Sello
Pesa
(South Africa)
Sello
Pesa
A dancer, choreographer, and teacher, SELLO PESA was born and raised
in Soweto, South Africa. His work reflects a mix of interests:
contemporary dance, traditional, and vernacular forms. Pesa
started dancing in the streets, in clubs, then for television
and special videos. He was a member of the Soweto Dance Company,
and other groups, touring with them throughout Africa and
abroad (Germany, Holland, Australia, etc.). Pesa began teaching
at the Soweto Dance Project in 1997 and started choreographing
in 1999. In 1998, he was an artist-in-residence at the American
Dance Festival in Durham, North Carolina, and was commissioned
by London’s Dance Umbrella for its Leeds Vertigo Festival.
In 2000 Sello co-founded Inzalo Dance and Theater Company.
That same year, he began working with dancer/choreographer
Valerie Berger from La Reunion who founded Tetradanse in
1996. Pesa left Inzalo in 2002 to continue his collaboration
with Berger in ‘corporeal research.’ Their work—
sometimes choreographed by one for the other, sometimes
made together—is ongoing, and is now performed worldwide.
About
“SAME BUT DIFFERENT”
Sello Pesa (choreographer) was inspired to create “Same
But Different” by the ordinary routines of everyday
life. The show describes 24 hours in a city-dweller's life—the
work-eat-sleep routine—and how people are affected
by others and their actions. The piece looks at the differences
in the same routines.
Sello Pesa reflects: "I am interested first and foremost
in African idioms, in expressing all aspects of the experience
of living here--stories, changes going on, the youth, the
past and the future of our country. I want to explore all
of these through the medium of dance. I don't exclude Western
dance forms, but Africa is my focus of interest."
choreographer
Sello Pesa
dancers
Sello Pesa
Mandla Bebeza
Jean Renat Anamah
rehearsal director
Valerie Berger
technical director
Guy Camphort
production manager
Nathalie Soler
