South African dancer Mamela Nyamza revived a 30-year-old dance festival to help local artists connect with the rest of the world. 



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An eight-year-old graces the pulpit of her hometown church
capturing the attention of the congregants with her nimble dance moves. Little
do they know she would go on to dazzle audiences on some of the world’s most
prolific stages.



As the deputy artistic director of the South African State
Theatre, it all still feels like a dream for the award-winning contemporary
dancer who never imagined her passion for dance would lead her here. 



Mamela Nyamza owes it all to her childhood.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">Your upbringing will always find a way back to your artistic life.</blockquote>



From running in the rain to dance classes, with a leotard
packed into a plastic bag, to curating one of the biggest dance festivals in
South Africa, Nyamza is hoping to transform the art form in Africa.



Sitting in her office in South Africa’s capital Pretoria,
she understands the responsibility of her position.&nbsp;&nbsp; 



“I know how important it is for people to come and showcase
their work in this theater because I came from a space where doors were not
opened for me. The space I come from has taught me a lot as an artist and it
has actually made me the artist I am today because everything I do will always
reflect&nbsp; that life,” she says. 



She hopes to merge the line between art and life by curating
the Dance Umbrella Africa Festival. 



The festival, formally known as Dance Umbrella Johannesburg,
which downed its curtains in 2018 due to lack of funding, has been revived by
Nyamza to incorporate a continental approach towards contemporary dancers. 



She took it upon herself to revive the program that gave her
an opportunity at the start of her career. 



“I cannot sit back and watch a festival that groomed many
artists in this country close in front of me while I am watching. If it was not
for Dance Umbrella, I would have never performed internationally,” she says. 



For Nyamza, the festival brought programs to South Africa
which opened a gateway for artists to connect with the rest of the world,
allowing them to showcase their body of work on international stages. 



Institutions that support the dance community are needed to
assist both aspiring and established dancers, she says.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="928" height="612" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Dance4.png.png" alt="" class="wp-image-40784" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Dance4.png.png 928w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Dance4.png-300x198.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Dance4.png-600x396.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Dance4.png-768x506.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 928px) 100vw, 928px" /><figcaption>Do I Look Pretty by Chandré Bo, a dance theatre production that explore the notion of &#8216;pretty&#8217;. Picture: Gypseenia Lion</figcaption></figure>



“You cannot do it alone; you need these structures to help
you help others. Our role here is to serve the patron, the audience, the
artists and everybody.” 



The position seemed daunting to her, at first, but she soon
realized it was time for change in the industry. 



An office job has not tethered the artist’s free spirit.



&nbsp;“I was not going to
leave the industry; it is all about leading the industry. I still go out there
and work, I still practice my art and I feel, as an artist, I have done Mamela
a lot. So why am I still holding on to me? It is time to give back. Right now,
being here, I feel like there is a reason for being here. I feel like this is a
calling.”



Heeding the call to make a difference, Nyamza, who is
dressed in African print, recollects the challenges she faced when she turned
her hobby into a profession.



As a black woman, taking it on as a career was the hardest part, thus turning a love into a strange relationship. 



Being the only black woman in her dance classes made her
feel like “the other” at all times.



“It [ballet] was not accepting me as a black woman. It made
me&nbsp; interrogate [ballet] as an artist.
Hence, most of my work will always go back to ballet,” she says. 



“I was deconstructing something that I know. I was not just
talking about ballet, I was deconstructing something that did not accept me as
a black woman or did not accept my body.”



This interrogation is reflected in most of her work. 



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Surprised by the high number of artists in their early 20s
who showcase their work at the State Theatre, Nyamza applauds the
transformation that has made these spaces accessible since her early 20s. 



A kind of access she had to fight for.&nbsp; 



“Right now, my son does not know that we used to walk while
it was raining to go to ballet classes. We were not dropped off in cars. It was
not easy, it was something you did for love and that is when passion is
created. Because of the different times that we come from, it took me years to
even put my work at the Artscape [Theatre Centre in Cape Town]. You always look
at these differences and not that you are against them, you always just say
‘wow, this is great’.”&nbsp; 



As much as there has been the incorporation of digital
innovation to ease access to dance and performance, the need for live theater
will always be imperative for her.



“There will always be a need for live art because it touches
different parts [of us]. When something is live, you remember the liveness of
it, the body of it. With technology, you can see it [a performance] there and
also have it here, it is easy access but a live body is not easy access and
that is what people forget. You have to go out there, pay money, support and
watch it live because that live memory stays with you,” she says. 



