DanceHouse and Vancouver New Music team up to present Broken Chord

Featuring one dancer, four vocal soloists, and an onstage a cappella chorus, the epic work runs from February 23 to 25

SPONSORED POST BY dancehouse

Three Black men dressed in white button up shirts and dark pants, one Black man in a red patterned T-shirt and Black woman in a colourful patterned dress stand around a table covered in flour. There is a lump of dough in the middle and some flour sprays up into the air.

In Broken Chord, internationally renowned South African choreographer Gregory Maqoma and musical director Thuthuka Sibisi weave together recorded personal accounts of The African Native Choir using traditional Xhosa and contemporary dance with atmospheric soundscapes.

The group of singers travelled to Britain, Canada, and the United States from 1891 to 1893 to raise money for a school in Kimberley, SA. They performed Christian and African hymns for large audiences, including Queen Victoria. Their story was largely forgotten until the multimedia installation The African Choir 1891, Re-Imagined debuted in London in 2016.

When Maqoma first witnessed the exhibition featuring images of The African Native Choir and their unrecorded music reimagined by Phillip Miller and Thuthuka Sibisi, he was so inspired that he danced in the gallery for the next 40 minutes.

He teamed up with Sibisi to tell the story of this South African choir onstage. The final product, Broken Chord, features Maqoma as the singular dancer among four vocal soloists. An a cappella choir made up of local singers is assembled wherever the work is performed. The Vancouver performances will feature members of the Vancouver Chamber Choir.

If the name Gregory Maqoma sounds familiar, it may be because DanceHouse presented his choreography Via Kanana, performed by Via Katlehong Dance, as part of their Digidance series in February 2022. One year later, Vancouverites have the chance to see him in person in a truly epic tale.

Maqoma began dancing in the late 1980s as a means to escape growing political tensions in Soweto, SA. He went on to found Vuyani Dance Theatre in 1999 and became the Associate Artistic Director at Moving Into Dance in 2002.

Thuthuka Sibisi studied music at the world-renowned Drakensburg Boy’s Choir School in South Africa, later completing his MA in Performance Making in London. He has worked as a composer and musical director for many operatic productions, from Johannesburg to Barcelona to New York.

Broken Chord is playing at the Vancouver Playhouse February 23 to 25, 2023. Find tickets and more information here.

Post sponsored by DanceHouse.