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DURBAN-BORN and Johannesburg-based dance-maker Thulisile Binda, of the Vuyani Dance Company, has received the Pick of the Fringe award for her work, Ithemba, at this year’s Jomba Contemporary Dance Experience Fringe event at Durban’s Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre.

Thulisile received the acknowledgement from a committee comprising 2018 Standard Bank Young Artist for Dance Musa Hlatshwayo, veteran dance writer and critic Adrienne Sichel, and US-based art critic and writer Lauren Warnecke of the Chicago Times.

The award provides Binda with the opportunity to present a new work on the Jomba on the Edge event at next year’s dance festival.

Ithemba is a strikingly original solo dance work and a very profoundly personal piece choreographed and danced by Binda, which examines losses experienced, and how these become deep scars that come back to haunt.

Says Binda: “I would love to thank the festival for giving me the platform and opportunity to perform my solo. I would also like to thank the festival for recognising my work and I am grateful for the amazing opportunities that come with it.”

“We are thrilled so see such an array of strong work coming into the Fringe,” says festival artistic director Lliane Loots.

“Thulisile’s piece was extraordinarily personal yet echoing the very pertinent issues felt in South Africa today, and especially from a women’s perspective. We look forward to welcoming her back to Jomba in 2019.”

The dance event, presented by the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Centre for Creative Arts, continues this week with the launch of Adrienne Sichel’s book, Body Politics: Fingerprinting South African Dance, at 5.30pm today (Tuesday, September 2) at the Sneddon, followed by Jomba on the Edge at 7.30pm.

The festival runs until Sunday, September 9.