October 03, 2005 -

OTTAWA -- Soweto-born Vincent Sekwati Koko Mantsoe returns to the NAC after three sensational sold-out performances in 2002. Mantsoe will perform NDAA and Ntu – the world premiere of an NAC coproduction -- in the Studio of the NAC on Thursday October 13, Friday October 14, and Saturday October 15, 2005 at 20:00. An artist of fierce uniqueness, Vincent Mantsoe is one of South Africa‘s preeminent choreographic voices, world-renowned for his contemporary approach to African dance vocabularies.

Vincent Mantsoe says his works are “rooted in the African philosophy,” and ultimately about culture preservation. “Obviously, we cannot understand [every aspect] of culture, but we can acknowledge [and] accept it.” Although his African roots and his own heritage are always at the fore, Mantsoe’s choreography reflects other influences as well. He combines Asian dance, martial arts, tai chi, and sundry European and North American elements in a unique and powerful cross-cultural fusion of dance. Vincent Mantsoe seamlessly unites history, spirituality, and a phenomenal physical presence in solo works that are electrifying spiritual transformations for both audience and performer alike.

NDAA (Awakening of self) uses innate ritualistic rhythm to travel a landscape of spirituality and sensuality. Mantsoe carries the audience through mystical journeys as we watch him literally transform himself on stage; he begins this dynamic solo by building an internal rhythm that allows him to enter a trance-like state, harnessing breathtaking strength and power into every movement. One can almost see his ancestors dancing with him as he travels through different pathways and spaces to the highest spiritual state. The spiritual dimension reinforces Vincent Mantsoe’s background. His mother, aunts and grandmother are all ‘sangomas’, a mixture of priest, diviner, predictor and healer with powers derived from being the incarnation of an ancestral spirit. NDAA poses questions: are there spirits existing around us that we can’t see or hear? Do we exist between reality and imagination?

Ntu (Nothing) is a new work examining spiritual complexity and the empty human soul.
“I am listening, I am watching, I am learning, and I am Muntu: Ntu
I move through time, time that affects the emptiness of a human soul. Some things can not be explained, like the spirit’s complexity or its simplicity.
Motho ke motho ka Batho A person is a person because of other people” 

“Remarkable. One of the most intense, possessed soloists I‘ve ever seen.”

Dance Europe

“All that he has absorbed flows into his personal responses to the world and to the spirit within. His dances seem like journeys that could well last for hours. Yet the way he lives in every moment keeps you on the edge of your seat.”

Deborah Jowitt, The Village Voice, 2005

“NDAA …is powerful in its simplicity …Mr. Mantsoe's performance is so extraordinarily contained that the end effect is like seeing the shape, the figure, push its way free of encompassing clay.”

Jennifer Dunning, The New York Times

“Mantsoe is a quite phenomenal dancer with the most intricate appreciation of rhythmn…”

Graham Watts, Ballet.Co, London

NDAA (2003)
A CHOREOGRAPHIC WORK BY Vincent Sekwati Koko Mantsoe
LIGHTING DESIGN Serge Damon
LIGHTING ADAPTATION Louis-Pierre Trépanier
SET DESIGN Vincent Sekwati KoKo Mantsoe, Michel Maubert
COSTUMES Vincent Sekwati Koko Mantsoe
MUSIC Southern Ethiopia (Hamar, Nybole), Gabon Bibayak Pygmies (Epic Cantors), Kenya (Music of the Nyanza), the Silk Road (a Musical Caravan), Adama Dramé (Sindi), Ethiopia (Ari Polyphonies)

Ntu (2005)
CREATION and COSTUME Vincent Sekwati Koko Mantsoe
MUSIC Recordings of the Hamar and Nybole of Southern Ethiopia; Songs of the Ancestors, Nguni/Xhosa South Africa; Tsholoza, Famoudou Konate Malinké Music Guinea; Doofendon, Xhosa Woman’s song South Africa; Ingudluma, Sokubendiphinde and Nozolile
LIGHTING DESIGN Carrie Cox

Vincent Sekwati Mantsoe performs NDAA and Ntu in the Studio of the National Arts Centre on Thursday October 13, Friday October 14, and Saturday October 15, 2005 at 20:0. Tickets are $23, and $12.50 for students (upon presentation of a valid student ID card). Tickets are available at the NAC Box Office (in person) and through Ticketmaster (with surcharges) at (613) 755-1111; Ticketmaster may also be accessed through the NAC’s web-site at www.nac-cna.ca. Last-minute tickets (subject to availability) for full-time students are $10 at the Live Rush Centre in the NAC Foyer after 18:00 on the day of performance only, upon presentation of a valid ‘Live Rush’ card. NEW for 2005-06! Groups of 10+ save 15% to 20% off regular ticket prices to all NAC Music, Theatre and Dance performances; to reserve your seats, call 947-7000 ext. 384 or e-mail grp@nac-cna.ca.

Photos for all dance events can be viewed and downloaded at: www.nac-cna.ca/media/

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Information:
Gerald Morris
Marketing and Media Relations, NAC Dance Department
(613) 947-7000, ext. 249
gmorris@nac-cna.ca

VINCENT SEKWATI KOKO MANTSOE
Vincent Mantsoe -- choreographer, performer and teacher -- was born in Soweto, South Africa. In 1997, he was appointed Resident Choreographer and Associate Artistic Director of the Moving into Dance Company, founded in 1978 by Sylvia Glasser.The work of Moving into Dance, a company that greatly contributed to Mantsoe’s artistic development, is an original fusion of African movement, ritual and music with contemporary Western dance forms and music.

Vincent Mantsoe developed a powerfully ritualistic cross-cultural dance fusion by adding elements of Asian dance to European and African styles. After receiving a diploma from the Community Dance Teachers Training Course in 1992, Vincent Mantsoe has gone on to receive numerous prestigious awards and commissions, both locally and internationally, which include Pick of the Fringe Award of the Vita Dance Umbrella in 1992 and 1993, Most Promising Male Dancer for 1993, and in 1994, the FNB Vita Young Choreographers Award.

Gula Matari, danced and choreographed by Vincent Mantsoe, won first prize at the First Contemporary African Choreographic Competition in Luanda, Angola in 1995. In 1996 and 1997, he choreographed for the Main Company and the School Ensemble of the Dance Theater of Harlem, and in 1998 for the Inbal Dance Company of Israel. In 2000, he spent time in Japan working on a project of cultural collaboration with Michel Kelemenis and Takeshi Yazaki, the result of which -- Traduction Simultanée -- was performed at the Dance Umbrella in Johannesburg (2000), in France and in Tunisia. For his solo Barena (Chiefs), presented at the FNB Vita Dance Umbrella, he received the Choreographer of the Year and Most Outstanding Performance by a Male Dancer awards. Following this, the FNB Vita commissioned a new solo, Motswa Hole (Person From Far Away) for their 2001 festival, and in 2002, he created Bupiro-Mukiti (Dance of Life).

Recent works include NDAA (Awakening of self), 2003 and Ntu (2005). Upcoming works include Men-Jaro, to be premiered in 2006.