William Kentridge: Ursonate

Thulani Chauke
Thulani Chauke started his performing arts career at the Jabavu Anti Crime Youth Aids Awareness. Between 2001 and 2005, Thulani has respectively performed for various projects Arco Dance theatre, Halala Afrika theatre Society and Taelo Dance theatre. In 2009 he joined Moving Into Dance as a trainer and later that year as a company member. In 2011 he joined Vuyani Dance theatre as a company member. In 2012 (-2017) he joined Forgotten Angle Theatre Collaborative as Community Arts Engagement Officer/Dancer and Choreographer.

Currently a freelance artist, Chauke created his first solo work BLACK DOG whilst in a residency programme at the Centre National de la Danse (CND) Paris and at the Klap Maison Danse in France 2013, and this solo work has performed in several dance festivals since its creation.

Chauke has performed in various numbers of Dance works and he has worked with internationally acclaimed choreographers: Gregory Maqoma, PJ Sabbagha, Fana Tshabalala,Shanel Winlock, Ivan Estegneev and Evgeny Kulagin (Russia), Iain Macdonald, QudusOnikeku (Nigeria), Themba Mbuli, Thabo Rapoo, Gustine Makgeledisa, Andrea Severa (Argentina).

Since 2017 Thulani has been a freelance artist and has been working with William Kentridge in various projects curated by The Center For The Less Good Idea: Season One (2017), History Of The Main Complaint – originally by William Kentridge reinterpreted by Thulani (2017), The Head and the Load created by William Kentridge (2017, 2018, 2019, 2022), Season 4 – Center For The Less Good Idea (2018) and Sybil – Created by William Kentridge (2019, 2021, 2022).

Albert Fana Tshabalala
Fana began his career in the performing arts with community groups focusing on the traditional African Zulu dance, and went on to found and serve as Artistic Director at Broken Borders Arts Project where he continues to dance, teach and choreograph to this day, along with other artists and collaborators from the William Kentridge studio. Deeply influenced by William Kentridge’s movement aesthetic, Fana has enjoyed a rich collaboration with many artists from William Kentridge’s Centre for the Less Good Idea. In 2013 Fana choreographed Indumba for the National Arts Festival which went on to be presented at Arts Alive in Johannesburg and the Jomba Festival in Durban. Indumba had the honor of being restaged by Deeply Rooted Dance Theatre in Chicago. In 2013 Fana was also in residency at the Centre National de la Danse in Pantin France and Klap Maison Pour Danse in Marseille, where he performed his duet Between Us and his solos Une Rupture and Gates of Hell. To cap this year, Fana was the 2013 Standard Bank Young Artist Award winner for Dance. In 2014 he was awarded a visa for creation to develop his solo Man. That same year his duet Between Us was featured at the Dance Dialogue Africa, and the work toured Germany. In 2015 he worked with Nanziwe Mzuzu, a Cape Town based writer, on the documentary Man; commissioned by Etv, and inspired by his solo of the same name. Fana has performed in 12 countries with a variety of prestigious companies and artists.He has collaborated with James Ngcobo, the Artistic Director of the Market Theatre, as Choreographer and Movement Facilitator for A Raisin in the Sun, Letters from Madiba, The Children’s Monologue and many others. Fana went on to choreograph a full length work for Grand Baller Geneva and served as Associate Artistic Director of the Forgotten Angle Theatre Collaborative. In 2018 Fana was named Black Excellence Award recipient in Chicago.