A performance outside the box, Romeo & Juliet / Rebellion & Johannesburg immerses the audience in the spirit that characterizes today’s South African city. Disoriented, the young post-apartheid generations are still in revolt: they search for a space and identity lost between the culture of the past and the new that is advancing. It is not uncommon in Johannesburg to see scenes of young people burning banknotes in the streets and spreading custard on the ground as a form of protest, flaunting their disdain for wealth and violence.
The work of Jessica Nupen, a South African choreographer trained at the Rambert School in London and now active in Hamburg, speaks to the accelerated heartbeat of this disoriented generation. She collaborates with the award-winning Soweto musician Spoek Mathambo, known as the “Price of Township Tech,” and filmmaker Ed Blignaut.
On stage are the dancers from Moving Into Dance Mophatong, the longest-running and most important contemporary dance company in South Africa, founded in 1978 and now artistically directed by Mark Hawkins. Open to ongoing collaborations with international choreographers and the blending of genres—African contemporary dance, afrofusion, free expression, and hip hop—Moving Into Dance Mophatong interprets Romeo & Juliet / Rebellion & Johannesburg with overwhelming energy. The choreographic language emerges from a dance theater that experiments with the notion of individuality aimed at overcoming social conflict.
Inspired by the stories of the individual dancers, Nupen creates an electrifying and contagious piece, punctuated by humor and paradoxes, the same ones that plague the country. She encourages the audience to look beyond stereotypes. The title also references Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, serving as a perpetual warning that history repeats itself—not in Verona and not between the Montagues and Capulets.
