Young Critics Collective: TWAWSI

There’s a moment in The World As We See It when silence falls; when the intensely persistent beat ceases and all you can hear is heavy breathing, thudding feet, fabric moving through air. In the sudden ending of soundtrack, you realise you’ve been holding your breath too, a complicit witness to the chaos unfolding before you.

TWAWSI, presented as two performances, is a meditation on humanity’s capacity for destruction and transcendence. Serge Aimé Coulibaly and Vincent Matsoe contribute African and Caribbean aesthetic movements through a contemporary lens to create scenes of past, present and future, that can be recognised all over the world.

The first piece, Echoes of Dust, throws us directly into chaos. Seven dancers in earthy reds, whites, and greys move with sharp precision around modular grey blocks whilst moving them across the stage throughout. The movement is visceral: fast turns, bodies colliding and separating, a kinetic vocabulary of violence that pits human against human. The stage is illuminated by rays, and as dancers move in and out of these beams, they seem to flicker through time itself; simultaneously futuristic and devastatingly present.

The set becomes a character: blocks stacked into towers of industry and labour become monuments to our capacity for construction and conquest. As the final tower abruptly collapses, it feels like the devastating collapse of life; created by the effects of our wars, accumulated hatred, and environmental damage. On reflection, however, I understand it as the necessary demolition of all that keeps us separate, clearing space through hope and possibility.

Letlalo (Skin) arrives as an answer and antidote. The dancers, now in matching clothes, have shed some individuality to reveal what’s fundamental: the soul, the spirit, the connective tissue that binds us across diasporas and generations.

Letlalo reflects the deep wisdom of communities living in harmony with the land. The music and bodies move in complementary rhythms rather than perfect sync, like different elements of nature sharing the same ecosystem while maintaining distinct bodies of agency. Against a mottled, cave-like backdrop, the movement becomes more sequential and ritualistic. Within this are recognisable traces of yoga flows, and Latin American rhythms. This collision of disciplines refuses to be contained by space or time; a multiplicity that transcends what we think of as the everyday.

Throughout both performances, the influence of multiple cultures, languages, and movement creates a rich tapestry that represents the vast complexity of the African diaspora. This demonstrates the dancers’ hybrid identities where home and host country, past and present, ancestry and innovation exist in constant dynamic conversation. Cultural diversity must be celebrated in a time of fast-paced globalisation condensing the spaces between separate cultures, but the importance of allowing culture to shift and evolve remains. The dancers become living embodiments of this: never static, always changing, moving with and across time and space.

TWAWSI forces us to reflect. The dancers look out at us and we cannot look away. We are held accountable for the damage depicted in Echoes of Dust, yet offered hope in Letlalo’s spiritual return to essence. Expression through music, movement, storytelling, and unity, is how we repair the ruptures in human connection, and resist the monotone pressure of globalisation while celebrating
the beauty of convergence.

Hate spreads like wildfire and we are destroying the fragile world we inhabit. But beneath our constructed differences beats a shared persistent rhythm; that we are all mosaics of our cultures, our experiences, our relationships, and we are constantly being shaped by the hands we hold and the music we move to. Our past exists in us, our present flows from it, our future depends on remembering that the world around us exists within us too, and that we, in all our chaotic dynamic complexity, are the only hands that can rebuild what we’ve broken and forgotten.

TWAWSI, an acronym for The World As We See It, is a uniquely captivating showcase that masterfully blends African dances with contemporary styles. This production is structured as a two-parter, consisting of Echoes of Dust choreographed by Serge Aimé Coulibaly and Letlalo
choreographed by Vincent Mantsoe.

Echoes of Dust opens abruptly with oppressive, hard-hitting music, flashing lights and destruction,
before fading to black. This shocking introduction made me feel as if I’m entering a strange new
world submerged in chaos. As the stage illuminated, I was presented with corpses strewn across the
stage, who began to reanimate to the sound of battered metal. Initially, the dancers moved rigidly
like machines mimicking humans, that gradually became more fluid and autonomous. Throughout
the performance, the music continually shifted genres to match the intense expressions of the
dancers. The only props used were grey rectangular blocks that were danced around or used as
scaffolding for structures. The minimalism in the set design was mirrored in the mute clothing worn
by the dancers, forcing the audience to focus on the raw physicality of the performance.

Unfolding on stage, were fleeting moments of love, joy and unity. Yet, I was equally exposed to the
horrors of tormented bodies screaming with frustration and pleading for reprieve. At the end, the
dancers stood in solidarity gazing at the many blocked structure they built, only for it to collapse,
ending just as it began with destruction. In many ways this act represents a cycle of abuse and the
powerlessness that people feel in the face of oppression. Nonetheless, I felt hopeful because I was
challenged to reflect on my own actions and the dire consequences of destructive behaviour.

Letlalo, meaning skin in Sotho, flows brilliantly from the discord of the last act, opening with a
solitary display of power and poise. The lone dancer drills movements like a disciplined martial
artist, each repeated with effortless precision. Slowly, more dancers join the training, taking
formation as they copied movements, with female dancers gliding gracefully across the stage. The
music starts off tranquil but builds in immensity as the dancers form into a fighting force, standing
in rank and file. This arrangement evoked feelings of power through fellowship, earned by shared
struggle and perseverance. What followed was warfare communicated through ferocious bodily
movements and accompanied by a combative score. This act concludes with a return to the
harmonious, martial movements and serene soundscape that preceded the conflict. At the end, I felt
empowered yet strangely peaceful.

TWAWSI is unapologetically experiential in its fusion of diverse styles of dance, crafting two
compelling narratives that are told through both elegant and fierce movement. During the after
show talk, the rehearsal director Kennedy Junior Muntanga emphasised the deeply spiritual nature
of this production. These performances were crafted in a way to resonate with the audience no
matter their background or world-view. This is because TWAWSI is a story about primal human
emotions, acting as a mirror for the world as we see it