Mamela Nyamza HATCHED ENSEMBLE South Africa

Internationally renowned choreographer Mamela Nyamza makes her Barbican debut, assembling 10 dancers, an opera singer and an African traditional multi-instrumentalist to perform the UK premiere of HATCHED ENSEMBLE, her urgent and subtly spectacular work.

Clad in costumes covered in clothes pegs and balanced timidly en pointe while Camille Saint-Saëns’ The Swan plays, the dancers challenge gender norms while juxtaposing references to Western classical dance and music, with South African vocals.

Mamela Nyamza has won many accolades for her activism-focused creations. HATCHED ENSEMBLE continues her work which unapologetically demystifies and deconstructs the history of dance, interrogating the accepted norms of the classics.

Credit Esa Alexander

South African choreographer Mamela Nyamza, trained in ballet at Zama Dance School in Gugulethu, went on to attain a formal National Diploma in Ballet at the Tshwane University of Technology, and continued at The Ailey School in New York, deconstructs classical dance in groundbreaking works like The Dying Swan (1998) and Hatched (2007). Her pieces challenge norms with autobiographical themes and address social injustices in works like Black Privilege. Nyamza’s accolades include recognition at the Makhanda Standard Bank National Arts Festival and JOMBA! Dance Festival as Legacy Artist for the Year 2023. She was named the Standard Bank Young Artist for Dance in 2011 and received the IMBOKODO Award for Dance in 2016. Invited to participate in events around the world, she aims to use dance for social commentary through her non-profit company, MAMELAS ARTISTIC MOVEMENT.