Joséphine & Bantu unleashes a seismic double bill of African contemporary dance at UJ Arts Centre’s Keorapetse William Kgosietsile Theatre—Friday, January 30 at 19:30 and Saturday, January 31 at 15:00, 2026—where Germaine Acogny’s iconic Joséphine solo confronts Gregory Maqoma’s world premiere Bantu, staging memory, colonial resistance, and human reclamation through two generations of diasporic brilliance.
Theatre & Production Prestige
UJ Arts Centre in Auckland Park delivers world-class intimacy: a 400-seat black-box theatre with pristine acoustics, flexible staging for Acogny’s solo friction and Maqoma’s 12-dancer ensemble, Denis Hutchinson’s lighting carving ritualistic shadows, Black Coffee Designs’ costumes threading ancestral-modern aesthetics.
25 minutes from Randfontein via N1, secure campus parking (R20), accessible post-Sweet Fields Market morning wander or pre-TRY rugby afternoon. CHANEL/Muse Art Foundation backing signals prestige—your content workflow captures cultural cachet.
Joséphine: Acogny vs. Colonial Gaze
Germaine Acogny (École des Sables founder, “Mother of African Contemporary Dance”) inhabits Joséphine—a charged dialogue with Josephine Baker’s exoticised iconography.
Choreography by Acogny/Seutin, Fabrice Bouillon-LaForest’s score, Fabiana Piccioli/Enrico Bagnoli’s lights excavate “oppositional gaze” (bell hooks), Dahomey Amazons’ warrior defiance. No celebration—raw traversal of submission, subversions, political body reclaiming stage as “ritual of repair.”
Paris world premiere (Champs-Élysées, Sept 2025) makes Joburg’s African debut historic.
Bantu: Maqoma’s Human Reclamation
Gregory Maqoma’s Bantu (12 dancers: 4 École des Sables, Senegal + 8 Vuyani Dance Theatre, SA) weaponises “Bantu=human” etymology into bone-memory ritual—rhythm/rupture choreography, Yogin Sullaphen’s score, Shanell Winlock-Pailman’s movement analysis resurrecting pre-colonial dignity.
Ubuntu embodied: “I am because we are.” Co-produced Joyce Theater NY/Théâtre de la Ville, Paris—Joburg premiere cements Maqoma’s global choreographic insurgency post-Extreme Weather acclaim.
Ticketing & Strategic Access
R250–R350 via Quicket—Friday 19:30 evening prestige, Saturday 15:00 matinee family-accessible (~R30 fees). 90-minute double bill + 20-minute interval; arrive 45 minutes early for optimal sightlines.
Jan 30/31 perfect cultural capstone post-Popular Demand Thursday, pre-Sweet Fields/TRY daytime—your spreadsheet diversifies hospitality/nightlife/sports with diasporic dance vertical, Instagram-ready for cultural tastemakers.
