Gregory Maqoma and Shanell Winlock Southern Bound Comfort

"A wonderfully entertaining duet.… They wrapped up themes of conflict in humor and originality."—The Independent

This special pair of duets with live music features award-winning dancers Gregory Maqoma and Shanell Winlock. Maqoma, artistic director of the internationally recognized Vuyani Dance Theatre, recently choreographed the opening event of the World Cup in South Africa. Also from Johannesburg, Winlock is now based in London, where she is celebrated for her work with Akram Khan's company. Maqoma's piece, Southern Comfort, looks at how perceived ideas shape human experience. A reflection of behavior, attitudes, and reactions, this humorous and passionate piece features highly charged partnering with whiplash turns. It peels back the fragile veneer of appearances that conceal the power games people play.

Their second duet, Bound, commissioned from their friend and collaborator Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, explores a space where traditions fuse and foster new expression. In Bound, the dancers investigate the bonds we have to one another, to heritage, to desires, and to expectations. Bound recently debuted in London, where it earned enthusiastic praise from critics and audiences alike. The Stage's reviewer called it, "a powerful extended metaphor played out by the two dancers whose onstage dialogue is articulate, and freighted with meaning that goes well beyond mere movement."

This project has ties to two performers who have many fans among the Wexner Center's dance audiences: Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, the choreographer of Bound, and Akram Kahn, in whose company Winlock previously performed here in 2003. The Wexner Center presented the work of Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui for the first time in the U.S., premiering his ambitious work Foi for les ballets C de la B in 2003. The Wex also presented and coproduced the U.S. premiere of zero degrees, his scintillating duet with Akram Khan, in 2006, as well as Khan's own U.S. debut in 2001.



Produced by Théâtre de la Ville—Paris, in coproduction with Sadler's Wells—London, The ShowRoom—University of Chichester, The Point—Eastleigh, Festival de Marseille, RPF/RED Reggio Emilia Danza—Aperto Festival, Julidans—Amsterdam, KVS—Brussels. With the support of: Cultuurcentrum Brugge, TanzHaus NRW—Dusseldorf, Festival Next (Courtrai-Lille-Tournai), Buda, Vuyani Dance Theatre (dir. Gregory Maqoma), Eastman vzw (dir. Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui). Acknowledgments to La Villette (EPPGHV) and particularly to Ginette Dansereau for their invaluable help.

The performances in Ottawa and Columbus are made possible thanks to Institut Francais.

This presentation is supported by the Performing Arts Fund, a program of Arts Midwest funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional contributions from Ohio Arts Council, General Mills Foundation, and Land O’Lakes Foundation.