|
In Heart of the Dancer, Johnny Clegg explores the role of dance in his musical career - and he trots out all the old favourites along the way. Expect an explosive show.
Johnny Clegg will take the audience on a historical journey of one particular Zulu traditional dance
JOHNNY CLEGG fans are in for a treat when "The White Zulu" presents his latest musical production, Heart of the Dancer, at the Johannesburg Civic Theatre.
Known for his electric stage performances, Clegg is set to strut his stuff before Joburg fans from Tuesday, 17 June to Sunday, 29 June at the Nelson Mandela Theatre in the Civic, before heading for Cape Town.
Heart of the Dancer looks at the role of dance in Clegg's musical career and how certain songs were shifted towards choreographic presentations when they were played live. It also looks at the history of one particular dance which became widely used in the Juluka and Savuka periods. The show includes all of Clegg's classic repertoire as well as work from his One Life album.
Born in Rochedale, England in 1953, Clegg was raised in his mother's native land of Zimbabwe, then Rhodesia, before emigrating to Johannesburg at the age of seven. Seven years later, Clegg took up the guitar and hooked up with Charlie Mzila, a Zulu flat cleaner who played Zulu street guitar near Clegg's home.
Over two years, Clegg mastered the fundamentals of Zulu masikandi music through his interaction with Zulu migrant labourers. These men lived in hostels around Johannesburg and Clegg often got into trouble with the police for flouting the Group Areas Act, an apartheid law forcing different races to keep to their own residential areas.
Juluka
He later met Sipho Mchunu, a migrant Zulu worker who had come to Johannesburg in 1969 looking for work. They struck up a friendship and musical partnership that would resonate around the globe.
The urbane Johnny Clegg playing his trademark bass guitar
In 1976, Clegg and Mchunu, now known as Juluka, secured a major recording deal and had their first hit song, entitled Woza Friday, written by Clegg. The formation of Juluka, meaning "sweat" in isiZulu, was in total contravention of the entrenched segregation of language, race and culture. The band's music was subjected to censorship and banning and the only way to access an audience was through live touring.
In late 1979, Juluka's first album, Universal Men, was released; more albums were released in the early 1980s but the band split in 1985 when Mchunu returned to his farm in Zululand.
Determined to carry on with his music, Clegg formed the group Savuka (We have arisen) creating a broader-based mixture of African and international rock and pop music. By the end of 1987, Savuka was the leading world music group touring the Francofone countries.
In the new South Africa in 1997, Clegg and Mchunu recorded one last album as Juluka, called Yavuka Inkunzi.
Solo albums followed for Clegg, with New World Survivor in 2002 and One Life in 2006. One Life, his latest album, features the song Thamela, his first-ever isiZulu-Afrikaans crossover song. Speaking about the album, the musician says:
"We are all given one life which is precious and unique. At the same time all life on the planet is interlinked and connected into a single planetary force. The private and political choices we make affect how our one life influences the greater whole and so the songs look at the politics of betrayal, love, power, masculinity, the feminine, survival and work.
"Our one life is connected to the One Life. We each have a story to tell and many of the songs take on a narrative structure to emphasise the story-telling nature of how we make meaning in the world."
Heart of the Dancer is on at the Nelson Mandela Theatre, at the Civic Theatre complex, from 17 June to Sunday, 29 June. Tickets go for R150 and are available at Computicket, on 083 915 8000 or 011 340 8000, or through the Computicket website.
For more information on the show, call Jeanette Odgers on 011 482 3550. The Johannesburg Civic Theatre is on Loveday Street, in Braamfontein.
Related stories:
|
