Mamela Nyamza: Hatched Ensemble

In a captivating choreography with ten ballet dancers, an opera singer and a live musician, South African choreographer Mamela Nyamza creates a poetic and visually powerful universe of new dance history. The dancers balance on pointe shoes with their backs to the audience while Camille Saint-Saëns' famous melody “The Swan” plays. With subtle gestures and great precision, they juxtapose the music and movement vocabulary of different cultures and break down attributions. In HATCHED ENSEMBLE, Mamela Nyamza continues her exploration of identity and belonging, (gender) norms and tradition and not only devotes herself to the deconstruction and disenchantment of classical Western dance history, but also reflects on her personal biography as a Black lesbian mother and artist.

Funny, tragic, touching.