{"id":2538,"date":"2018-03-09T13:38:04","date_gmt":"2018-03-09T11:38:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/?p=2538"},"modified":"2018-03-09T13:38:04","modified_gmt":"2018-03-09T11:38:04","slug":"coloured-swans-1-khoiswan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/?p=2538","title":{"rendered":"Coloured Swans 1: Khoiswan: what’s between black & white?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Moya Michael in Coloured Swans 1: Khoiswan. Photo credit: John Hogg.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Coloured. Coon. Caf\u00e9 latte. Half-caste. Half-baked. Half-breed. Hottentot.<\/p>\n

Not black. Not white. Right?<\/p>\n

Choreographer and dancer Moya Michael, in collaboration with visual and performance artist Tracey Rose, both with Khoisan ancestry, pick apart the history of the “vacuous” (so stated by Michael\u2019s uncle) and colonial-given, collective term ‘coloured’, in the work Coloured Swans 1: Khoiswan<\/em>.<\/p>\n

This is a deeply complex work and subject.<\/p>\n

What do you think, when you hear “First Nation”? Remember the four Khoisan leaders who walked 1200km from Port Elizabeth to the Union Buildings in December last year to demand recognition for their language and their claim as the true indigenous people of South Africa. And now, the highly emotional subject of land reclamation plasters the headlines again. Who should<\/em> get the land? And how far back should we go? 1913, as current legislation dictates? 1800? 1652?<\/p>\n

Michael tackles this head on. A recording of her uncle plays: “African nationalists\u2026 those who don\u2019t want to admit southern Africa belongs to the Khoi”. The recording plays with the stage in near-darkness. Significantly, Michael isn\u2019t visible to us.<\/p>\n

Khoiswan<\/em> is strikingly layered and textured.\u00a0Using the tools of text, sound, movement, and visuals, Michael and Rose interlace historical knowledge, a subtle critique of postcolonial discourse, and body politics of exoticism and eroticism.<\/p>\n

Michael, in silhouette and apparently naked, shifts into changing positions. Against a bright backlight flashing rhythmically to a bassline of strong clicking \u2013 evocative of Khoisan languages \u2013 we recognise the well-known image of Saartjie Baartman. Michael contorts: her bum made prominent. Displayed. Exposed. Exotified.<\/p>\n

Khoiswan<\/em> is a series of vignettes, carefully meditative in tone.<\/p>\n

When she dances, Michael’s movement is crisp and captivating. With the subtlest hints she includes iconic but brief flashes of Swan Lake choreography… a nod to her classical ballet training, the dance form historically reserved for a white elite; and perhaps a nod to the form that demands or favours a ‘white’ body, tall and thin with no bosom or bottom… bodies not like Saartjie Baartman’s.<\/p>\n

But in between the vignettes, Michael is personable and jokey; we\u2019re kept aware she is performing and that we\u2019re watching a framed set of performances. This adds a strange quality to the work \u2013 we\u2019re being let in, but she decides just how far. She comments on one scene which didn\u2019t quite go to plan, \u201cwell that was a disaster\u201d \u2026 she draws us in with her funny familiarity.<\/p>\n

In what appears to be a light-hearted scene, Michael \u2018interviews\u2019 Aunty Mil, who asks her \u201chow can you come in front of the people with your hair like that?\u201d With one humorous, brief statement, Michael says so much. Hair. This stuff that keeps our scalps warm\u2026 has been used as a weapon of control for too, too long.<\/p>\n

Notoriously (and absurdly), apartheid\u2019s pencil test determined race categorisation for those who were \u2018questionable\u2019 in race classification… mostly, coloureds. For those of you unfamiliar with this grotesque piece of apartheid history: a pencil was \u2018combed\u2019 through the hair and if it fell out easily\u2026 lucky you! You could be classified white. If the pencil stayed in your hair, you were classified black.<\/p>\n

And today? Systemic colonisation subsists through the \u2018beauty\u2019 industry\u2019s message to young coloured and black girls that smearing caustic chemicals on their heads (containing developing brains)\u2026 will make them \u2018pretty\u2019. Thankfully, we have stories like that of the learners of Pretoria Girls\u2019 High who in 2016 protested discriminatory hair regulations at school, simply asking for the right to \u2018wear\u2019 their natural hair. How about… enough policing of girls and women\u2019s appearances altogether? Thanks.<\/p>\n

Coloured Swans 1: Khoiswan<\/em> is intelligent, stirring and challenging. But Moya Michael\u2019s natural performance makes it easily accessible, and although it hasn\u2019t been stated enough here, her extraordinary movement is majestic and must be experienced.<\/p>\n