before. We looked at each other and thought ‘do we even belong here?’”.

Maqoma describes his dance style as ‘street dancing’. A fusion of contemporary, pantsula, American R&B and gumboot dancing that culminates into a uniquely local genre with a pulsating energy.

“Because I was still in school, my father was adamant that I complete my studies — with high marks — and forget about dance. To my surprise, we were accepted at the dance audition in Braamfontein, and with that, our pictures were also published in The Sowetan, a newspaper my father read religiously.

“My dad saw the article but instead of being angry, surprisingly he was proud that I’d been published for excelling at something, even if it was this hobby.”

Maqoma completed high school with flying colours and received a bursary to Wits. “Unfortunately, I was not accepted into medical school. So, I convinced my father to let me take a gap year while I figured out what I wanted to do with my life. It was during this gap year that I truly began to fall in love with dance.”

He was awarded a scholarship to Performing Arts Research and Training Studios (Parts) in Belgium. “Parts had scouts recruiting dancers constantly and I was quickly picked up. I created my own body of work, Rhythm 123, in 1999 and returned to SA, which marked the start of the Vuyani Dance Company. The company quickly became successful, touring locally and internationally to places like London, Paris and New York.

Maqoma seamlessly navigates his way between performer and businesperson. “The first thing I did when the company began expanding was to hire an administrator. I set up a board of directors to strategise and guide the company’s growth trajectory. I also attended Gibs to further my education.”

With the land now purchased, Maqoma aims to develop the area into a residential and studio “artist residency” of sorts. “This will be my legacy. A space where artists from across Africa can come; where every black child from a township or rural area can walk into the space and know that their dreams are taken care of.

“I want to develop a new generation of dancers in the country. There is a shortage of black female choreographers and I want to tap into that and ensure we have a space for their development through mentorship.”

A legacy indeed.