UJ Arts & Culture’s featured artist for today’s The Pandemic Project is MIDM Professional dancer and choreographer Sunnyboy Motau in a moving piece that explores the juxtaposition of an imposed daily routine with the need for movement and change.
Inspired by the time spent in the same space, over and over again, Motau attempts to balance the draining monotony of lockdown with the need to stay safe. The comfort of home and daily routine is lost to the sense of endlessness. “Without the hope of getting out, as comfortable as your home may be, it gets draining because you don’t know what else to do.”
Motau questions the changes artists need to start implementing to ensure the survival of their craft. “I wake up every day and think what else to do and where to go to from here, but I can’t move I just have to keep on the same routine daily so that my family is safe.”
In a closed space dominated by the ubiquitous washing line, a mask-clad Motau moves between the sense of trapped endlessness and creative freedom. Same Routine 21+ is performed to the UJ Choir’s rendition of Sakhiwe a traditional Zion-gospel song that directly translates to the text in Ephesians 2:20, arranged by S Nyamezele.
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About Sunnyboy Motau
Motau dances and choreographs for MIDM’s Professional Dance Company. He began his training with the community arts groups in Alexandra. In 2008 he joined MIDM as part of the Performing Arts Training Course (PATC).
His first choreographed solo, Within Me, was presented at the Dance Umbrella 2010 as part of the Stepping Stones Programme and subsequently at MIDM’s Dancing into Summer season. In 2010 he participated in the Crossings International Choreography Workshops and worked with Michel Kelemenis and Vincent Mantsoe. He toured world-wide with Robyn Orlin’s Beauty Remained… and he toured Russia as part of the Russian / South African Season in 2016.