Destruction and renewal: Gregory Maqoma talks new dance opera ahead of Feb premiere

Excitement is building ahead of the world premiere of the new work by renowned choreographer Gregory Maqoma.

Genesis: The Beginning and End of Time will be performed at the Baxter Theatre from 18-21 February, before its Johannesburg run from 19-22 March at the Joburg Theatre.

The dance opera is described as "a powerful and allegorical journey through the half-life of colonial history, the timeless quest for liberation, and the inner and outer battles human beings face on the way".

Sara-Jayne Makwala King asks Maqoma about translating something as vast and abstract as time into a performance piece.

Time in Genesis is the space between destruction and renewal, is how Maqoma sums it up.

"It is asking, what will you carry forward and what will you leave behind... Looking at our current leaders in these times... we need to rethink how we begin again to eradicate completely what has not worked before, and to go back and see what has worked through the revolutionary ideas of Aimé Césaire, Steve Biko, Frantz Fanon."

We need to look at what these figures have preached that the world has not taken forward, that perhaps we need to pay attention to, Maqoma says.

The artist has referred to the Baxter Theatre as "a partner in my becoming as a dancer and choreographer".

He says premiering the work there honours this relationship between the theatre maker and an institution.

"It feels like returning to a spiritual home, to begin this new chapter here with Genesis."

What is also important is that the theatre understands scale while also understanding intimacy, both of which Genesis needs:

"It is a vast dance opera, but it is also intimate in its performance and how it connects to audiences."

The choreographer is hopeful that audiences will see this not only as a performance but that they encounter an important conversation.

"(This is) about who we have been, who we are becoming in the present, and whether we have the courage to begin again and to formulate a better, brighter future for the next generation... but also in terms of our own generation, talking about when we're going to be in a place where we're settled, in heart and in spirit, where we can be so that we can contribute significantly to the world."

Tickets for both Cape Town and Johannesburg are available on Webtickets.

To listen to Gregory Maqoma in conversation with Sara-Jayne Makwala King on CapeTalk's Weekend Breakfast, click on the audio link below: