Dreamscapes of memory and self-discovery

In recent years South African and France-based choreographer Vincent Mantsoe’s work has been concerned with reclaiming and capturing his dance as a practice.

With a legacy of choreographic mastery that spans three decades, this seems a natural progression to leave a mark and for his technique to be studied.

The 2023 dance piece Zo!, for example, revisits and recaptures the movement repertoire of his early works Hanano Blessing of the Earth (the 1995 Afro-Asian piece performed as part of the FNB Dance Umbrella Young choreographer’s commissioned work); and Men- Jaro (his 1996 work as the Standard Bank Young Artist Award winner for Dance).

The two works are about animalistic investigations, human bonds and spiritual connections to nature and land. They are preceded by his seminal graduation solo, Gula, which launched his dance career; and the subsequent group work, Gula Matari, inspired by bird movements from his grandmother’s backyard.

With his newest work, Mpheyane’s Dream/Ipupo, created with the University of Johannesburg (UJ) as the institution’s 2026 artist in residence, Mantsoe moulds 30 years of creative and spiritual practice into surrealist storytelling.

At the heart of his dance is the Koba technique. It integrates his dance-making ethos rooted in the spiritual traditions of his ubungoma heritage and African indigenous dance with martial arts and contemporary movement.

It is a language centred on respect; borrowing from the sacred rituals of song, dance and drumming practiced by Mantsoe’s traditional healing grandmother, mother and aunts.

With their permission, for every creation and performance, he transposes the ceremonial elements — such as connecting with ancestral spirits and going into states of trance — onto the stage. A Mantsoe performance is thus a negotiation and navigation of ritual and technique. And a delicate balance of the two. A dance of immersion and control.

The word Koba means to bend. In the spiritual context it denotes bending to the ground for meditation, wisdom and renewal. As a principle of Mantsoe’s dance-making and legacy training, it preserves traditional dance forms within the contemporary. It invites and challenges dancers to tap into their individual essence to explore the full potential of their physical and spiritual selves. For Mantsoe it is how he honours his roots. He dances for self-exploration and self-discovery. For healing, social commentary and storytelling. Working in the way of melding ritual with technique was sparked for Mantsoe when he performed in mentor, Afro-fusion pioneer, anthropologist and Moving Into Dance (MID) founder, Sylvia “Magogo” Glasser’s iconic dance work, Tranceformations. Tranceformations is inspired by San rock art and trance dancing and was created with the MID Company in 1991, which Mantsoe joined through its scholarship in 1990.

Mpheyane’s Dream/ Ipupo is the evolution of Mantsoe’s 1997 solo, Mpheyane, inspired by his grandmother’s storytelling sessions on summer evenings. The name “Mpheyane” is Sesotho or SePedi for “deceiver”. Mantsoe’s primary objective with the work is to preserve personal memories regarding the essence of Mpheyane the character.

“The aim is to conduct a comprehensive examination of this persona. To re-evaluate the character’s attributes by specifically analysing the mechanisms of their deceptive practices, the significance of their spiritual dimension, their capacity for situational control and the core factors contributing to their psychological instability,” Mantsoe says.

He creates a textured and warm dream world with a hanging installation and pockets of white clay on the floor. This helps set what would become Mpheyane’s internal journeying within the frame of the viewer’s imagination.

Mantsoe begins from the ground and he gets up in slow, graceful movements. The gestures that follow signal an opening up of self.

There are also movements filled with boikobo (humility). The Setswana phrase go ikoba means to humble oneself.

There’s a physicality to it. The tenets of Mantsoe’s Koba technique also find meaning here.

He moves to an ambient and beckoning soundscape. As it gets enriched — at times incorporating chants — its sound and vibration command the body, activating inner rhythms. It is in the harmony of movement and sound that transcendent moments are cultivated. Mantsoe showcases spasmic rhythm, birdlike movements at certain points and moves that signify tension and agreement. He balances grace and vigour, working with structure and flexibility.

There are moments of stillness in between with no sound or movement. It is in the silence, when you can hear Mantsoe’s breath or vocalised emotion, that the weight of his dance becomes nuanced. Stillness has a frequency and the rawness of the energies that live in the silence land and fill the room.

The stage changes hue as if to signify the different sequences and moods of the dreamlike scenario. It all feels like conversation. Mpheyane’s conversation with self and his spirits, with Mantsoe’s body as the conduit.

It is memory activated and given more room to expand in the pre-sent. And like a story coming full circle, the show ends as it began — with Mantsoe on the floor in a lotus position. Leaving UJ’s Keorapetse William Kgositsile theatre, allowing Mantsoe to come/calm down from the dimensions his dance takes his body through, one left cleansed.

Mpheyane’s Dream/Ipupo is a work in development which had a one-off show at UJ on October 25. There are still elements to fix, tweak; and ideas to expand. We look forward to the life of the production as it morphs and settles into itself. But it is a work whose soul is intact.