By Alyssia Birjalal 
Aug 4, 2021
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Celebrated local choreographer Jay Pather is all set to feature as this year’s Legacy Artist at the virtual JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience taking place from August 24 to September 5.
Pather will open the virtual festival while award-winning dance photographer Val Adamson will complement him with a photographic exhibition of his work created with the Siwela Sonke Dance Theatre over the years.
This digital exhibition titled, “Through The Lens: Val Adamson in Photographic Conversation with Jay Pather”, is a collection of more than 100 photos.
Presented by the Centre for Creative Arts under the theme “border crossings”, the festival organisers thought fit to bestow Pather with this honour.
No stranger to JOMBA! Pather has presented numerous dance works with Siwela Sonke Dance Theatre.
As founder and director of the company, Pather has forged a path as one of South Africa’s most critical and innovative dance makers often celebrating the border crossings of cultural clash and the disease of the “rainbow nation”. His work has toured all over the world.
Now living in Cape Town, Pather is an associate professor and directs the Institute for Creative Arts at the UCT, and curates Infecting the City Public Art Festival.
He has recently been appointed Fellow at the University of London and was recently made Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of Arts and Letters) by the French government.
The award -winning Adamson has photographed dance in South Africa since 1985, and has staged numerous exhibitions which have toured art festivals around the country.
Her most recent was presented at JOMBA! 2020, featuring photography of the festival over 21 years.
She has been widely acknowledged for the contribution she has made to the dance world in South Africa, including an award in 2012 from KZN DanceLink, and as a “Living Legend” by the eThekwini Municipality for her work in documenting theatre.
Pather opens this year’s digital JOMBA! Festival on August 24 at 7pm.
It will be available here.