Profile, Dance & Physical Theatre
Interview & Review
By Ndalo Mbombo
Among the artists on this year’s NAF program was Oscar Buthelezi. The award-winning physical theatre practitioner and dancer has been performing since the early age of six years. Buthelezi joined a Cue reporter in the shade under the bustling leaves just outside the Rhodes Drama Department – to share his valuable insight on dance, physical theatre, the Festival, the importance of the arts and the vulnerability of being a creative.
Growing up in a household where his father had to be more present than his mother could be because of work, Buthelezi said that he was moulded into a responsible little boy faster than most. “My mother was working out of town and would come home once a month, so I was taught to be responsible at a very young age.” He draws from the exposure and experience he has in the different dance styles, inspired by the foundation of his interest in dance, his childhood. His mother, much like many South African women, was a domestic worker. She worked for white people, and they would say, “If your kids are free, bring them on a Saturday so they can join us for activities”, which exposed him and his brother to diverse extracurricular activities. “So I fell in love with dance”, he said. Relocating to his grandmother’s house at the age of six exposed him to the community dancing group, which introduced him to pantsula, which layered itself onto the ballet he already knew.
“My father would always say you will only dance with your mom, not when you are with me”, he said, so it was only during the visits with his mom that his love and skill in dance grew despite his father’s disapproval. “He is your typical Zulu taxi owner, and when he thinks business, he thinks about what will benefit the family”, he said, smiling fondly. He added tap dance to his growing dance style, which led him to enrol at Moving into Dance in 2010 to learn all African dance styles. Buthelezi said, “So all the African dance styles were filled with the feeling of contemporary dance, so I grasped that.” It was after this that he sat himself down to think about how to dance in such a way “that my work will be loved.” What the audience experiences on stage now is the smoothly blended version of all the different dance styles, merged with the strengthening moves he borrows from the gym enthusiast in him.
His work on and off the stage surveys and speaks to various themes that are relevant to the ongoing conversations in society, which affect people’s daily lives – identity and connection to one’s ancestry, the echo chambers humans bind themselves to because of comfort and fear, as well as education. He said, “I am trying to create shows that can challenge those obstacles and boundaries we are faced with.” Evident from his speech, Buthelezi values collaboration and finds being afforded opportunities to collaborate empowering and impactful for creatives. Examples of some of his award-winning works include Shadow Graves and Stuck Souls, and two of the works he performed at this festival, Izithukuthuku: The Tattered Soul of the Worker and Road. Each of the aforementioned works testifies to the boundaries his works challenge and the collaborative efforts he makes.
His work spans beyond global stages – it trickles backwards into disadvantaged communities and schools. He is the founder of Oskido Dance Movement Projects, which was established to give back to the community by enriching young minds. Buthelezi commits to visiting schools and telling stories through physical theatre that emphasise the academic content in the syllabus today. “There is less education through the arts and about the arts, it’s mostly theory, and so when schools call me to give a workshop that will show learners what theatre is through theatre, which could change their mind about theatre, I am eager to show up”, he said. Buthelezi emerges on countless stages around the world, ready to take the stage as a dancer and as a dance facilitator with grace and grit.
