The Centre for the Less Good Idea is an interdisciplinary incubator space for the arts based in Maboneng, Johannesburg

 AND 5, 6, 7, 8 ACADEMY

The body is a site of memory. Dance, through the inherent knowledge and language of the body in motion, becomes a medium of recollection, recitation and instruction. It is in the process of thinking through dance that we can begin to uncover, translate and communicate our stories and personal histories.

Led by choreographer, performer and teacher, Teresa Phuti Mojela in collaboration with SO | The Academy for the Less Good Idea, AND 5, 6, 7, 8 is an exploratory and experimental dance mentorship programme.

Comprising six young women dancers from a range of dance disciplines, the eight-week intensive programme includes coaching across key aspects of professional dance practice such as technical training, choreographic skills, administration, marketing and performance. The mentorship was initiated in late 2020, but had to be put on hold four weeks into the process due to COVID-19 lockdown restrictions. The second half of the mentorship resumed in March 2022 and focused on the creation and rehearsal of the dance work, NNE.

For Mojela, the programme was an opportunity to pursue an explorative and embodied approach to mentorship, relying on the activity of dance to guide the mentees through their understanding of themselves and the industry in which they operate. By drawing on the ritual of Koma (initiation), Mojela facilitated a series of performative explorations into the dynamic and complex notions of identity, spirituality and belonging.

Through the literal and conceptual process of initiating oneself through dance – identifying and holding the singular moments, and harnessing the generative qualities of the collective choreographic – the body becomes both an archive of innumerable stories and a means of better locating oneself in the world as a professional, independent dancer.

THE MENTORSHIP PROCESS

For most South African dancers, the key to a stable career in dance is this: find a good dance company and stick with it. And while working for a company can provide steady work and opportunities to perform on stages across the country, or even tour internationally, very rarely are dancers afforded the opportunity to develop their own work, tell their own stories through dance or build careers as independent artists.

Back in 2019, the dancer, choreographer and teacher Teresa Phuti Mojela was tasked with turning her solo dance work Legaga into a duet. Throughout the search for a dancer to fit the role, she’d return to a single question: “What does it mean to be an independent, woman dancer in South Africa?” The query became a formative one in terms of Mojela’s thinking about contemporary dance practice, and ultimately served as the primary provocation behind her collaborative and experimental dance mentorship programme with The SO Academy, AND 5, 6, 7, 8.

For the AND 5, 6, 7, 8 mentorship, Mojela sought to develop a programme that prioritised both the practice and the business of dance. Over the course of eight weeks (split into two programmes of four weeks each), six young women dancers from a range of dance disciplines were mentored across key aspects of professional dance practice such as technical training, performance and choreographic skills. The lesser-taught tools of administration, marketing, and the process of establishing oneself as a professional, independent artist also formed a key part of the programme. 

Thinking through dance

What exactly does it mean to think through dance, to harness the tacit knowledge of the body in motion? With a desire to explore both the performative and the business sides of dance, Mojela pursued an explorative and embodied approach to mentorship, relying on the activity of dance to guide the mentees through their understanding of the industry.

By breaking down her approach to the performative component of the mentorship, NNE – a performance about spirituality, identity and initiation – Mojela was able to identify specific themes such as language, the body and the voice, and use them as tools for instruction and exploration, subsequently tying them back into the practical components of the dance industry. In this way, the performative exploration of locating one’s body in the space – exploring form, style and use of language through dance – was coupled with exercises in personal branding, encouraging mentees to explore their dance style and discovering how this might align with their personal brand.

This approach informed the greater structure of the mentorship programme, as well as its practical and conceptual methodologies. Ultimately, it was the intelligence and instinct of the body, and the innumerable possibilities of collaboration and exploration through dance, that came to define the mentorship process.         

Finding commonality and harnessing the anecdotal

From the onset, establishing a common ground between the six dancers was vital. Fear, uncertainty and a lack of knowledge around one’s cultural and spiritual identity soon emerged as a set of commonalities, and the use of the body as a means of interrogating and communicating questions around these topics became one of the core intentions of the workshop. Additionally, dancers were tasked with exercises in writing, marketing, proposal development and social media etiquette among other practical skills.

For Mojela, many of these themes resonate on a personal level, and the exercises she brought to the programme are borne from her own experience. In 2016, the artist took part in a residency programme in Mpumalanga with the Forgotten Angle Theatre Collaborative. Over the course of the residency, she grappled with another vital question: “What do I want to say?” The query prompted deeper thought on the use of language in her work, the ways in which the body can hold and communicate narrative and what it means to be a truly independent artist in South Africa. Similarly, Mojela’s own foray into freelance practice was led by her innate curiosity. Without much knowledge or experience of the dance industry outside of dance companies, she actively sought advice from colleagues, collaborated with artists outside of her discipline and educated herself on the production aspects of staging a production, even shadowing a lighting designer for a stint.

Mojela considers these to be formative experiences in her own career – means of gathering the tools and knowledge that are now crucial to her own practice. In terms of the mentorship, they become moments of anecdotal instruction, vital tools, points of reference and foundations of knowledge for a group of young dancers still making sense of their own practice.

