A figure in red glides onto the scene, camera is low, she\u2019s\nfilling the screen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The red dress is made to balloon overhead, behind and around\nas she moves through a forest of tall, thin wintertime trees. There\u2019s force in\nevery miniscule moment. Dust unsettled. Thrusted arms clutch and pull towards\nher all that she might gather. Outstretched again, this last time the one arm\nlingers pointing up, the camera pans skywards, following fingers floating upwards,\nrising to the light. Lesedi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For many of us who closely follow the dance \u2018scene\u2019 in South\nAfrica, Lulu Mlangeni has been<\/em> on our radars for looong. On stage hers\nis the powerful body always rippling with refined movement quality. Thanks to\nthe documentary film on the vNAF programme, we learn that off stage she\u2019s as\npowerful a force. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Meet Lulu Mlangeni. Standard Bank Young Artist for Dance\n2020. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Many of us first witnessed her moving with Vuyani Dance Company,\nthe Joburg-based company founded by dance extraordinaire Gregory Maqoma,\nhimself a Standard Bank Young Artist (SBYA) in 2002. I\u2019ve invited friends and\nfamily over the years to accompany witnessing works where Lulu has been part of\nthe cast; and I vividly remember one of them remarking after Siva (Seven)<\/em>\nby Luyanda Sidiya, yet another SBYA, in 2015, \u201c\u2026what else was happening? I\ncouldn\u2019t stop watching the woman with the shaved head\u201d. That was Lulu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lesedi: The Rise of Lulu Mlangeni<\/em> is a thoughtfully\nchoregraphed documentary film. Form meets content. From Lulu herself and\ninterviews with family and significant women influences, we share in the\nbiographical parts of her life relevant to her dancing career. Sequenced over street\nscenes of Jozi and Soweto and outdoors solo on-site dances which in the\ndaylight illuminate Lulu\u2019s creative versatility, the film melds her personal\nstory firmly within the place it was forged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yaz, my favourite scene was sis Lulu dancing in the back\nyard with the twins and Mam\u2019 Dorah. Best! I dare you to resist bumping along a\nbouncing shoulder \u2013 it\u2019s a lovely loose tapping into the realness side of the\nartist operating in tandem with the professional persona being interviewed. I\nwished for more of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Without anyone needing to explicitly state so, we realise\nthat the places of her history and the people in those spaces are inextricable from\nwho she is. And all is expressed from within her when we experience her artistry\non stage, now on film too. The shudders and shakes but also the punches and\nkicks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We don\u2019t have on our galoshes but into the deep we go. Lulu\nswishes and swooshes her way upstream. Kicking water. Only the inquisitive few\nhave patience for that. The water is softly flowing, peaceful, but her moves\nare brisk, they\u2019re bold, harsh, straight lines and block-shaped. An adherence\nto form against the seemingly unstoppable rush. But the hard stare into the\nglare declares the fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Later when she climbs the stairs of the small white Ivory Tower\u2026\nshe claims her stake saying \u201casjik \u2018spelimon \u2013 until we are heard\u201d. Her defiant\nmovement vibrates through the screen. With every grab at, and refusal to relent\nfrom the disintegrating rusting pylon frame, she\u2019s there to #smashthepatriarchy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A note on the gorgeous costumes: they are true enrichments\nto Lulu\u2019s choreographic work in the film; they flow to enhance her swirls and\ntwirls, they irradiate her form in the sunlight, they act as a colourful\nbackdrop to the shifts and shapes her body makes. (Also, we need these dresses\nin our real lives please.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n Although the film traces through Lulu\u2019s life linearly, from\nher beginnings as a youngster at Mam\u2019 Dorah\u2019s dance studio through to her\nwinning of the prestigious SBYA for Dance this year, the content decision was\nmade to not include archival footage. A choice seldomly made in \u201chow they got\nhere\u201d documentaries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Lulu now<\/em> is who we encounter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The past is not eroded though. As if walking through a\ntrendy pop-up art gallery, Lulu moves in between framed photos of her career\nhighlights. She relishes it and smiles in acknowledgement of all the tough work\nit takes in the arts industry to \u2018make it\u2019. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n But forward is her direction. This moment too shall be\nframed and hung on the wall of achievements because it\u2019s not the pinnacle. She\nblinks back the emotion when Mama Nonku (\u201cumama wako industry, a mother to all\nthe artists\u201d) says \u201cGo beyond the award\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And, towards Lesedi, Lulu will continue climbing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n