by Thinus Ferreira
Netflix has commissioned another South African original drama series, JIVA! as part of its growing slate of Netflix African originals, following the dance trials and tribulations of the Durban working class girl Ntombi fighting off rivals and battling family problems to succeed in the country's cutthroat performing arts industry.
JIVA! will be produced by Cape Town based production team Blue Ice Africa with Busisiwe Ntintili, Adam Friedlander and Tebogo Maila as executive producers and was created by Busisiwe Ntintili of The Ntintili Factory who will serve as showrunner.
Busisiwe Ntintili is an award-winning writer, director and producer with 20 years of television and film under her belt, including the drama series Intersexions and the box office film Happiness is a Four Letter Word.
Scottnes L. Smith (Hear Me Move, There's A Bluebird In My Heart, Long Street), the award-winning Director Mandla Dube (Kalushi) and the award-winning director Mmambatho Montsho (Emoyeni, Lockdown) will join the directing team of JIVA!.
Bontle Modiselle, dancer, actor and radio personality and Tom London, founder of South Africa’s dance crew Soweto’s Finest, join the creative team as JIVA!'s choreographers.
The JIVA! cast includes Noxolo Dlamini in the lead role of Ntombi, Candice Modiselle, Sne Mbatha, Stella Dlangalala, Zazi Kunene, Anga Makubalo, Given Stuurman, Ntuthuzelo Grootboom, Zamani Mbatha and veteran actor Tony Kgoroge.
Netflix describes JIVA! as "a fun and energy-packed drama series that follows the life of the talented street dancer Ntombi, who while juggling the demands of a dead end job, family responsibility and a rocky love life realises that her dance moves could be her ticket out of her working class neighbourhood in Durban. But first, she must overcome her fears, beat her rivals and sort out the chaos that is her family."
JIVA! is the next African and South African commission for Netflix under the management of Dorothy Ghettuba who took up the position to head up the commissioning of Netflix's African originals in mid-2019 and who is tasked to expand Netflix's content slate from the African continent from Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
Earlier this week Netflix announced a second season pickup for the lukewarm received.drama series Queen Sono headlined by Pearl Thusi and produced by Diprente with director Kagiso Lediga.
Other Netflix African originals in production include its first-ever Nigerian produced, as-yet-untitled 6-episode supernatural series, is first-ever African animation series Mama K's Team 4, and the completed, Cape Town, South African set youth drama Blood & Water that will launch in May 2020.