A collective and collaborative approach to mentorship

Acknowledging and embracing the many ways in which collaboration and education can exist in spaces like The Centre for the Less Good Idea became central to Mojela’s approach to mentorship.

By encouraging the unique contributions of everyone involved in the process, Mojela effectively drove the design and intention of the workshops, while simultaneously identifying and fostering the individual strengths of the mentees. Each day, Mojela selected a specific dancer to lead an exercise or warm-up, ensuring that each mentee had an opportunity to share their work, and that the group as a whole could learn through various ways of working. 

Similarly, an intergenerational conversation among the mentorship participants emerged when the musicians – established and experienced performers – became mentor-like figures to the young dancers. This, like other dynamics established through the mentorship process, came to be reflected in the themes and structures of the performance, NNE.  

Contributing to a legacy of knowledge

It was through an informal but dedicated series of mentorship sessions with The Centre’s Director, Bronwyn Lace, that the AND 5, 6, 7, 8 mentorship was first realised. Through regular meetings via Zoom or Whatsapp, Lace, who is based in Vienna, dialogued with Mojela around the topics of establishing and marketing oneself as an independent artist.

What started as Mojela simply utilising The Centre as a rehearsal space, ultimately became a professional dance mentorship programme in collaboration with SO | The Academy for the Less Good Idea. Plans were put in place in 2020 and Mojela worked closely with members of The Centre’s core team to develop the programme. In particular, it was the Holder of The Centre, Dimakatso Motholo (pictured above, right), who worked alongside Mojela to draft up the budgets, modules, exercises and rehearsal schedules for the mentorship. Motholo holds a Masters degree in Cultural Policy and Management and has a keen interest in working from a place of advocacy, learning how the South African arts industry could function to serve the artist. Over the course of the mentorship, she lent her experience to the mentees, helping them to think through the process of personal branding and marketing.

Later, during the last four weeks of the mentorship, Momenteur of the SO Academy Athena Mazarakis (pictured above, left) lent her skills, both as an outside eye to the programme and as a resource for choreographic practice, administration and overall guidance through the process.

In this way, the AND 5, 6, 7, 8 dance mentorship programme embraced a fluid and generous approach to mentorship where contributions spanned various geographies, generations, skills, languages, insights and identities. The resultant methodology is one that is entirely women-led and with input and exchange from a number of arts practitioners, educators, facilitators and administrators, channelled through Mojela’s dedicated and considered way of working.    

— David Mann

CREDITS:

MENTOR & CHOREOGRAPHER | Teresa Phuti Mojela
MUSICAL COMPOSER | Zandile Hlatshwayo
MUSICIANS | Zandile Hlatshwayo, Paballo Sithe, Nontsikelelo Mfene & Nompumelelo Nhlapo
DANCERS | Dipuo Banda, Zaza Cala, Phuti Chokwe, Princess Mbokazi, Nonjabulo Ndlovu & Tidimalo Phelephe
COSTUME DESIGNERS | Masesi Hlatshwayo & Solomon Mthobeni
MOMENTEUR FOR THE SO ACADEMY | Athena Mazarakis

AND 5, 6, 7, 8 VIDEO REFLECTIONS

Dance as initiation and excavation

For the six mentees of the AND 5, 6, 7, 8 dance mentorship programme, the process was as much about learning the practice and business of dance as it was about developing a deeper understanding of one’s own voice, intention and independence.

Coming into the mentorship from a range of dance disciplines and levels of experience, the six mentees – Dipuo Banda, Zaza Cala, Phuti Chokwe, Princess Mbokazi, Nonjabulo Ndlovu and Tidimalo Phelephe – received technical training and choreographic skills as well as guidance in marketing, administration and navigating the industry as independent artists.

For many of the mentees, the mentorship also became a process of excavation – a deep interrogation into one’s cultural and personal history – channeled through the generative potentialities of the body and the voice. Similarly, the opportunity to develop and share their own stories, as opposed to telling the story of a director or a choreographer, became an invaluable part of their journey through the programme.

Tasked with producing a text on the performative outcome of the mentorship, NNE, the mentees note that it is “…a sacred journey where young girls become women through Koma ya Basadi, an African initiation ritual. This is where you lose your mask and become true to yourself. The piece interrogates one’s spiritual existence. Without understanding where you come from, it is challenging to have an identity. We are a product of our foremothers’ secrets, pain and lies.”

The mentorship programme and the resultant performance, then, can be understood as mirrored processes – a dual project of initiation and self-discovery through the body in motion.

CREDITS:

Teresa Phuti Mojela is a performer, choreographer, teacher, mentor and aspirant director and producer who was born and raised in Ivory Park and Limpopo Province.

A founder and director of Phuti Pedi Productions and Children Saturday Dance Classes, she started her acting and dancing career in 1999 with a community group called Township Mirror Theatre Group based in Tembisa under the leadership of the late Oupa “China” Malatjie. She then studied drama at Paul Rapetsoa’s Institute of Dramatic Arts before enrolling at Inzalo Dance Theatre, followed by Tribhangi Dance Theatre.

