SOWETO Skeleton Movers are thrilled to finally perform their life-changing dance piece for fellow kasi Sowetans.
The street dancers have travelled all around the world, showcasing their talent and telling their stories through the piece called Unbreakable. Now, they are bringing it to the Soweto Theatre.
The group was founded by Jabulani Manyoni from Molapo and Junior Hlongwane from White City in 2005 because they both loved to dance. They later met Topollo Ntulo from Mapetla, Molefi Rakitla from Molapo and Lerato Motsepe from Emdeni years after they started the group.
Unbreakable, which was created in 2022, is set to premiere at the theatre in Jabulani, Soweto, on Thursday, 8 February, for one night only.
Jabulani spoke to Daily Sun about the show and what inspired it.
“Unbreakable is basically a story that represents our personal life stories about growing up and living in Soweto, from my story to Junior’s, then Topollo, Lerato and Molefi. One of us is an ex-convict, and instead of going back to crime when they were released, they decided to go into dance. One of us fell ill, but they were able to recover and get into dance. We hope to inspire people,” said dancer Jabulani.
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Soweto Skeleton Movers have collaborated with Rotterdam choreographer Lloyd Marengo and London-based theatre director Jonzi D for this piece.
“We met Jonzi in 2016 when we were in London. He took us to a dance festival where we impressed people and made a name for ourselves. We’ve been in contact with him since. In 2021, Jonzi took us to Rotterdam in the Netherlands, and that’s where we met Lloyd.
“We have been working under Lloyd’s company since we met him. We’ve been to different parts of the world, and we’ve done tours in Canada, USA, Australia, Holland and Sweden. And it feels great to be a group from a township and be able to travel to so many countries doing what we love,” Jabulani said.
They got to perform Unbreakable for Majesty King Willem-Alexander, Queen Máxima of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and President Cyril Ramaphosa last year at the State Theatre in Tshwane.
“It was an honour to perform this piece for people of such stature. We’ve travelled the world and performed, but nothing has been as great as that performance,” he said.
