Seen Here: South African dance visionary Vincent Sekwati Koko Mantsoe returns to the University of Johannesburg with Mpeyane’s Dream/Ipupo, weaving ancestral wisdom, spiritual identity and contemporary expression into a deeply personal journey. His work reminds us that dance is more than movement — it is memory, belonging and culture brought to life through the body. Photo Credit: Supplied
JOHANNESBURG — Renowned South African choreographer and dancer Vincent Sekwati Koko Mantsoe is returning to the University of Johannesburg (UJ) with a deeply personal new creation that journeys through more than three decades of artistic exploration, ancestral memory and spiritual identity.
As UJ’s 2026 Artist in Residence for dance, Mantsoe will present the first rendition of Mpeyane’s Dream/Ipupo in a one-performance-only engagement at the UJ Arts Centre’s Keorapetse William Kgositsile Theatre on Sunday, 25 October 2026, at 15:00.
More than a conventional dance production, the work revisits the foundations of Mantsoe’s distinctive movement language, bringing together traditional African forms, contemporary dance, music and spiritual practice in a search for identity, belonging and meaning.
The residency follows his premiere of Desert Poems at the UJ Arts Centre in April 2025, continuing a creative relationship that provides space for the internationally acclaimed artist to revisit his work, experiment with new ideas and explore how performance can inform higher education.
A dream between past and present
At the heart of Mpeyane’s Dream/Ipupo is a character struggling to understand who he is — a figure whose confusion becomes the beginning of a journey towards his ancestors, spiritual connections and personal path.
For Mantsoe, the production is an evolving artistic process rather than a finished statement. The residency allows him to revisit elements of his earlier work and reshape them through fresh physical, emotional and conceptual interpretations.
“This is a development process. There is nothing concrete yet,” says Mantsoe. “I am trying to shape it like a dream, to tap into different ideas and see how they come out physically and emotionally.”
That openness is central to the work. Rather than presenting a fixed narrative, Mantsoe is exploring how memories, ancestral influences and personal experiences can emerge through the body, allowing movement to communicate what words cannot always express.
The result promises an intimate encounter with an artist examining his own creative history while continuing to challenge the boundaries of contemporary African performance.
Where movement meets ancestral memory
A defining feature of Mantsoe’s work is the relationship between dance, spirituality and cultural inheritance.
Raised in a family of sangomas in Soweto, he grew up surrounded by traditional healing practices and played drums at ceremonies alongside his grandmother, aunt and mother. These early experiences continue to inform the physical vocabulary and spiritual perspective that shape his artistic practice.
For Mpeyane’s Dream/Ipupo, Mantsoe is composing his own music and designing the set, giving him greater control over how movement, sound and space interact.
The music draws on isiXhosa sounds, connecting the character’s dream journey to a spiritual world rooted in the choreographer’s own background.
“The music links to the spirituality, because this is who I am and where I come from,” he says. “I come from a family of Sangomas. Without that, I would just be creating for the sake of creating.”
For Mantsoe, these cultural connections are not decorative references or theatrical devices. They form part of the foundation from which his work emerges.
He is equally conscious of the responsibility that comes with bringing traditional practices into contemporary performance.
“These are sacred movements that I am using on stage and in rehearsal,” he says. “I have to treat them with respect, understanding where they come from and what the implications are.”
That commitment to cultural understanding places questions of heritage, artistic responsibility and interpretation at the centre of the production.
A living archive for future artists
Mantsoe’s UJ residency also carries an educational dimension. He intends for the new work to become a case study through which students can examine the evolution of his practice, interpret his creative decisions and learn from the relationship between movement, culture and personal experience.
The production extends his longstanding exploration of teaching approaches informed by sangoma ritual practice, creating opportunities to consider how indigenous knowledge systems can contribute to contemporary dance education.
By revisiting more than three decades of creative work, Mantsoe is not simply looking back. He is examining how an artist’s methods develop over time and how those methods can be questioned, adapted and passed on to future generations.
For students encountering the work, the process offers insight into choreography as an ongoing investigation rather than a sequence of finished performances.
It also opens a broader conversation about how African cultural knowledge can be engaged with thoughtfully within higher education and contemporary artistic practice.
Three decades of pushing dance beyond boundaries
Born in Soweto in 1971, Mantsoe developed his early interest in dance through youth clubs, music videos and street dancing before receiving a scholarship to Moving Into Dance Mophatong in 1990.
The pioneering multiracial dance company, founded by Sylvia Glasser, became an important part of his development. Mantsoe later served as its associate artistic director from 1997 to 2001 before establishing his own company.
Over the years, he has developed an Afro-fusion style drawing on traditional African dance, contemporary movement, ballet technique and Asian martial arts.
His solo works include Gula, Mpheyane, NTU and Skwatta. His choreography has also reached international stages through work created for Dance Theatre of Harlem in the United States, Skånes Dansteater in Sweden and ACE Dance and Music in the United Kingdom.
His achievements include first prize at the Rencontres chorégraphiques de Bagnolet in 1996 and 1998, as well as the Prix du Peuple in Montreal in 1999.
This international recognition has accompanied a practice rooted in South African identity — one that continues to bring different movement traditions into conversation without losing sight of their cultural origins.
An invitation to experience something deeper
For Mantsoe, the measure of a performance extends beyond technical execution or entertainment. He wants audiences to encounter something that resonates beyond the theatre, prompting reflection and an emotional response.
“My work is not light. I want to penetrate and go deeper into the core,” he says.
“The ancestors are talking to me in different ways, and I portray that without guilt and without reservation. It goes beyond entertainment. People have to be moved by something higher than themselves.”
That vision gives Mpeyane’s Dream/Ipupo its central emotional charge. The work invites audiences to consider identity not as something fixed, but as a continuing relationship between personal experience, cultural inheritance and the unseen influences that shape who we become.
Its one-performance-only presentation also offers a rare opportunity to encounter the work at a formative stage, as Mantsoe continues to explore and refine its physical and emotional language.
Johannesburg’s creative landscape takes centre stage
The residency forms part of UJ Arts & Culture’s broader commitment to presenting established and emerging artists through programmes that connect university life with Johannesburg’s wider cultural landscape.
As a division of the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture, UJ Arts & Culture provides platforms for students, staff, alumni and the public to engage with Pan-African and international artistic practice across disciplines.
Mantsoe’s return reflects the value of bringing an internationally recognised South African artist into a university environment where performance can be experienced both as art and as a source of knowledge.
For audiences, the production offers an opportunity to witness an artist revisit the roots of his creativity while asking questions that remain deeply relevant: Where do we come from? What shapes our identity? And how do we carry the past into the future?
In Mpeyane’s Dream/Ipupo, Mantsoe turns the stage into a space where movement becomes memory, dreams become a search for identity and ancestral connections inform the possibilities of contemporary dance.
Performance details
Production: Mpeyane’s Dream/Ipupo
Artist: Vincent Sekwati Koko Mantsoe
Date: Sunday, 25 October 2026
Time: 15:00
Venue: Keorapetse William Kgositsile Theatre, UJ Arts Centre
Tickets: R150 via Quicket
For more information about UJ’s arts programmes, visit UJ Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture.
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