Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Jiva!’ On Netflix, A South African Drama About A Woman Trying To Recapture Her Dance Crew Dreams

Not sure why, but it feels like dramas surrounding dance and music that have premiered in recent years have no joy. Jiva!, a South African Netflix original, tries to remedy that with not only lots of dancing, but a sense of joy around that dancing that we haven’t seen in quite awhile. But there’s also drama. Does that drama bring the show down?

JIVA!: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A shot of the shoreline in Durban, South Africa. A phone alarm goes off and a young woman wakes up.

The Gist: Ntombi (Noxolo Dlamini) lives in the working-class township of Umlazi, near Durban, with her mother Thuleleni (Sibulele Gcilitshana), younger brother Samu (Given Struuman) and uncle Bra Zo (Tony Kgoroge). At one point, she had dreams of dancing professionally, but now, she takes care of Thulelni, who is paralyzed from the waist down, and has a dead-end job at an aquarium in Durban.

On her way to work, she hears DJ Sika (Anga Makubalo) talk about the Jiva Loxion dance competition, something she’s wanted to enter for a number of years, but her mother is happy that she’s done with the “dance nonsense” and is doing the responsible thing for her family. She’s horrified to see that Nathi (Ntuthuzelo Grootboom), her high school boyfriend, is back in town to do the competition, which he won the previous year.

Nathi’s manager tells him that he needs to spice up his reality show; Nathi talks about the girlfriend from high school he hasn’t seen in seven years. The manager says he should reconnect with her to help the reality show. But Ntombi’s memories of their relationship are much more painful, as she tells her bestie Vuyiswa (Cadice Modiselle) over mimosas on her lunch break. She taught him all of her moves, and he basically walked away from her when he started to become a success. Vuysiwa tells Ntombi that they should go to the competition’s kickoff party that night looking fabulous, and shove it in Nathi’s face if their paths happen to cross.

Of course, that encounter happens, and Ntombi is speechless when she sees Nathi. A little later, she flashes back to the night when her life changed forever: The two of them were going out for a dance audition, and Ntombi was the only one of the two who got a callback. But at that moment of joy, her uncle comes by to tell her that her father shot her mother before killing himself.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Tiny Pretty Things, but a whole lot less depressing, with a whole lot less sex. The dance sequences remind us of what we recently saw in the stylized world of Blindspotting.

Our Take: Showrunner Busisiwe Ntintili has created a world in Jiva! that’s full of drama but isn’t dragged down by it. There is a joy to the show’s narrative that is generally not achieved in other dramas that are about people who want to thrive in the world of music or dance. While there are a few dance sequences that seem pulled out of nowhere — Samu and his crew dance in order to help him impress Nolwazi (Zazi Kunene), a girl he likes — for some reason they don’t derail the storytelling, which is quite a feat.

But there is drama, even in places you might not expect. First there’s Ntombi’s memories of Nathi, which seem to be strongly tied to her parents’ tragedy. It’s the reason why Nathi seemingly sees her as just another ex, while the sight of him turns her world upside down. Vuyiswa confronts an ex in the club and tells him that she got sick of bailing him out of jail and lending him money. Even the seemingly benign DJ Sika has drama in his life. The final two storylines are ripe for exploration, but we’re not sure if five episodes will be enough time to give them justice.

Jiva!‘s success comes down to Dlamini’s performance as Ntombi. In the first episode, we were drawn to her whenever she was on the screen, because we saw the pain she was experiencing, especially as she sees Nathi steal the spotlight from her at the end of the episode. The idea is that she’s going to enter the Jiva Loxon competition with Vuyiswa and two other team members, but her family obligations and other drama might get in the way. But the show itself feels like Ntombi’s journey will be as joyous as it is dramatic.

Sex and Skin: Besides Vuyiswa’s party dress, which looks like she’ll fall out of at any second, the first episode is pretty chaste.

Parting Shot: Right after telling Vuyiswa she wants to leave the club, Ntombi sees someone doing a spotlight dance. She goes into the center of the circle and just lets go, a smile returning to her face as she dances. But then Nathi shows up, the crowd runs to him, and she just stares at the scene, flabbergasted at his popularity.

Sleeper Star: Hopefully, we’ll hear more from Ntombi’s mother, played by Sibulele Gcilitshana. She is already distraught over the idea of going out in public in her wheelchair, but we want to know more about the night her husband paralyzed her and killed himself.

Most Pilot-y Line: Zamani Mbatha plays Bheke, a street vendor with a crush on Ntombi, asks her to dance just as she flashes to her memory of her parents’ tragedy. We see he’s uncomfortable when he notices she’s upset, but still says you can dance and “shake it off.” Oof. Bheke, you’re striking out big time, buddy.

Our Call: STREAM IT. The dancing on Jiva! is fun to watch, but the performance from Noxolo Dlamini in the lead role is what will keep viewers hitting the button for the next episode.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

Stream Jiva! On Netflix