JOMBA! MASIHAMBISANE DIALOGUES #6 - Choreographies of Activism - Moving Bodies as Disruptive Presencing -  27-29 May 2026 Online with Free Public Access

The Centre for Creative Arts at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, in partnership with the JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience, presents the 6th edition of the JOMBA! MASIHAMBISANE DIALOGUES (JMD26), taking place online from 27-29 May 2026.

Under the theme Choreographies of Activism: Moving Bodies as Disruptive Presencing, this year’s dialogues bring together artists, scholars, choreographers, and activists from across Africa and the Global South to explore dance as a form of embodied activism and political intervention.

Exploring Dance As Political Practice

“At a time marked by ongoing colonial legacies, global inequality, mass displacement, ecological collapse, and political violence in regions such as Palestine, Sudan, Syria, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, JMD26 asks urgent questions about the role of the moving body in resistance, survival, memory, and collective care,” explains committee member Dr Lliane Loots.

“Rather than understanding dance as metaphor, the dialogues position choreography and movement as active political practices through which bodies assemble, disrupt, claim visibility, and insist on justice. Drawing on decolonial, feminist, queer, Indigenous, and Critical Black studies frameworks, the programme interrogates how movement generates forms of knowledge beyond institutional and textual politics.”

International Guests And Programme Highlights

The three-day programme features keynote dialogues, paper presentations, panel discussions, screendance screenings, and a major book launch.

International keynote guests include Hershini Bhana Young (South Africa/USA), Preethi Athreya (India), Nora Amin (Egypt), L’Antoinette Stines (Jamaica), and Kettly Noël (Haiti and Mali).

Highlights include conversations on borders, memory, dance activism, ancestral embodiment, and transformative choreographic practices.

Presenters from South Africa, Uganda, Brazil, Tanzania, Kenya, Haiti, Egypt, India, Jamaica, and beyond will engage questions of ecology, gender, migration, disability, and embodied resistance within the frame of activisms.

Featured Book Launch

A featured event within the programme is the launch of Encountering Disability and Citizenship Through Contemporary Dance in Africa (Routledge, 2026), co-authored by Yvette Hutchison and Lliane Loots.

Emerging from a UKRI-funded research project, the publication examines how integrated dance practices across Africa challenge dominant understandings of disability, citizenship, and belonging.

Access Information

All sessions are free and accessible online.

The dialogues will be livestreamed via the official JOMBA! YouTube channel, and you can also apply for direct Zoom access to join the live digital discussion space.

The livestream can be accessed via:https://www.youtube.com

Access the full programme updates and information:https://jomba.ukzn.ac.za/masihambisane-dialogues/masihambisane-dialogues-issue6-2026/

To apply for direct Zoom participation, contact:Thobile Maphanga - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Looking Ahead To JMD26

The 2026 JOMBA! MASIHAMBISANE DIALOGUES invites audiences to consider how moving bodies continue to hold memory, generate political possibility, and create spaces for collective imagination in deeply fractured times.