“As artists, it is hard for us to say, ‘here’s my DVD’ and
as artists who perform outside of the country, people ask ‘can you show me
something online?’. I tell them that they can see me online but it is not the
same. It is never the same. It is all about liveness and experiencing it live.”



The upside is that it opens the window of opportunity for
African artists on international stages, which, at times, may pose cultural
barriers.



“By being a solo artist, it has been easy for international
people to get the whole history of South Africa from one artist and you don’t
have to bring the whole [cast of] 80 people to talk about the story. It is easy
because you are in South Africa, you are South African. Your work is South
African. How you do it is up to you because you are an artist and as an artist,
you can interpret your work in any way.



“When showing your work, there is already the assumption
that you are from Africa and you need to do celebratory work or ceremonial work
and if you don’t do that, there is a question of, ‘I did not accept that from
an African woman’. There are so many ways people engage with us as artists
coming from Africa,” Nyamza says. 



At times, it was easier for men to succeed in the industry,
she says. 



“When we came as women, we didn’t entertain too much. There
was an element of [not all men, some], ‘we are men showing six packs and the
body’ and actually giving exactly what the other wants to see. With women, we
came with issues that needed to be interrogated and debated. We provoked things
and sparked some conversations that will stay with people. We were talking
about things that are happening in our country and became the window to our
country.”



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="927" height="612" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Dance5.png.png" alt="" class="wp-image-40785" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Dance5.png.png 927w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Dance5.png-300x198.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Dance5.png-600x396.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Dance5.png-768x507.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 927px) 100vw, 927px" /><figcaption> Do I Look Pretty by Chandré Bo at the State Theatre. Picture: Gypseenia Lion </figcaption></figure>



But back home, the locals are still grappling to understand
the art industry, leaving artists like Nyamza with a greater popularity beyond
African shores. Locally, she feels the audiences are not as supportive and open
to attending live shows. 



“At home we don’t have that culture of knowing what is good
and understanding our own artists. It is not something our people have grown up
with. Much like me studying dance was questioned as ‘what else do you do?’
Nobody will know that I am an international artist. They know us
internationally but at home they will ask ‘who is Mamela?’ Not that I want them
to know. I am an artist, I just do my work and it speaks for itself.”&nbsp; 



Looking at the growing interest for ballet-dancing among
black people in South Africa, Nyamza argues that ballet is moving away from the
traditional format of only wearing pink tutus and has become more accessible,
thus allowing locals to make their own interpretations of the artform. However,
the lack of continuity concerns her.



“I always see young black kids doing ballet and then later
on there are none. Where are they? What happened to them? But then again, I
think this situation is because we don’t have many black female dance teachers
who these kids can relate to and aspire to be.” It is a fact most artists and
art managers agree on.



The Forgotten Angle Theatre Collaborative managing and artistic director PJ Sabbagha says the arts are socially marginalized but it is the artist’s responsibility to change the way it is viewed. Through exposure in his community-based work in Mpumalanga, Sabbagha has realized that an appreciation for the arts is increasing. 



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="924" height="614" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/dance8.png.png" alt="" class="wp-image-40840" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/dance8.png.png 924w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/dance8.png-300x199.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/dance8.png-600x399.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/dance8.png-768x510.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 924px) 100vw, 924px" /><figcaption>6&#215;7 Feet Dimension, named after Nelson Mandela&#8217;s prison and the size of the bedroom in Winnie Mandela&#8217;s house, is a play about the love letter they wrote to each other. Picture: Gypseenia Lion</figcaption></figure>



“The art is very alive in communities and so is dance, in
various forms. We still live in a world where people don’t view the arts as
being real. They view it as a hobby or part-time activity. It partly has to do
with the way art has positioned itself and also the way society views the arts,
it has, basically, never really been seen as a real economic driver with
potential for social change. 



“The older generation doesn’t see how people’s lives are
impacted through the arts. They can earn an income and that it can be a
meaningful career or that it can benefit society. Although, things have
changed, the economy in the country does not help; there is less investment in
the arts because we need to save failing infrastructure,” Sabbagha says.



These are nagging concerns to answer. Because the work of
many unknown artists is based on personal impact and interpretation, it becomes
challenging to assess what art in small pockets of the world mean to those
viewing it. Perhaps, the greater question is, what can be done to get people
interested enough to attend an art show? Should it all lay at the feet of
artists or should people be more proactive about who and what they view?

Tag: mamela nyamza

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

‘There Will Always Be A Need For Live Art’