YAZUKE: The Forge – A Thousand Faces of Fear, A Single Song of Home

YAZUKE is a site-specific contemporary African dance production presented within the iconic forge of master blacksmith Conrad Hicks at the Bijou Building in Observatory, Cape Town.

Inspired by the legend of Africa’s first Samurai, YAZUKE explores the profound dialogue between the self and the myriad faces of fear. Approached through BABA YAYA’s distinctive lens, YAZUKE draws together African contemporary dance, martial movement, ritual performance, live music and the introspective qualities found within Japanese avant-garde theatre. Through movement, music and ritual, the body becomes both instrument and archive, carrying memory, demons and the search for belonging.

A celebration of hybridity, resilience and creative becoming, YAZUKE inhabits a space between worlds, where audiences are invited to confront fear, honour plurality, and find solace in the unknown forces that shape us, and the songs that call us home.

Curated By: Mandla Mbothwe and Benjamin Nivison
Choreographic Direction: Maxwell Xolani Rani
Dance Artists & Choreographic Collaborators: Lee van de Merwe, Mukhove Monyai, Tanzley Jooste, Monique Dawson, Kabo Kola
Musicians and Sound Design: Lukho Noyila, Babalwa Potelwa, Matlali Matabane, Ofentse Segale