Mamela Nyamza

Mamela Nyamza is a dancer, teacher, choreographer, and activist in South Africa. She is trained in a variety of styles of dance including ballet, modern dance, African dance, the Horton technique, Spanish dance, jazz, movement and mime, flying low technique, release technique, gumboot dance and Butoh. Nyamza is known for blending styles in a way that challenges traditional standards. Nyamza has performed nationally and internationally and has choreographed autobiographical, political, and social pieces both on her own and in collaboration with other artists. She draws inspiration from her daily life and her identity as a young, black woman. Nyamzas abstract dance style allows her to use dance as a way to share both her own personal stories as well as African stories with the world. Additionally, has created various community outreach projects that have helped to spread the positive influence of dance to different communities within South Africa, including the University of Stellenbosch

Mamela Nyamza was born in 1976 into a large family living in Gugulethu, Cape Town in South Africa. Growing up in Gugulethu had an enormous influence on Nyamzas career as a dancer. She explained that the environment in which she was immersed did not give a choice but to love dance. There was music and sound, all day long, and even in the streets the noise became the music. Dancing became a way for Nyamza to understand all that was happening in the world around her, I used my body as the instrument to react to all forms of sound, whether it be playing, crying, or watching all sorts of things that one can imagine happened in Gugulethu in the 80s.

Source: Wikipedia