Andrew Kola knows the difficulty of breaking from the mould. For instance, he has become accustomed to raised eyebrows each time he introduces himself as a dancer. Even professional colleagues in South Africa, where dance is big business, have told him that they don’t do any better, especially with financial institutions.
“I know that even there, when they ask for a loan and give their occupation as a dancer, they are often asked how they are going to raise the money to service the loan,” he says, letting out the laughter of someone who has come to appreciate that there is no spite behind the blank stares. “But in the United States, they know you make a lot of money as a dancer, so that question would not arise.”
Now if there is that level of cynicism in a country where the choreography for the opening and closing ceremonies of the recent African Cup of Nations (AFCON) finals carried a tag of R14 million, you get a better appreciation of what Kola must be going through in Botswana.
On a Saturday morning, it is quiet at Maitisong, and we are perched on one of the concrete slabs on which showgoers take their interval snacks. This place has a special place in Kola’s career direction. In 2008, he attended auditions here for a scholarship to study contemporary dance in South Africa. He was awarded the scholarship ÔÇô fully funded by Pro Helvetia, the Swiss Arts Council ÔÇô and at the beginning of 2009, he went for residency training at the South African performing company, Moving into Dance. He worked with professional dancers for the duration of the course.
When he completed the training, a friend recommended that he should work for another South African performing company, Drumstruck and for a moment Kola entertained the thought.
“But the company was on a six-month tour of the United States, and had just done two months,” he reflects. “I couldn’t just hang around for four months, so I decided to come back to Botswana.”
Back home, with a new skill that was alien to a lot of people, he needed an avenue to express his new art-form. That was the beginning of Mophato Dance Theatre.
It appears Kola was always destined to dance. From primary school up to tertiary education at Gaborone Technical College (where he studied beauty therapy, with a specialization in make-up), he was a traditional dancer. Just after completion of senior secondary education, he joined Mogwana traditional dance troupe, one the country’s elite groups. Ironically, it was through Mogwana that Kola was introduced to contemporary dance.
“Mogwana facilitated my participation at the Botswana Music Camp, where I used to meet South African choreographers. Through interaction with the choreographers, I developed interest in contemporary dance. For me this was a new form of dance through which I could further my horizons.
I saw it as an avenue to new possibilities for me as a dancer,” he recalls.
The workshop was an annual event that would run for a week, and for five consecutive five years Kola was a regular. Throughout the five years, he only attended dance classes.
It’s a long way from those dance classes at the music camp to where Kola is now, as the owner of a contemporary dance company ÔÇô the first in the country at that. As with all new concepts, the beginning of Mophato was a tough terrain to travel.
“I was speaking a new language, and people did not understand what I was saying,” he says.
Deciding to start small, he recruited three young men who would become the nucleus of the new dance troupe, and took them through entire repertoire of contemporary dance. He had to trust his instinct when scouting for dancers.
“The way to identify potential dancers is to look for people who show potential. You spot that by the way someone moves even when they are doing traditional dance,” he says.
Soon Kola found himself with a four-piece dance troupe, whose style nobody seemed to appreciate. He could either close shop or be innovative. He chose to be innovative.
“Seeing that people didn’t know what we were doing, I started with the famous Sophiatown dance, which of course is not contemporary dance. It was a marketing strategy to reach out to people and have them talk about us. The idea worked because people liked the dance and they still do. To this day, everyone identifies us with the Sophiatown dance. I guess it’s because we are the only group here that does it,” he says.
Mophato has marked its territory on the local arts scene, and there is a steady flow of gigs. The group does an average of three shows a month.
Last year, they did three productions of their own, including Kgosikgolo, which was staged at South Africa’s Dance Umbrella Festival, and got recognition in the category for upcoming companies. This year, they will perform Kgosikgolo and yet another production, Hayani, at the Grahamstown Arts Festival. On Hayani, a Venda word for home, the group worked with South African choreographer, Luyanda Sidiya.
“We are looking forward to doing more of our own productions because we want to build our own audience,” Kola states.
But even with the amount of bookings, Kola states that the financial reality is that not everyone can be a fulltime employee of the company. Some dancers are in tertiary institutions, while others have day jobs elsewhere.
A recent innovation is that Kola employed a manager to handle the company’s administrative issues, thus freeing him to concentrate on performance, training of new dancers and rehearsals.
The interest is also growing. The group now has six core dancers and eight trainees. Kola says he receives many enquiries from people who want to join ÔÇô “but unfortunately we can’t take everyone”.
In the time that he has been in business, he has noted that ours is a society that wants entertainment but does not want to pay for a performance.
“People ask for quotations and then they want to negotiate the price so ridiculously low that you end performing for free. This kills art because if you perform for next to nothing just out of desperation you won’t be motivated,” he points out.
He believes with time, there will be a greater appreciation of contemporary dance in Botswana. He notes that with the University of Botswana having introduced a Visual and Performing Arts programme, the industry can only grow. He is an external instructor at UB under the Visual and Performing Arts programme.
“When these students graduate from the programme, where will they go? hey can’t all go too teach.
We need people to be trained as performers and come to work for companies like Mophato,” he says.
“I believe in 10 years this industry would have matured. At the moment, Mophato and Letsatsi Dance Theatre are the only contemporary dance companies in the country. For the industry to grow people need to learn and go start companies so that there can be competition. But what works against us in Botswana is that someone would want to dance with you for three months and think they can start their own dance company. People have to be patient and learn first. I learnt for five years, and in that period I would go to South Africa to attend shows, to appreciate and network with people within the industry.”
Being a dancer calls for a lot of discipline, and a greater part of this has to do with looking after one’s body. Kola states that it boils down to the right diet and exercise, especially cardio training and a lot of stretching to maintain flexibility.
“You have to be flexible to do most dance moves,” he says.
