Durban’s FLATFOOT DANCE COMPANY has had a long relationship of exchange with ACE dance and music based in Birmingham in the UK. This has culminated FLATFOOT dancers, Mthoko Mkhwanzi, being invited for a one-year residency with their professional company.
Mthoko Mkhwanzi photo Val Adamson
Mthoko leaves mid-September and is both overwhelmed by the opportunity but also up for the challenge. He says, “I feel so humbled to have been asked to spread my dance wings like this and I know that I will carry the flag of both FLATFOOT and of South Africa. I am ready for this opportunity to grow my skills as a dancer and really thank ACE for inviting me”.
Mthoko hails from KwaMashu and started dancing with FLATFOOT in early January 2010 in its KwaMashu community project, the Siyakhula Dance Programme. In 2011 he was selected to travel with FLATFOOT to Zimbabwe for a culture exchange with CHIPOWA. In 2013 he was selected for the inaugural FLATFOOT career pathing and skills development programme called the Advanced Dance Development programme (ADD FLATFOOT). In 2019, Mthoko was invited to join the main FLATFOOT company as a full-time professional dancer and has done work with Lliane Loots, Sifiso Khumalo, Jabu Siphika and worked with recent guest choreographers to the company Fana Tshabalala, Yaseen Manuel and Vincent Mantsoe.
Artistic director of FLATFOOT, Lliane Loots says, “This is an amazing opportunity for Mthoko. The company will miss him and his unfailing work ethic but this is a chance to stretch and grow that many dancers only dream about. I am humbled that FLATFOOT’s long years of community engagement work can have an outcome like this; that a young dancer can rise and triumph in this way”.
ACE dance and music is a touring company based in Birmingham UK and are internationally recognised leaders in the field of contemporary African and Caribbean dance. With a signature Afro-fusion style they are always pushing the envelope around Black British and Diaspora contemporary identity in the arts and are delighted to have Mthoko join the company for one-year professional residency.
Iona Wait, ACE’s rehearsal director and education officer, says “Mthoko is going to breathe new life into our work - we are so excited to have him!”.
-ends