Moving in November – Gaby Saranouffi, deufert&plischke, Moeketsi Koena & Thabiso Heccius Pule: RONA

RONA, which means “together” or “we” in Sesotho, is a collective film by Gaby Saranouffi, deufert&plischke, Moeketsi Koena and Thabiso Heccius Pule.

Blending everyday life, dance, music, and community work, it offers a portrait of dance artists in Johannesburg. Developed within the community performance project Ballroom Bliss Soweto, the film centers voices often left unheard—particularly women and children navigating poverty and gender-based violence. Filmed across three locations, it weaves movement, sound and spiritual practice into a powerful cinematic experience.

The film features speech in various languages and is subtitled in English.

The film is part of Moving in November 5.–15.11.2026.

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Born in Tamatave, Madagascar, Gaby Saranouffi is a dancer, choreographer, teacher, and Artistic Director of the International Contemporary Dance Festival I’Trôtra and Vahinala Company in Madagascar. As a champion for the Malagasy art form of her home country, Saranouffi has toured extensively both nationally and internationally with highlights including Asian Improvisation in Korea, Tanz Im August in Berlin, the Festival Montpellier Dance in France and Dance Africa Dance Festival in Mali. She has also taught at a number of prestigious dance schools including the National Conservatory of Music and Dance in Paris the Regional Conservatory of Reunion Island and the Bern Conservator.

deufert&plischke have worked continuously as an artist duo for more than 25 years, realising over 50 international projects across four continents. Their practice combines choreographic research with social practice, developing long-term forms of collaboration between artists, local communities, institutions, and international partners. Rather than producing isolated works, they conceive their projects as open artistic processes that evolve over many years, integrating new contexts, perspectives, and participants in different locations.

Since their early works in the early 2000s, deufert&plischke have explored how choreography can enable collective imagination, shared authorship, and social encounter. Audiences are understood not as spectators but as active participants in shared situations. Rooted in dance, their work brings together performance, music, film, photography, installation, and participatory formats to create multilayered spaces of experience.

Dancer, teacher and choreographer, Moeketsi Koena hails from Soweto and is the current Director of Inzalo Dance Theatre Company and associate director for Madagascar International Dance Festival I’Trôtra. Described as “dynamite exploding” Koena has danced and choreographed for the Soweto Dance Theatre, Moving into Dance, Pretoria Technikon and had work commissioned by the Grahamstown Art Festival and Artscape Theatre Center in Cape Town. He has taught and choreographed internationally in the Netherlands, Belgium and the USA.

Thabiso Heccius Pule – a professional dancer, choreographer, event manager, and founder of Creative Tree & Projects – started dancing in 1998 with Community Dance Project. He has worked with various choreographers and appeared in many local and European productions. He is currently working on projects for the Ndofaya Youth Festival and the biennale of Soweto Arts Sessions.

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2026 (ZAF, DE)
Single-channel video, colour, sound
By: Gaby Saranouffi, deufert&plischke, Moeketsi Koena, Thabiso Heccius Pule
Production: I’Trotra Art X Connection Johannesburg / deufert&plischke – spinnereischwelm / dpsp studio Schwelm with the kind help of Goethe Institute South Africa.
Co-production: Pina Bausch Centre under construction, Wuppertal Ballroom Bliss Soweto was supported by the Ministry of Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia as part of the Export Promotion Programme 2025, with the kind help of Goethe-Institut South Africa
Photo: deufert&plischke
Visit in collaboration with: Caisa