Danceimpressions

Vincent Mantsoe

(The Place Theatre, October 26th, 1999)

The end of apartheid gave South African dancer Vincent Mantsoe the chance to artistic expression, to create his style through merging traditional, African dance with modern and Western traditions.

At the Place Theatre, he begun dancing a bird ('Gula'), with swift, small head and shoulder movements, those measured attacks with no waste of energy that pidgeons do, with frozen quiet moments in between. Deliciously eloquent dance on a simple theme.

The next dance, 'Mpheyance', had a theme of cultural confusion leading to a

"final realisation that an assimilation and appreciation of all these cultures will lead to personal enrichment but only when the link to your heritage is known and restored."