Thobile Maphanga is a South African dance practitioner, scholar, writer, educator, and creative collaborator passionate about her continent and finding more holistic solutions to resolving issues of well-being and full living through the arts. She enjoys working across multiple sectors as she believes solutions can be sourced from varied understandings of the world and how people see and experience it. She believes many secrets to current issues lie in the complex simplicity of nature’s cycles and movement and that an alignment to our most natural and honest selves is key. Holding a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Information Systems and Drama from the university currently known as Rhodes University, she obtained an Honour’s degree in Drama and Performance Studies summa cum laude from the University of KwaZulu Natal in 2021. She is currently reading and researching for her Master’s degree where her research preoccupation is with Black Female herstories and how womxn are ‘writing’ themselves into history now.
Mamela Nyamza was born in Gugulethu township in South Africa. From the tender age of 8 years she studied Ballet at the Zama Dance School in Gugulethu, and proceeded to graduate from the Tshwane University of Technology with a National Diploma in Ballet in 1994. After studying she was awarded a contract at the State Theatre, in Pretoria. During this tenure, Mamela started to think of radically deconstructing the normative expectations of who qualifies to be a classical ballerina and, in this process, (in 1999) she was awarded a prestigious scholarship to study at the Alvin Ailey International School for Dance in New York. She was awarded the Standard Bank Young Artist award for the Dance in 2011, and continued her innovative choreography and performance. Her original HATCHED (which was created in 2007) was her first work to kick-start her long obsession of unapologetically demystifying, deconstructing and trampling on the norms and standards of the dance/classics. Recognised globally for her innovative and deeply intersectional and political dance-making, JOMBA! celebrated her as the JOMBA! Legacy Artist in 2023.
Ondiege Matthew is a dancer, choreographer, and DANCE INTO SPACE founder, a group of contemporary dancers, socially engaged performance artists, and the only mixed ability contemporary dance company in East Africa. Through exploring personal stories and employing participatory methods, the company under Ondiege creates touring productions, teaches dance, empowers people with different abilities, raises awareness on human rights issues, and strengthens self-advocacy. DANCE INTO SPACE works with other civil society members, creatives and government agencies, carries out civic education, constitutional education and human rights awareness among citizens in Kenya through the creative arts. As a leading contemporary dance choreographer as well as an activist, Ondiege has been using the mixed ability dance projects as a creative approach to inclusiveness since 2005. The projects address stigma while tackling punitive cultural practices that promote discrimination and basic human rights violations among people with disability. He continues to produce new and original works with his team.