‘Genesis’ is not an ending

The last time I spoke to Gregory Maqoma, he was retiring. 

Or at least that was the language we reached for then, retirement, an ending, the quiet folding away of a body that had carried the emotional and political weight of South African contemporary dance for over two decades. 

He was stepping off the stage, he said, hanging up his dancing boots, loosening his grip on the centre of the frame. It felt final, like the closing chapter of a long incandescent book.

And yet here we are speaking again...