SKH Dance Open Lectures: Mmatumisang Motsisi

Fish out of Water: Co-creating belonging through site-orientated performance

There are many definitions linked to belonging, most of which acknowledge that belonging is “relational and complex”. Relationality refers to belonging as a practice of being related to people or place. Authors Vanessa May and Stewart Muir define it as a “process of creating a sense of identification with, or connection to, cultures, people, places and material objects”. Researcher Nira Yuval-Davis puts forth a social and political understanding that differentiates between three facets of belonging, namely, place, people and positionality. Using this concept of belonging I reflect on the process of creating two site-orientated student productions namely, At Her Feet written by Nadia Davids and co-directed by Tiffani Dlamini as well as #MirrorBall co-created by lighting designer, Alex Brits. 

Mmatumisang Motsisi

Mmatumisang Motsisi is a theatre-maker, educator and performer based in Stellenbosch, South Africa. She facilitates meaning-making through the body as the primary means of discovery, exploration and expression. Her work emerges from a curiosity around People, Place and Positionality. She is currently pursuing a Dual Award PhD in Higher Education at Stellenbosch University and Coventry University.

SKH Dance Open Lectures

SKH Dance Open Lectures is a recurring lecture series where we welcome the public to join in as dancers and academics associated with the dance education at SKH share their work and ideas in a variety of forms and formats.

2022

• 27 januari Decolonizing the body - a question of technique, Thomas Talawa Prestö
• 15 februari Grief and the Dancing Body: Creating in the midst of times of loss, loneliness and injustice, Phyllis Akinyi
• 8 mars Jibz Cameron a.k.a. Dynasty Handbag.
• 11 april Eugenia Cadús
• 25 april Donald Molosi 
• 14 september Florence Peake
• 13 October Una Bauer
• 1 November Femke Snelting and Jara Rocha
•  9 November Nora Bateson

2023

• 23 January Sara Manente
• 22 March Amanda Pina
• 10 October Mmatumisang Motsisi