Biography
SboNdaba Dance is a Cape Town-based non-profit dance company creating professional opportunities for talented artists from under-resourced communities while bringing high-quality, South African-made dance to audiences across the country. Led by award-winning choreographer and Artistic Director Sbonakaliso Ndaba, with Jennifer van Papendorp (Managing Director) and Paula Kelly (Operations Director), the company creates bold and thought-provoking work rooted in South Africa’s cultural heritage and engaging with contemporary social, environmental and global issues.
Through African contemporary dance, music, storytelling, workshops and outreach programmes, SboNdaba Dance explores themes of humanity, identity, belonging, social justice and our relationship with the world around us. From theatres and festivals to schools and community spaces, the company believes that dance belongs everywhere.
SboNdaba Dance is committed to both artistic excellence and social impact — developing artists, creating meaningful opportunities and connecting communities through the transformative power of dance.
Recognition
SboNdaba Dance and Sbonakaliso Ndaba have received significant recognition, including:
JOMBA! 2025 Legacy Artist – awarded to Sbonakaliso Ndaba for his contribution to dance training, education, choreography and creating access to the arts.
Toyota Stellenbosch Woordfees 2025 – Nomination for Dans Beste Prestasie for In Search of Our Humanity.
Toyota Stellenbosch Woordfees 2025 – In Verbondenheid (In Solidarity) Award – recognising SboNdaba Dance’s young artists and the depth and precision of their work.
2025 National Arts and Culture Awards – Nomination for Outstanding Dance Production for !ke e: /xarra//ke – Diverse People Unite.
Synopsis
Bolero Revisited:A Journey of Ancestry, Resilience, and Return
The story of Bolero Revisited begins with a singular, courageous act: the morning after her 21st birthday, Sbonakaliso Ndaba boarded an airplane for the first time. With a suitcase in hand and the weight of her future in her heart, she travelled to train at the prestigious Jazzart Dance Theatre. Under the formative mentorship of Alfred Hinkel, her first professional performance was the iconic Bolero. Decades later, that circle closes. Bolero Revisited is a profound journey of departure and return, a work rooted in the intersection of personal memory, ancestral heritage, and the relentless pulse of rhythm. It revisits the path that shaped Ndaba as a young artist, now viewed through the sophisticated lens of an established visionary and the wisdom of lived experience.
Drawing deeply from her Zulu culture, Ndaba’s choreography finds its heartbeat in the grounded, percussive pulse of African Gumboot Dance. This movement style, born in the darkness of the mines as a vital mode of communication between labourers of diverse tongues, serves as a powerful metaphor for connection across cultures. The work traces the migration from tribal homelands into the industrial roar of the city, utilising ritualistic elements and sticks to ground the narrative in history.
Years after her first encounter with this music, Ndaba returns to create her own interpretation—one that reflects the duality of the artist’s life. The choreography captures both the trembling uncertainty of a young dancer’s initial departure and the grounded authority of a seasoned leader’s return. From these ancestral rhythms, the dance moves forward with the momentum of a train crossing the vast landscapes of time. It gathers stories, movement traditions, and memories, building a lexicon of resilience that is at once powerful, unrelenting, and transformative.
The work evolves into a soaring celebration of cultural identity and renewal. It is a return not merely to a specific stage or a piece of music, but to the deeper, internal rhythms that guide the human spirit. Under Ndaba’s masterful guidance, the company seamlessly blends contemporary African dance techniques with raw human expression, inviting the audience to explore themes of shared humanity and the enduring power of the collective.
