Lliane Loots holds the position of Lecturer in the Drama and Performance Studies Programme at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. She completed her PhD in 2018 looking at contemporary dance/performance histories on the African continent. Loots holds the founding position of Artistic Director/Curator for UKZN’s Centre for Creative Arts’s annual international JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience – a festival that turns 26 in 2024. Loots founded FLATFOOT DANCE COMPANY as a professional dance company in 2003 when it grew out of a dance training programme that originally began in 1994. Loots has written extensively on contemporary dance histories in Africa and is currently working with Prof Yvette Hutchison (Warwick University) on a UKRI funded project looking at dance, disability and citizenship in Africa. Loots was awarded the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres (Knight in the Order of Arts and Letters) by the French government in 2017 for her work (both artistic and curatorial) in the South African dance sector.
Vincent Mantsoe was born and raised in Soweto, trained at Johannesburg’s Moving Into Dance, and now lives in France. His geographical divergences and influences make him an artist whose redefinitions of home and belonging resonate with audiences all over the world. As a descendant of a long line of Sangomas, Mantsoe grew up participating in traditional rituals involving the use of song, dance and drumming which has inspired his philosophical approach to dancemaking all based on the transformation or progressive preservation of cultures in the 21st century. Vincent’s recognition as a choreographer, teacher and performer demonstrates that to be successfully integrated into the performance arena as a contemporary artist, one does not have to disavow one’s cultural heritage. Winner of international and national awards in performance and choreography, Manstoe has created works for international and national dance companies across the globe. Most recently for FLATFOOT DANCE COMPANY (Durban, South Africa) and ACE dance and music (Birmingham, UK).
Moeketsi Koena is the co-founder of newly incorporated Itrotra Art X Connection a newly registered arts platform. He also founded lnzalo Dance Theatre Company (IDTC) and is the Associate Artistic Director for Madagascar’s International Dance Festival I’Trôtra. He is a professional dancer, teacher and choreographer having worked with various institutions and dance companies in South Africa and Europe, including the Pretoria Technikon and the Artisjok Nutwintig Youth Organisation in Amsterdam. Koena’s work as dancer and choreographer is an original fusion of South African Hip Hop (Kwaito), African Dance and Western Contemporary Dance. He studied African Dance with the late legendary Jackie Semela, was Artistic Director of Soweto Dance Theatre (SDT) from 1990 to 1993, and during this time concurrently completed a one year Community Dance Teachers Training Course, as well as two Diplomas in Dance Performance with Moving into Dance (MID). In 1995 and 1996 he studied at the Dance Academy of Tilburg in the Netherlands and from 1997 to 1998 at the Performing Arts Research Training Studios in Brussels, Belgium.