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Mamela Nyamza Quotes
born 1976 South Africa
Mamela Nyamza is a dancer, teacher, choreographer, curator, director and activist in South Africa. She is trained in a variety of styles of dance including ballet, modern dance, African dance, the Horton technique, Spanish dance, jazz, movement and mime, flying low technique, release technique, gumboot dance and Butoh.
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19 quotes
In Africa, anyone can dance, en pointe or not
I feel like I had to knock on every door for it to be opened. To come here was a march. I’ve been in constant fights all my life
I’ve turned all of those tools of oppression into beauty and art.
Sometimes it’s good to not have everybody like the work because that is what a work of art is
Some will love it, some will hate it, some will be like, “hmm.” It’s art
Failing is good because you get better at it by doing it
My heart wanted to be at home with the art
It might look like “Wow, she’s living it,” but it’s actually quite hard, to be honest
These women are building a rock to a trophy but this rock could be a woman to
I have been hatching all my life
In the discipline of dance itself, dancers are always put down, and I have fought that throughout my career
Even though I am a dancer, I know my mind goes beyond a dancer when I create
I’m telling stories with my body and that is what inspired me because I wanted to reflect what was happening around me
I come from a background of ballet that does not accept me as a black dancer
I think I’m at that stage where I don’t give a hoot about anything
I do it because if I don’t do it, someone else will
Even though we are made unable, we are not unable
Don’t overdo what you are doing. Calm down, don’t over perform it, don’t perform for me, you know. Be yourself. When you go inside yourself, anything can happen
Questioning a structure that didn’t accept me made me stronger
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