It has been over a year since South Africa and the world lost the dynamite dancer, choreographer, and teacher Dada Masilo. Her spirit and legacy live on through her work, which the Dance Factory — her professional home — continues to uphold.
Trained in classical ballet and contemporary dance, with influences from African movement, Dada was known for deconstructing and reinterpreting classical ballet through an African lens. By bringing her identity, the pulse of Johannesburg, and her probing political eye to the work, she gave a new language to classics such as Giselle and Swan Lake. Through emotion, accessible narrative, and her electric speed, she created visceral works of poignant social commentary.
A Final Work Restaged
With her last work, Dada shifted from ballet to literature with Shakespeare’s most popular tragedy, Hamlet. It has been restaged for the Market Theatre in Johannesburg, as well as Germany’s Staatstheater and Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London, by Dance Factory’s Llewellyn Mnguni, a long-time dancer with Dada.
“I worked with Dada for about 14 years. She inspired me to be myself as a queer Black dancer. Her dance stories need to be discovered by young dancers and artists. Doing this is part of the grieving process for the company. Even in her own works, Dada used dance as a healing agent, paying homage to her family. In doing this now, I’m trying to get to that place. It’s beautiful because we remember her. Her spirit is in the work,” Llewellyn says.
While Shakespeare’s revenge tragedy focuses on Hamlet and his plan to avenge the death of his father at the hands of his uncle Claudius, Dada’s dance interpretation centres on Hamlet’s lover Ophelia, and his mother, Gertrude. She offers these often-silenced characters agency and probes the misogyny of the play within an African setting.
“Dada’s focus was telling women’s stories. The work was still in its infancy when she died. There is still so much to develop, and for the characters to grow,” says Llewellyn, who takes on the role of Gertrude. He has brought a balanced androgyny to the lead characters he has played for Dada, including the Black Swan in Swan Lake and Myrtha, Queen of the Willis, in Giselle.
Continuing the Legacy
Llewellyn aims to honour Dada’s intent while further developing the movement’s potential. Together with Dance Factory’s company director and producer, Suzette Le Sueur, he has enlisted a collaboration with young dancers from Joburg Ballet and Moving Into Dance (MID). They join three members of the original cast, with recorded music composed by Thuthuka Sibisi, Ann Masina, Leroy Mapholo, and Mpho Mothiba.
“The young dancers, who bring a fresh take, represent aspects of Dada’s dance identity. She embraced the tools of ballet, contemporary dance, and African dance, which she loved blending. She always used to say that you have to learn all the rules of the dance forms so you know how to break them. That rings in my head every day when I come to rehearsals. There’s so much to discover in that process — a potential for new, untapped languages of movement,” Llewellyn says.
Llewellyn hails from Mahikeng, with a foundation in Latin and ballroom inherited from his mother. He got a taste of contemporary dance from a class by dancer and actor Lorcia Cooper and fell for it. He enrolled at the National School of the Arts, where he learned a variety of dance styles, including Spanish, contemporary, jazz, and ballet.
“That changed my life. I realised then that I’m a choreographer and started creating dance works for the National Arts Festival while I was in matric,” he says.
“I went to the University of Cape Town’s School of Dance because I wanted a teaching qualification. After graduating, I continued to create dance pieces in Cape Town. Then Dada approached me about her Swan Lake work. I auditioned, and the rest is history.”
Hamlet will be staged at the Market Theatre on 16–17 May. It shows at the Staatstheater Wiesbaden, Germany, on 21 May, and at Sadler’s Wells Theatre, London, on 25 and 26 May.
