Kieron Jina

Theatre-maker/choreographer/academic – Johannesburg, South Africa
Participant International Forum 2019

Kieron Jina specializes in performance art, choreography, photography and video art to tell personal stories that are underpinned by activism and to challenge stereotypes. He has an MA in Drama from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Jina was awarded Mail & Guardian’s 200 Young South Africans: Arts and Culture, category for performance art. Furthermore, he was awarded danceWEB Scholarship at the ImPulsTanz - Vienna International Dance Festival. Jina has won multiple awards including the Ovation Award for choreography at the National Arts Festival & the Goethe-Institute International Coproduction Fund to create “Down to Earth” at Tanzfabrik Berlin. Jina completed artistic residencies that lead to collaborative performances and art creations in Brazil, Germany, Austria, France, Réunion, Nigeria, Tanzania, South Korea and Switzerland. He is the founder and curator of Queer Art Night South Africa and is currently touring with “#FemmeInPublic”, “Down to Earth” and “PINK MON€Y”.

Jina is creating more spaces for art that exists for people of colour (POC) and indigenous performance practices from different African regions. Jina is particularly interested in the challenges and complexities of the transitional millennial generation — a generation that experienced the end and fall of apartheid only to be flung into a country still grappling with its own trauma and healing. Jina studies this dynamic particularly in their exploration of the shifting identities of queer people of colour, a group that features centrally in their work.