Public Energy Performing Arts is launching its 2025-26 season by welcoming Mozambican-Canadian dance artist and choreographer Pulga Muchochoma to Peterborough this Thursday (September 25) for a double bill of dance performance called YEBO.
YEBO consists of a solo work by Muchochoma called NGOMA, followed by an ensemble piece called INKOSI featuring three dancers, an actor, and a musician.
“Yebo” is the Zulu word for “yes,” but it also has a deeper cultural meaning as both a word of affirmation and an invitation to connect.
“I saw Pulga dance before I met him, when he was still a first-year student at the School of Toronto Dance Theatre,” recalls Public Energy programming director Kate Alton, who is also an award-winning dancer and independent choreographer.
“I was standing on the sidelines in a dance class waiting for my turn to move. Suddenly there he was, dancing across the floor and eating up space with his powerful magnetic energy. I hired him for a duet project on the spot. In rehearsal, Pulga said YES (YEBO!) to everything I proposed. It was magic.”
According to Alton, Muchochoma has made “yebo” a familiar word of affirmation among dance artists across Canada through his infectious and incredibly positive outlook on life.
VIDEO: Excerpt from NGOMA by Pulga Muchochoma
Muchochoma’s Market Hall performance will begin with his dramatic solo work called NGOMA — the word for “drum” in many African languages, including his own language of Chuabo, a Bantu language spoken along the central coast of Mozambique.
Muchochoma first created NGOMA as a five-minute solo of non-stop dancing, with the intention of dancing to every single beat at the same time, but the work has since evolved.
“The new extended version toggles between making the choice of dancing to every single beat at the same time and ignoring every single beat at the same time while noticing the relationship this creates in the body,” Muchochoma says.
“As always, my work leans on the hands of my ancestors. My mother’s voice became one of the biggest influences into the development of this work as a way for me to revisit my connection to the place where it all started. In my mother’s womb, I heard the first drum beat.”
Muchochoma’s second piece, INKOSI, is inspired by the life of Nelson Mandela, the late beloved anti-apartheid political figure who became the first president of South Africa.
The Zulu word for “king,” INKOSI explores the brutal time Mandela endured in prison, the realities of living through apartheid, and Mandela’s perseverance, resilience, and vision for a better South Africa and Africa in general.
“Movement-wise, I drew from a fusion of traditional dances from South Africa and my country of origin Mozambique with the contemporary dance style,” Muchochoma says.
“After I spent the last few years developing my choreographic voice, I realized that this piece had the potential to be much longer and richer,” Muchochoma adds. “That’s when I decided to explore the idea of transforming the dancers into characters that represent the people that have lived and experienced the struggles of being held in captivity, and also the work needed for its story to feel well supported and richer in order to make the story clear.”
Mandela, who was also known by his Thembu clan name “Madiba”, is often described with great respect in South Africa as the father of the nation.
“I wanted to highlight Mandela more as king of his people and for him to be seen more than a prisoner by his fellow inmates and the audience members. That’s how the title of this work came about.”
YEBO, which runs for around 70 minutes including an intermission, will be performed for one night only at Market Hall Performing Arts Centre in downtown Peterborough beginning at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, September 25.
Tickets are available on a sliding scale from $14 to $54, including tax and fees, with a recommended price of $34.
For more information and tickets, visit publicenergy.ca/performance/yebo-pulga-muchochoma/.
Muchochoma is a dancer, choreographer, musician, actor, and director born in Quelimane in Mozambique, where he began his dance career and training with Montes Namuli Dance Company.
In August 2006, he came with the company to Toronto and stayed to study at The School of Toronto Dance Theatre, later working with Toronto Dance Theatre from 2009 to 2020 under artistic director Christopher House. During his time with Toronto Dance Theatre he worked with local and international choreographers including Christopher House, Veronica Tennant, Danny Grossman, Patricia Beaty, Heidi Strauss, and Jeanine Durning.
He has been nominated seven times for Dora Mavor Moore awards for his work with Toronto Dance Theatre and twice for his own works. In 2015, he founded Pulga Dance, where he teaches and creates independent works.
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