Hatched Ensemble

The South African activist choreographer and performer Mamela Nyamza grew up under apartheid in the township of Gugulethu, near Cape Town. She trained in classical dance, and choreographed her first piece during further training at the Ailey School in New York. She had already radically deconstructed the idea of the ballerina in The Dying Swan (1999), a piece for which she won a prize in London for her outstanding performance. From that first creation, she has worked to dismantle classical conventions, the failings of artistic institutions, the status of women, and various forms of injustice through innovative, experimental works. In her solo Hatched (2007), which launched her international career, she tackled the challenges of being a woman, an artist, a mother, and a lesbian. Her young son shared the stage with her in Hatched, colouring while she danced. Eleven years later, in the revisited solo that became Hatched Ensemble in 2024, he joined her again, this time rapping. The choreographer expands the idea of motherhood by metaphorically giving birth to a new generation of artists she knows well, having taught in various institutions in South Africa.

As well as choreographing a dozen works—including Black Privilege (2018), for which she was the first choreographer to be named Artist of the Year at the South African National Arts Festival—Nyamza has always used art as a tool for decolonization and education. She notably founded the MAMELA’s ARISTIC MOVEMENT, which provides hands-on mentorship to nurture artists who have been marginalized by body politics. Her work as an activist was recognized with the 2022 Marraines FIDO award at the Ouagadougou International Dance Festival.