Program: Mamela Nyamza's Hatched Ensemble

Cast and Crew Members of Hatched Ensemble

Concept, Choreographer & Director: Mamela Nyamza
Rehearsal Manager: Kirsty Ndamo
Technical Manager: Buntu Tyali
Costume Designer: Mamela Nyamza
Publicist: Khaya Ndlovu

Performers
Opera Singer: Litho Nqai
African Traditional Multi-Instrumentalist: Given “Azah” Mphago
Dancer: Kirsty Ndawo (Rehearsal Manager)
Dancer: Kearabetswe Mogotsi
Dancer: Khaya Ndlovu
Dancer: Thamsanqa Tshabalala
Dancer: Dineo Mapoma
Dancer: Itumeleng Chiloane
Dancer: Noluyanda Mqulwana
Dancer: Zandile Constable
Dancer: Pavishen Paideya
Dancer: Thimna Sitokisi

Ten dancers timidly balancing on the tips of their pointes with their backs turned to the audience, on the tones of Camille Saint-Saëns’ Le Cygne, so opens Hatched Ensemble. While hiding their faces, they display small, handcrafted ironwork sculptures. The captivating choreography is developed by South African artist Mamela Nyamza, known for unapologetically demystifying, deconstructing the history of dance, while trampling on the norms and standards of the classics. Using sparse household materials, clothespins, a clothesline, plastic ponchos and red aprons, the dancers evoke images reminiscent of domestic labor, that evolve in an exceptionally precise and touching way. Referencing both classical Western music, dance and South-African vocal scores, they juxtapose movement vocabulary from their diverse cultures. The dancers convey deeply personal stories challenging race and gender norms, while their movements are peppered with moments of miniaturized ballet, performed with frantic, joyful release. With minor gestures and major sensitivity, a whole universe is opened up, one that dance history would never have suspected to exist, overflowing from urgency and subtle virtuosity.

DIRECTOR’S BIOGRAPHY: MAMELA NYAMZA
Ms. Mamela Nyamza was born and bred in Gugulethu township, near Cape Town in South Africa on 22nd September 1976. From a tender age of 8 years whilst learning Ballet at the Zama Dance School in Gugulethu, Ms Nyamza, knew from the onset that, her love of body movement will eventually bring both prejudice and prestige to her career as a dance-theatre performing artist. Consistently ridiculed by her childhood peers for her athletic built toned body, to the ultimate rebuke and rejection of her natural body structure by her classical Ballet Teachers at tertiary level, Nyamza inevitably was drawn to the POLITICS OF THE BODY.

In the midst of adversity, Nyamza boldly proceeded to graduate from the Tshwane University of Technology with a National Diploma in Ballet in 1994. After acquiring her Diploma in Ballet, Nyamza was awarded a working contract at the State Theatre, in Pretoria. It is during this tenure that Nyamza started to think of radically deconstructing the normative expectations of who qualifies to be a classical Ballerina. In this process, she duly won an audition in 1999 for a prestigious scholarship to study further at the Alvin Ailey International School for Dance in New York, Unites States of America. This is where she co-created and performed a piece: “The Dying Swan” in 1999, which subsequently won her the Dance Umbrella Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Dancer in Contemporary Style in 2000. A vastly accumulated experience in the field of dance, became a solid foundation for Nyamza’s distinction in creation, choreography and directing extra-ordinary fresh innovative works.

By 2007, Nyamza’s fresh innovations had taken shape which led to the creation of the highly acclaimed “HATCHED”, her first work to kick-start her art programme of unapologetically demystifying, deconstructing and trampling on the norms and standards of the dance/classics. Nyamza decisively won the Standard Bank National Young Artist for the Dance in 2011, due to her refreshingly innovative choreography and performance in the art of dance.

Her newest work, “HATCHED ENSEMBLE”, inspired by her solo work “HATCHED”, has already been labelled as a “strikingly original piece, an art installation, a dance performance with communal liberation its chief underlying theme” (The Times, 10 October 2024, United Kingdom); and “Insightful and thought-provoking production, powerfully conveys challenging issues of tradition” (Daily Dispatch, 28 June 2023, South Africa).

All the works of Nyamza, are work-pieces that deal with important socio-political issues of today’s South Africa, and, also do align with both the African continent’s grappling of similar issues, and that of the globe. Nyamza’s main goal is to propel DANCE into the ultimate theatric and genre of the performance art that conveys body politics on all social issues, and not to just entertain, but to edutain. Indeed, Nyamza’s fierce critics allege that she is a “non-dancing conceptual” dancer. In her own words, Nyamza counters: “one cannot separate concept from creation and choreography – they all must go hand-in-hand to yield to a complete performing artist”. Nyamza’s ultimate vision is to create, choreograph and direct more work that would reach the most remote areas of South Africa to unearth young, raw talent in the art of Dance in particular and performance arts in general.

Through her newly formed non-profit company MAMELAS ARTISTIC MOVEMENT, Nyamza has proceeded to fulfill her long held wish to provide a creative home for those unemployed dance artists who have been marginalized due to body politics. Nyamza has also started with grass-roots work by providing mentorship workshop sessions. With this outreach work, Nyamza has already been recognized by being awarded a Marraines Fiddo Award from Burkina Faso Festival International de Danse de Ouagadougou in 2022. With her newly established Non-Profit Company, Nyamza’s vision is to make DANCE, as the genre of the performance art, to convey body politics on all social issues.

Hatched Ensemble was created with the funding from National Arts Council of South Africa (NAC) and Makhanda National Arts Festival of South Africa (NAF).

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