“Tebandeke reclaims his body and his crutch as tools of artistry, insisting that difference is not deficit”, a screen shot taken from the dance film.

Barriers, Breakthroughs and the Defiant Artistry of Joseph Tebandeke

By Celimpilo Cele

Joseph Tebandeke’s Amazina Mbuyaga (Dancing Through the Wind), which premiered at the JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience 2025, is a deeply moving screen dance work that weaves autobiography, metaphor, and embodied resistance into a single and unflinching performance.

From the opening scene, the film draws us into Tebandeke’s world. A calm forest backdrop frames his voiceover: “If you ask me if there is a moment I felt trapped, to be honest I feel trapped every day and I feel trapped every time…” The raw honesty of this admission sets the tone for what follows — a dance that is both vulnerable and unyielding.

The choice of locations underscores the work’s urgency. The abandoned house where much of the performance unfolds is no mere setting; it becomes a metaphor for societal neglect and exclusion. Tebandeke’s solo choreography — spare, raw, and arrestingly intimate — translates isolation into movement. His gestures embody both rejection and resilience, creating a performance that is at once personal testimony and universal provocation.

One particularly striking moment comes as Tebandeke navigates a series of doors. Each passage feels weighted, a metaphor for barriers imposed on artists living with disabilities. The image is simple, yet devastating: every threshold negotiated with effort, every opening questioned.

What makes Amazina Mbuyaga resonate so powerfully is its insistence that Tebandeke’s story is not solely about disability, but about the human condition itself. Through dance, he reminds us that perseverance, struggle, and connection are not exceptional, but shared human experiences.

The pre-screening conversation between festival curator Dr. Lliane Loots and Tebandeke adds essential context. The artist speaks candidly of the scarcity of resources for disabled dancers in Uganda, the absence of government support, and the isolation that such neglect breeds. Against this backdrop, his film becomes even more striking — a work made not in abundance, but against the odds.

Amazina Mbuyaga is ultimately a testament to the power of dance to express, to heal, and to connect. Tebandeke reclaims his body and his crutch as tools of artistry, insisting that difference is not deficit. Vulnerable yet unbowed, his film is a reminder that to dance is to survive, and to survive is already an act of defiance.

Amazina Mbuyaga is available on the festival’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhPM6nOwQjg until 7 September 2025.