blue nile to the galaxy around olodumare
Jeremy Nedd & Impilo Mapantsula
© Zivanai Matangi
In 2024, Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels is supporting La Bâtie – Festival de Genève in its presentation of Blue Nile to the Galaxy around Olodumare by Jeremy Nedd & Impilo Mapantsula.
From star to star, Jeremy Nedd & Impilo Mapantsula travel the cosmos. In blue nile to the galaxy around olodumare, the Basel-based Black American dancer and cheoreographer and the South African pantsula dance collective meet jazz stars Alice Coltrane and Bheki Mseleku. How do cosmic and spiritual music, an auditory incarnation of the American Civil Rights Movement and pantsula, a manifestation of resistance to South African apartheid, help us contextualize our world today? What paths forward do they chart? Paths of science fiction? Of Afrofuturism? There is an urgency to make something new from the old. To dance. To tell a story.
Biographies of Jeremy Nedd & Impilo Mapantsula
Jeremy Nedd is a choreographer and performer born in Brooklyn, New York and currently based in Basel, Switzerland. Nedd has previously danced at the Semperoperin Dresden (2010-2012) and Ballett Basel (2012-2016). He has produced and presented his prior creations at the Kaserne Basel, ROXYBirsfelden, the Arsenic - Centre d'Art Scénique Contemporain in Lausanne, the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, and the Münchner Kammerspiele, among other venues.
Impilo Mapantsula is a global network of high-level professional artists specializing in pantsula, a South African urban dance form. A professional organization, Impilo Mapantsula promotes the development of pantsula dance and culture, creates formal standards and acts as an industry representative. The organization seeks to document and protect the living heritage of pantsula, and to help dancers professionalize and develop their art. Impilo Mapantsula creates learning opportunities and supports artistic creation and self-expression through educational, artistic, and professional programs with an emphasis on job creation, international collaborations, and exchange programs.