From 2010 – 2014 she was a senior dance company member at Vuyani Dance Company under the leadership of Gregory Maqoma and was a dance teacher for Outreach Children’s program and Vuyani Saturday Academy. In 2015, she joined Moving Into Dance, where she was a teacher and a dancer.

Over the years, Mojela has performed in countless productions and festivals both locally and internationally. Experimental and interdisciplinary collaboration is central to her practice. She has worked with choreographers, directors, artists and writers including William Kentridge, Themba Mbuli, James Ngcobo, Leila Henriques, Shanell Winlock, Sello Pesa, Napo Masheane, Bronwyn Lace, Billy Langa, Ntshieng Mokgoro, Phala O.Phala, Jerry Mofokeng, Robyn Orlin, Jayspree Moopen, Margaret Mokoka, Mark Hawkins, Moeketsi Koena, Alfred Hinkel, Sylvia “Magogo” Glasser, Florent Mahoukou, Javier Velazquez Cabrero and Eric Trufas.

The AND 5, 6, 7, 8 mentees were Dipuo Banda, Zaza Cala, Phuti Chokwe, Princess Mbokazi, Nonjabulo Ndlovu and Tidimalo Phelephe.

Athena Mazarakis is the Momenteur for the SO Academy.

INITIATION AS A LIFELONG PROCESS: SPIRITUALITY AND IDENTITY IN NNE

A procession of sound and colour opens the performance of NNE. Offstage, four musicians lead from behind while the dancers file in slowly, cloaked in red and stomping out a soft, but enduring rhythm. They move together, into the low light of the stage, and a conversation emerges: a performative reflection on the process of initiation.

Shown at The Centre for the Less Good Idea in April 2022, NNE is the performative outcome of AND 5, 6, 7, 8, the SO Academy’s debut dance mentorship programme, led by choreographer, performer and teacher, Teresa Phuti Mojela.

NNE is fundamentally a performance about the ritual of Koma (initiation). As Mojela explains in her opening remarks, however, this is not an initiation that is specific to a particular culture, region or religion. Rather, it is open to interpretation – a collective reading of the many ways in which women experience initiation in their lives, be it going to school, going to university, leaving one’s home for the first time or taking part in an experimental dance mentorship programme.

NNE is the result of an eight-week mentorship programme. Started in late 2020, the process saw six young women dancers being mentored in technical training, choreographic skills and performance, and other vital aspects of professional dance practice that are rarely taught in dance schools and companies, such as administration, marketing and navigating the industry as a professional freelance artist. After the first four weeks, the programme was waylaid by the COVID-19 pandemic, only to resume in March of 2022. This time, Mojela focused on the creation and rehearsal of the dance work.

The resultant performance is a rich and complex one, holding at its core notions of identity, spirituality and cultural belonging. Choreographically, the piece favours the cyclical and the invocative, allowing for a series of performative explorations that attempt to reveal the many layers of these aforementioned notions of identity, spirituality and belonging.

The relationship between music and movement, and musician and dancer is vital, too. Both original and traditional compositions from across the African continent are present in NNE, incorporating nguni languages as well as TshiVenda, Xitsonga and SePedi. In this way, rituals of initiation and notions of identity are explored and effectively contested through language and music alike. Music activates the dancers, but it also establishes the narrative dynamic between youth (dancers) and elders (musicians), initiates and leaders. Through the use of music, the performance is able to shift tone in an instant, giving way to a series of generative and engaging tales in the short form.

As Mojela explains, the mentorship and the initiation process explored in NNE are essentially mirror processes and this can be seen, overtly, in numerous instances in the performance. The role of the elders played by the musicians of NNE, for example, is not dissimilar to the role they occupied during the mentorship process, often guiding and instructing the dancers, musically, thematically, practically.

There are certain minutiae from the mentorship that have informed the structure of the performance, too. The pursuit of one’s identity and subsequent singularity, for example, gave rise to a number of distinct solo moments in the performance, in addition to informing the collective choreographic moments that characterise much of the work. In the case of the latter, it is less a cloistering, than a collective galvanizing. As much as initiation is a process of better discovering oneself, posits the work, it is also a process that involves communal rite and ritual.

Crucially, the performance is about the pursuit of truth. It is an interrogation of one’s spiritual identity, one’s point of origin and how this might be influenced or obscured by those who came before us. In NNE, however, the truth has no end point and learning is forever cyclical, always multi-influential. Initiation, then – much like the process of making sense of one’s identity and place in the world – is a lifelong process.

– David Mann

CREDITS:

MENTOR & CHOREOGRAPHER | Teresa Phuti Mojela
MUSICAL COMPOSER | Zandile Hlatshwayo
MUSICIANS | Zandile Hlatshwayo, Paballo Sithe, Nontsikelelo Mfene & Nompumelelo Nhlapo
DANCERS | Dipuo Banda, Zaza Cala, Phuti Chokwe, Princess Mbokazi, Nonjabulo Ndlovu & Tidimalo Phelephe
COSTUME DESIGNERS | Masesi Hlatshwayo & Solomon Mthobeni