Artistic profile
Ntsoana is a dance collective who generates and implements projects framed within socio political concepts, committed to exploring the diverse and evolving South African cultures and cultural practices through the medium of contemporary dance.
Ntsoana was formally registered as a nonprofit organisation in 2006 under the Artistic Directorship of internationally renowned performance artist, Sello Pesa.
Ntsoana performs regularly at festivals such as The Dance Umbrella and has performed several times at other local festivals such as Arts Alive, the HIV/AIDS Festival, The National Arts Festival and Jomba! Contemporary Dance Experience. The company has been invited to perform in Mozambique, the Netherlands, Russia, India, Germany, United States, France and Turkey and has been involved in several choreographic workshop programmes as well as cross cultural, inter disciplinary interventions both locally (in Gugulethu, Johannesburg, Soweto and Alexandra Townships) and internationally in Germany.
Ntsoana’s versatility extends into the realms of performance in alternative spaces; this exploration gives their creations an edge of tension which makes each site specific performance unique. These alternative spaces ensure that dance and performance art is accessible to a diverse audience – performances have been held in spaces such as the Johannesburg Art Gallery, The Alf Kumalo Museum, Hector Pieterson Memorial, The Drill Hall, Museum Africa , Power Park and the Library in Sebokeng. The highly acclaimed 2010 In House Project saw various dance and performance art works performed in Soweto, Alexandra Township and Johannesburg’s Northern Suburbs and was invited to be performed as part of the University of Cape Town’s Gordon Institute of Performing Arts colloquium, Emerging Modernities in 2011.
In order to keep evolving as a company and to challenge artistic practices with in South Africa, Ntsoana embraces the opportunity to collaborate with other artists, both dance based and from other artistic disciplines.
As such Ntsoana worked with Spanish Contemporary choreographer Carlos Pez on the Cross Currents SharpSharp activities in 2008, 2009 and again in 2010, collaborated with performance artist Peter van Heerden and erf {81} cultural collective and visual artist Vaughn Sadie who worked with the company on the commissioned works Inhabitant - commissioned by GoetheonMain for the Dance Umbrella and subsequent tour to the iDans Festival in Istanbul where it was awarded the Critical Endeavour Award, as well as Tshwene ga ipone Makopo – commissioned by the Goethe Institute Johannesburg as part of the project Art in Troubled Times.
Financially Ntsoana survives from festival commissions and project grants and over the years has received funding from the NAC, GAC, NLDTF, Pro Helvetia Johannesburg and the Goethe Institute South Africa.
