William Kentridge The Great Yes, The Great No

William Kentridge (1955, Johannesburg) works across the mediums of drawing, writing, film, performance, music, theater and collaborative practices to create works of art that are grounded in politics, science, literature and history, always maintaining a space for contradiction and uncertainty. His work has been seen in museums and galleries around the world since the 1990s, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Albertina Museum in Vienna, Musée du Louvre in Paris, Louisiana Museum in Copenhagen, the Reina Sofia museum in Madrid, the Kunstmuseum in Basel and the Royal Academy of Arts in London. His work can be found in the collections of art museums and institutions across the globe. Kentridge has directed Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Shostakovich’s The Nose and Alban Berg’s operas Lulu and Wozzeck, for opera houses including the Metropolitan Opera in New York, La Scala in Milan, English National Opera in London, Opera de Lyon, Amsterdam Opera, the Sydney Opera House and the Salzburg Festival. His original works for stage combine performance, projections, shadow play, voice and music, and include The Refusal of Time, The Head & the Load and Waiting for the Sibyl. In 2016, Kentridge founded the Centre for the Less Good Idea in Johannesburg, a space for responsive thinking and making through experimental, collaborative and cross-disciplinary arts practices. The Centre hosts an ongoing program of workshops, public performances and mentorship activities. He is the recipient of honorary doctorates from several universities including Yale, Columbia and the University of London. Prizes include the Kyoto Prize (2010), the Princesa de Asturias Award (2017), the Praemium Imperiale Prize (2019) and an Olivier award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera in 2023.

Exceptional vocalist, choreographer, composer, theatermaker, dancer and educator Nhlanhla Mahlangu is a graduate of Dance Teaching at Moving Into Dance, Mophatong. Born in Pholapark Squatter Camp in Apartheid South Africa in the late 1970s, Mahlangu started school during the national state of emergency in the 1980s and witnessed firsthand the conflicts among the African National Congress, Inkatha Freedom Party and the “Third Force” of the 1990s. Mahlangu can be described as a generous interdisciplinary collaborator who excels at conjuring original, complex and contemporary work rooted in traditional forms. Mahlangu is celebrated for his embodiment of Isicathamiya, an a cappella-type musical form combining vocals and movement. Mahlangu uses this practice as a way to process the history of South Africa, particularly the plight of migrant workers. Mahlangu’s prolific practice is one of interrogation, articulation, development and research. He has gained exceptional ground through his pivotal collaborations with luminaries the caliber of William Kentridge, Robyn Orlin, Richard Cock, Gregory Vuyani Maqoma and Sylvia Glasser, as well as with his choral music and musicmaking approaches with his Hlabelela Ensemble and Song and Dance Works. Mahlangu received the Naledi award for Best Choreographer and Promax Africa Award 2021 for Best Title Sequence in The Estate, among others. His latest achievements include being a director of Shaka Ilembe, an award-winning, 12-part TV series that premiered in 2023 in South Africa.

Phala is an award-winning “storiyer” in the form of a theatermaker and director whose work has won awards in South Africa, the United States, Czech Republic and Australia. He is the co-director of Noma Yini, a South African arts collective in the business of “storying,” the multiple ways of coming into, portraying, forming, building, making and performing stories. From 2019 to 2023, he was the Animateur at The Centre for the Less Good Idea, an interdisciplinary incubator space for the arts, based in Maboneng, Johannesburg. He holds a master’s in dramatic arts from Wits University. His works champion emotional and psychologically stimulating storying as a uniquely African aesthetic. His focus and interest are on methodologies of making and creating work in ways that collapse and disrupt conventional norms.

Soweto-born Tlale Makhene is a sought-after percussionist, composer and collaborator who draws from traditional, world and jazz music. Tlale has performed locally and internationally, collaborating and working with artists ranging from Miriam Makeba to Corinne Bailey Rae, Johnny Clegg and Pharaoh Sanders. His collaboration with William Kentridge began seven years ago with Refuse the Hour and continues through his work with Kentridge’s Centre for the Less Good Idea. Tlale has released two original albums: Ascension of the Enlightened (2004), which won the highest accolade in South African music awards for Best Contemporary Jazz Album, and Swazi Gold (2017). In 2020, Makhene was awarded the BVSM Award for best percussionist. He also wrote music for Dada Masilo’s Sacrifice. Other albums under his name are SG2.0 (2020 SAMA Awards Nominee for Best Adult Contemporary Jazz) and Busuku Nemini.

Mwenya B. Kabwe is a Zambian-born maker of theater and performance, facilitator of creative processes, a performer, writer, arts educator and scholar. She holds a PhD from The Centre for Theatre Dance & Performance Studies (CTDPS) at the University of Cape Town (UCT), where she is currently Senior Lecturer and Head of the Theatre Section. Her creative practice and research is focused on contemporary African theater and performance, migration, immersive and site-specific performance work, live art, collaborative and interdisciplinary artmaking and reimagining African futures. She has lectured at the UCT Drama Department, Wits School of Arts division of Theatre & Performance and the Market Theatre Laboratory. She is a co-curator of the Unrehearsed Futures conversation series and a curatorial partner in the OpenScape Network. Her current projects include working as dramaturg for The Great Yes, The Great No and incubating several collaborative interdisciplinary experiments through The Centre for the Less Good Idea in Johannesburg.