Standard Bank Young Artist winner Asanda Ruda delivers potent dance production

News24

02-07-2025

Dancer and choreographer Asanda Ruda was announced as a Standard Bank Young Artist winner earlier this year.
She put on an avant-garde dance production titled KEMET – Black Lands / Alkamal Walkamal Almutlaq – Completeness and Absolute Wholeness at the National Arts Festival.
The festival takes place from 26 June to 6 July 2025 in Makhanda, Eastern Cape.
Dancer and choreographer Asanda Ruda's double-bill production at the National Arts Festival in Makhanda showcased two sides of her style.
Part one, the solo KEMET - Black Lands, is sporadic and avant-garde, while part two, the three-woman ensemble Alkamal Walkamal Almutlaq - Completeness and Absolute Wholeness, is harmonious and delicate.
The two-part production stays with you long after you've left the venue, as Ruda's choreography and sound design conjure the ineffable. But there are moments that you react to instinctively, and you can feel the pain and catharsis in each of her movements.
Ruda, who hails from Soweto, was announced as a Standard Bank Young Artist winner earlier this year.
She was previously part of the Pina Bausch Foundation and toured Europe. Kemet - Black Lands was developed during her residency programme at Hellerau, and she has another residency in Paris.
On the pieces in the production being put together, Ruda says:
'The two pieces are separate, but they intertwine and relate in conversation.'
There's an implied element of violence to Kemet that makes it particularly unnerving. At one point, the arrhythmic sound of Ruga hitting a plastic bottle is played in the background while she delivers her chaotic routine.
She says that the sound was inspired by watching news reports of the war between Iran and Israel.
When asked how the theme of violence connects to the idea of self-expression, Ruda says: 'I feel like we are constantly fighting. Life is not easy… We choose to make it so hard and so difficult,' she says.
'That's why we want to compete against each other, so there are wars, hunger, and disease. But we forget about one thing - to start with the self. This is why we fight each other because we are incomplete within ourselves. We forget to look at the soul and the spirit.'
Mark Wessels
It's hard to sync with Kemet's ritualistic rhythms; it feels like she never repeats a movement, and you can't predict what she'll do next. But the routine is disciplined, considered, and intentional. Nothing looks like an accident.
The unpredictable nature of the solo perhaps speaks to Kemet's theme of 'personal emancipation', unfiltered self-expression, and violence, too.
'It is an open exploration and an extension of identity and a displacement of consciousness and sanity,' she says. 'You can never digest and predict the next move of the psychopath or of a dictator.'
The accompanying sound design is striking, too. It consists of a sound collage-esque piece of music, including found sounds and field recordings.
Her second piece, Alkamal Walkamal Almutlaq - Completeness and Absolute Wholeness - has a more intuitive rhythm. Ruda is accompanied by dancers Sinazo Bokolo-Bruns and Thandiwe Mqokeli. Though more 'conventional' than the preceding act, this routine maintains the abstractness.
It's a spiritual work that speaks to human connection and ritual. Though the dancers are doing the same routine, they are not always perfectly synchronised. Maybe this is unintentional, but that irregularity once again speaks to uniqueness and self-expression and the tension it has with community where one can still have their own rhythm while following a shared routine.
Mark Wessels
Ruda says this was the first time working with Bokolo-Bruns and Mqokeli, and they worked on the production for a month.
'It was a great relationship to come together and meet,' she says.
With the piece, she was trying to explore spiritual boundaries:
'We look at the spiritual self and the soul and ask, 'When are we completely full, and how do we complete ourselves, as human beings, souls and spirits?''
She says it was 'amazing' to be announced as a Standard Bank Young Artist winner and put on her show at the National Arts Festival. Because of the posters and banners, people have also been recognising and approaching her.
'Creatively, it's a wonderful opportunity, and I'm really grateful to receive it,' she says. 'I hope that more opportunities like this still arise and continue.'