Izithukuthuku: The Tattered Soul of the Worker

Dressed in their parents' clothing, surrounded by typewriters and sewing machines transformed into instruments, a new generation looks back at the work structures they inherited. In Izithukuthuku: The Tattered Soul of the Worker, director Phala Ookeditse Phala and choreographers Vusi Mdoyi and Jeremy Nedd weave dance, spoken word and performance into a layered story about labour, inequality and what is passed down from generation to generation.
Mdoyi mixes the energetic South African dance style isiPantsula with traditional forms such as ndlamu, setapa, tsutsube and toitoi into a physical language of protest, rhythm and survival. The percussive sounds of the city resonate through everything: machines, bodies, voices. Raw, rhythmic and inescapable.
Izithukuthuku: The Tattered Soul of the Worker examines what capitalism does to the soul of the migrant worker. About cities that promise opportunity while continuing to run on inequality. About work that lodges itself in bodies, dreams and generations. Who is the machine actually running for?

Vusi Mdoyi is a dancer, choreographer and artistic director of VAP Dance Academy, and co-founder of Impilo Mapantsula Global Movement. Growing up in a township, he developed a deep-rooted connection with isiPantsula, a dance form that brings together culture, politics and history. With over 24 years of experience he brings this tradition to theatres and into the academic world. Director Jeremy Nedd, choreographer and dancer from Brooklyn, lives and works in Basel. He is affiliated with Trajal Harrell's Zürich Dance Ensemble and previously appeared at Noorderzon with, among other works, How a Falling Star Lit Up the Purple Sky.