Description

Co-presented in partnership with Dance Immersion and KasheDance!

This three-day workshop offers professional dance artists a rare opportunity to step into the world of Vincent Mantsoe, an internationally celebrated performer and choreographer originally from South Africa. Born into a family of Sangomas (traditional healers/shamans), he will share foundational elements of his creative practice, offering a gateway into his process that requires both spiritual and physical rigour.

Participants will be guided through a series of movement explorations, reflective practices, and embodied rituals to deepen their connection to their craft, and begin experimenting with their own ritual-based approaches to creation and performance. This workshop is an introduction to a life-long journey of artistic and spiritual discipline, and a path to channel intuitive knowledge.

Meet Your Instructor

Vincent Mantsoe is one of South Africa’s leading post-apartheid choreopgrahers. His company Association Noa Company Vincent Mantsoe creates contemporary African work that represents a true global culture of both dances and disciplines. Growing up in Soweto, South Africa, Mantsoe started his dance training at a young age in the midst of the political unrest of the Apartheid. He grew up in a family of healers, combining ritual, song and dance, and has since become an internationally acclaimed performer, instructor and choreographer. Primarily a solo performer, he has performed and also created work for ensembles including Dance Theatre of Harlem in New York City and COBA (Collective of Black Artists) in Toronto.

From 1997 until 2001, Mantsoe was associate artistic director of MID. Mantsoe’s choreography combines traditional African dance with contemporary, aboriginal, Asian, and ballet influences in a cross-cultural Afo-fusion style. Acknowledging the influence of spirituality in his creative work, Mantsoe describes a process of “borrowing from the ancestors,” noting the importance of understanding and appreciating the sources of his traditional movements. Mantsoe has toured internationally, performing at venues including The Kennedy Centre in Washington, DC; the Dance Umbrella in London, England; and Canada’s National Arts Centre in Ottawa. He has won many awards, including top prize at the Vth and VIth Rencontres chorégraphique de Bagnolet (officially the Rencontres chorégraphique internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis) in 1996 and 1998. In 1999, he received the Prix du Peuple at the Festival international de nouvelle danse in Montreal, Canada and in 2015, he received a Dora Award for Outstanding Male Performance.