First thing that comes to mind when you hear Broadway is New York City. Flashing lights, world class stages, theater, musicals and of course, stars. Reaching Broadway is the epitome of most creatives such as dancers, musical theater actors, screenwriters and play writers. It’s on these stages that they believe they truly have achieved true greatness. Performers give their absolute best and leave their hearts on these stages. For an African child to have the opportunity to perform on such platforms is our ancestor’s wildest dream.
Meet Mamello, a dancer from Botswana who did just that. In 2018, Mamello through Mophato Dance Theatre had the opportunity to travel to New York and share her art with the world. Mophato Dance Theatre is Botswana’s first afro fusion and contemporary dance company based in Gaborone, founded in 2009 by Andrew Letso Kola. His vision was to establish a dance company in Botswana which will fuse contemporary dance with our traditional African dance and songs. Mophato dance company through a partnership with the US embassy and the Botswana Tourism Organization had the opportunity to perform at the 36th Annual Battery Dance Festival.
“Stepping of the plane and seeing New York for the first time was a humbling moment for me. This is something I had dreamt of but that seemed a bit farfetched. However, here I was, watching my wildest dreams become a reality. I remember we as the team were so excited to finally show what we could do. What we were capable of. But on the other hand we were nervous about the reception and critiques from people about our performance. As an African creative we always feel the need to conform to western styles of presenting our art so we can fit in and be accepted in the industry. But here we were, a group of about 40 people about to take the stage and perform a production called Pula based on our culture as Batswana. We were taking a stand against the misconceptions of how African stories and voices were perceived to be not of a world standard and generally just not good enough. All I can say is when the performance was done and there was a standing ovation and deafening cheers we could have never imagined. In that very moment, heart pounding, sweat drenched and breathless, I knew that we had broken barriers. We had put a dent in the perpetual belief that conformity was a necessity for our stories and art to be validated. We had given the African child the permission to dream.”
Comments