Broken Chord: Fascinating rhythms that bring us together
By Kaija Pepper
Broken Chord is based on a true story of the racism encountered by a South African choir that toured North America and England in the 19th century, but the most memorable impression it left this viewer is of tremendous warmth. The fascinating rhythms of voices and bodies were deeply stirring, the bold whirl of song and dance more uplifting than the subject matter might suggest.
The voices come from two sources: four powerhouse soloists from South Africa — Tshegofatso Khunwane, Lubabalo Velebhayi, Xolisile Bongwana, and Zandile Hlatshwayo — and a choir from each city to which the production tours. For the Vancouver Playhouse shows February 23-25, part of the DanceHouse series, it was the Vancouver Chamber Choir. In an impressive feat of fast learning — there were just two days for everyone to meet and rehearse — the choir’s 16 members mastered their part in composer and musical director Thuthuka Sibisi’s dynamic score. This was a creative, ever-changing mix of soul-stirring deep notes, bright uplifting ones, and lively, if biting, wit (for instance, the deconstruction of God Save the Queen).
The Vancouver Chamber Choir also performed more actorly duties, at one point becoming a jeering crowd of Londoners who surround the South Africans as they practice a routine of “Chin, chest, now bow, smile.”
That routine is led by the show’s choreographer, Gregory Maqoma, who also performs. One of his roles is as storyteller, providing a loose narrative thread for the hour-long piece. He doesn’t tell the whole story about the South African choir, which travelled with 14 adults and two children to collect donations to build a school, instead sharing fragments of the past. At the beginning, for instance, he briefly takes on the persona of a boy the missionaries have come to “civilize” and educate. Some of his storytelling is a little hard to follow, but what is always clear is his dancing.
Maqoma trained at the renowned Moving into Dance school in Johannesburg, where he became associate artistic director in 2002. He also trained in Belgium at P.A.R.T.S., the school established by contemporary artist Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker. His dance reflects traditional Xhosa and contemporary styles, and is both a little mysterious, a little familiar. His quick slender feet skip or stamp, his hands flow like water or flash like steel, his torso ripples and shakes. Maqoma’s dance creates impressions that flash by: he’s like a gust of wind, a large imperious bird, a dancer possessed by the movement.
The story of the South African choir that travelled so far from home (the world was much bigger then) provided Maqoma and Sibisi with an important historical inspiration for their collaboration. Broken Chord doesn’t tell that story outright; it’s more an orchestration of scenes that build emotional resonance, scenes starring powerful South African voices and bodies supported by a constantly changing choir who must gamely take on their assigned role of oppressors. The Vancouver Chamber Choir did so brilliantly.
The expected contemporary critique is certainly present, but Broken Chord has as much heart as politics, which left me, at least, with an ache for our shared human experience. And the feeling that we are now, maybe, at last, all in this together.
Broken Chord tours to Ottawa March 1-2 and Toronto March 9-11, and then to Europe: London March 17-18 and Paris March 24-26.
