Genesis – The Beginning and End of Time

Gregory Maqoma has been a guest at Kunstfest Weimar with four different projects since 2021
and each time he has been able to get a sellout audience in the Main House on their feet
in a standing ovation. Memories are especially strong of the success of “Cion” which became the sensation of the festival in 2022. Now this audience favourite and his all-star dance ensemble
return to the city of the classics with the European premiere of their latest work: Gregory Maqoma’s “Genesis – The Beginning and End of Time” is a powerful reflection on the cycles of history, the complexity of human existence and the struggle for liberation. For his latest work Maqoma has sought inspiration from the revolutionary ideas of Aimé Césaire, Frantz Fanon and Steve Biko, and the poetic defiance of migrants. These form the basis for Maqoma’s visceral narrative of movement, music and text that confronts both colonial legacies and contemporary injustices. Set to live music and song, the work pulses with rhythms rooted in South African tradition while addressing global wounds – slavery, war, displacement and silence. “Genesis” asks how history repeats itself, how the shadows of the past shape our future and how memory can also empower resistance. Through this multidisciplinary performance, Maqoma transforms the stage into a site of mourning, awakening and hope. The body becomes an archive, a protest, a prayer – dancing between ruin and renewal.