Hatched Ensemble
concept, choreography, direction, costume design: Mamela Nyamza
technical manager: Simon King
dancers: Kirsty Ndawo, Sinazo Bokolo, Khaya Ndlovu, Thamsanqa Tshabalala, Dineo Mapoma, Thato Molusi, Mbali Brandt, Thabang Mojapelo, Zandile Constable, Pavishen Paideya, Tumelo Lekana
opera singer: Litho Nqai
african instrumentalist: Given Mphago
duration: 70’
premiere: National Arts Festival, South Africa, 2023
production: National Arts Council of South Africa
co-production: National Arts Council & Makhanda National Arts Festival
Eleven 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”. 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.
Mamela Nyamza, the South African dancer, choreographer, director and activist was born in Cape Town, and has been recently awarded the Silver Lion at the Venice Dance Biennale 2026. The Silver Lion Award acknowledges artists who have transformed, evolved and brought new urgency to the language of dance, infusing it with the vital force of the respective cultures of their origins, deeply connected to the rhythms, landscapes and symbols of ancestral traditions. From the age of 8 years whilst learning Ballet at the Zama Dance School in her home town, Nyamza that her love of body movement will eventually bring both prejudice and prestige to her career as a dance-theatre performing artist. 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. Nyamza boldly proceeded to graduate from the Tshwane University of Technology with a National Diploma in Ballet in 1994. 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 scholarship to study further at the Alvin Ailey School for Dance in New York, where she co-created and performed “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. 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 program of unapologetically demystifying, deconstructing and trampling on the norms and standards of the dance classics. Nyamza 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. Today, through her non-profit organization Mamela’s Artistic Movement NPC, Nyamza has continued her creative struggle, but also fulfilled her long-standing desire to provide a creative home for artists who have been marginalized by body politics. Through her organization, she aspires to use dance – as a performance art genre – to convey messages about body politics in the context of all social issues.
As per the founder and Director, Mamela Nyamza, the vision and goal of the Mamela’s Artistic Movement, is to provide a platform for performance artistry, and a home for those dance artists who are being marginalized due to body politics. The core mission of this organization is to make dance as the genre of the performance art, to convey body politics on all social issues, not to entertain but to edutain. This means, all choreography within the Company 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 globally, to provide relevance to both the practice of the arts, and the daily human experience. Most importantly, the goal is to give a safe platform for those dancers that continue to be discriminated against their bodies, by giving them both their livelihood as artists and employment.
Insightful and thought-provoking production
© Daily Dispatch, South Africa
The body is no longer a simple vehicle of expression, but a medium that crosses history, gender and culture.
© La Republica
“Hatched Ensemble”, a strikingly original piece ... is as much art installation as dance performance, with communal liberation its chief underlying theme...
© The Times
