Body Ability | Exploring the Mind, Body and Soul through Arts
Interdisciplinary Dancer | Choreographer | Performer
Through dance, I grapple with complex and enduring themes of the physical and the psychological in equal measure. I use my innovative and collaborative approach to performance to interrogate the placement of a womxn’s body in contemporary society.
Biography
Interdisciplinary Dancer, Choreographer and Performer
Through dance Thulisile Binda grapples with complex and enduring themes of the physical and the psychological in equal measure. Using her Innovative and collaborative approach to performance, she seeks to interrogate the placement of a womxn’s body in the contemporary society, and questions how the body is located and perceived more broadly. Her work is known for its striking blend of raw physicality and unique musicality, alive with a responsive fluidity and driven by the inherent narrative of the body.
Binda's journey journey into performance began in 2010 with Latin Dance. Taking up dance classes while studying towards a degree in Electrical Engineering, Binda soon won numerous accolades for dance and went on to compete at a Championship Level. In 2013, she honed her drama ND performance skills through Flatfoot Dance Company, Siwela Sonke Dance Theatre and Vuyani Dance Theatre. She would later go on to work with Luthando Dance Academy as a Senior Company member and an assistant Rehearsal Director. Since then, Binda has worked with a number of dancers, Choreographers and Directors nationally and Internationally, she has performed in award winning works that have been performed across the country. As a choreographer, Binda created her debut work iThemba in 2017 which received multiple awards and has been performed at festivals and platforms across the country. In 2018 she received an award at the Market theatre trade fair as the " best female perfomer". She developed her second work "Nina Wabantu" in 2019.Other productions that she had done was a collaboration piece called " Mtwan’omntu" which premiered at The Center For The Less Good Idea in 2021 ad she. She was also part of season 8 and 9 for The Center For The Less Good Idea, where she created her works " Pitsana ", " Hard but Fragile ", and " Impande ".
She is an Independent Artist and as a qualified Entrepreneur she is running he company Body Ability which aims to work with dancers , athletes and sports clubs in conditioning their bodies to boost their technique, body intelligence and abilities of whichever art discipline and sport they partake in.
Thuli Binda: A Unique Approach
Thinking Ahead
The Center of Somewhere Residency 2022/23
A Collaboration in residence between South Africa ,The Centre for the Less Good Idea and Scotland, Take Me Somewhere
In this residency I am exploring the imagination of how a healed world or nation would look like , how that can bring collaborative ways of us sharing our views together to build ourselves and heal together. With the use of a Sjambok I am looking to explore different sound scapes ,shapes and the connection with the body,mind and soul literally and metaphorically.I am also looking at different traumas that we experience as a collective and as individual through the body and the mind. As a dancer I will also be looking at how those traumas can find a place to stay in the body and create discomfort that can course one to find a copying mechanism and ignore dealing with the pain. It is said that "you gain power from pain" ,through the powerful sound scapes that the Sjambok makes we looking to find this powerful sound as reference to POWER that comes from pain and make those sounds scapes something good to listen to. I am also looking at how the body heals through movement and breath creating a sense of flow.
Through the connections in the residency I got to explore and talk about different mediums that we use as a people to connect to self all over again and how those mediums shows that they connection to one another towards the same goal. This was done through conversations that were expressed in words, movement and sounds we got to find the same language that expresses healing. I got to find what it is to ground yourself in healing and really listening to the soothing sound waves that comes with a balanced self and the realization of what you can attract when your energy is flowing positively.
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