JOHANNESBURG : Thato Qofela first performed 'pantsula', a symbol of Black South African culture and resistance to the apartheid regime, in his childhood backyard. Now, he is helping to revive the dance style and take it on to the global stage. The quick-stepping, energetic and syncopated dance originated
JOHANNESBURG : Thato Qofela first performed 'pantsula', a symbol of Black South African culture and resistance to the apartheid regime, in his childhood backyard. Now, he is helping to revive the dance style and take it on to the global stage.
Pantsula's choreography, including movements mimicking sweeping, playing dice and saluting, meditated on Black South African's everyday experiences and provided a code that performers could use to communicate in a language state police could not understand. Now, Qofela's dance troupe, Via Katlehong, wants to drive a revival of the style, and has taken the dance to the global stage with shows in France, the Netherlands and Portugal.
"For a child growing up exposed around those situations it is easy to get hooked on drugs or crime," the 34-year-old dancer said, adding the backyard pantsula rehearsals led by his brother meant he had no time to get involved in illegal activities.
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