Alliance of International Production Houses

HATCHED ENSEMBLE is a poetic and emotionally intense piece: it works with diverse musical movement material from classical Western dance history as well as African dance styles and vocal scores. HATCHED ENSEMBLE is, as the title suggests, a large group piece. The ten-strong dance ensemble with a background of classical ballet training, an opera singer and a live musician pursue the deeply personal and challenging topic of body politics. Nyamza and her performers demystify and deconstruct (gender) norms, exposing sexist and racist ascriptions. Anyone who has ever felt a conflict with or uncertainty about their own identity will feel particularly addressed by HATCHED ENSEMBLE.

Choreographer, dancer, and activist Mamela Nyamza is one of the most idiosyncratic voices on South Africa’s dance scene. Her expressive and courageous works are usually carried by urgent social issues. With HATCHED ENSEMBLE, Nyamza adapts HATCHED, her highly acclaimed 2007 solo piece, an autobiographical work in which the choreographer reflects on her resistant biography as a lesbian mother and artist between (dance) cultures and identities, between tradition and transformation.