Like Water acknowledges the resilience of our ancestors, passed down from generation to generation. A world unkind to our people, yet somehow we survive. A world that that has conditioned us to not see the beauty of our skin, hair, culture and our people. But like water we flow, like water we change shape. We remain resilient.
The Director
Mthuthu was born in Cape Town, South Africa and started dancing at the age of 15 with the outreach programme, Dance For All. In 2011 he was awarded a scholarship to attend the Cape Academy of Performing Arts (CAPA), where He graduated with a Distinction in 2014. Mthuthu won a gold medal in the Contemporary category in the South Africa International Ballet Competition as a Junior in 2012, and as a senior in 2014. He has worked with Cape Dance Company under the direction of Debbie Turner, with choreographers including Bradley Shelver and Christopher Huggins. In 2015 he travelled to the UK to perform with Central School of Ballet’s third year touring company, Ballet Central, performing all over the country. Mthuthu is also a choreographer and has won an award for his first professional work “Calligraphy” for the Cape Dance Company 2 (CDC2). He danced in the production of West Side Story before joining BB as First Year Apprentice in September 2015 and was promoted to Junior Artist in 2016 where he created roles in Arthur Pita’s Cristaux and Christopher Hampson’s
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Storyville. He made his first ballet for BB, Interrupted in July 2016 and created his own choreographic platform, M22 Movement Lab, collaborating with musicians, composers and designers to create new choreography for stage and film. Mthuthu got an award as South Africa’s Emerging artist at the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees (KKNK) for his solo work. In 2017 he was a lead dancer in the revival of Martin Lawrance’s Captured, and created the role of The Wolf in Annabelle Lopez-Ochoa’s Red Riding Hood. In 2017, Mthuthu was commissioned by the Cape Dance Company to create a new work, funded by the National Arts Council of South Africa, which premiered at Artscape Theatre in Cape Town. In 2018, Mthuthu created a solo for Precious Adams of English National Ballet, for the Emerging Dancer competition. He won both the 2020 Olivier Award and 2020 Black British Theatre Award for Best Dance New Production for his work Ingoma. This is his first short film production with Ballet Black.
Director Statement
Like Water acknowledges the resilience of our ancestors, passed down from generation to generation. A world unkind to our people, yet somehow we survive. A world that that has conditioned us to not see the beauty of our skin, hair, culture and our people. But like water we flow, like water we change shape. We remain resilient.
Narration
OPENING TEXT
Mntana we langa (Children of the sun)
Camagu (Gratitude) awusemhle mntanedlozi. (you are beautiful)
You who walks with the ancients, the ones who walked before, before and before was a thing. Radiant, proud, magnificent adorned by the sun. Surely there has been no greater love.
A love that lights you up from the inside langa.
There are those that are envious of that very light. You see it in their admonishing glooms and glares as you walk by proud, head up to the most high. The very embodiment of the kings who came before, before and before was a thing.
How dare the child of a former slave be so brave. How dare you be so black, so proud. I say how dare you not.
Camagu (Gratitude).
CLOSING TEXT
The spirits of the water have seen a great many things. They have seen a people, captured, abducted and sold over the centuries only to be bought and sold again.
She has borne witness to lifeless bodies washed up, drowned on the shore, no compass to direct them home, the only connection with home being the ocean herself. Does she grievefor the lives lost journeying between her seas? Mothers, brothers, sisters. Others separated by you…others reunited in spite of you.
So again we meet at the water’s shore. This time for healing, for cleansing, for forgiveness. In honour of those who have come before and in honour of ourselves. We too are always moving forward as a people as her people. We have learned the spirit of resilience, of carrying others more than we carry ourselves. We give birth to new heartaches at the start of each new moon. The heartbreak that colours our skin. A colourful swearword in today’s day.
Black.
Narration
OPENING TEXT
Mntana we langa (Children of the sun)
Camagu (Gratitude) awusemhle mntanedlozi. (you are beautiful)
You who walks with the ancients, the ones who walked before, before and before was a thing. Radiant, proud, magnificent adorned by the sun. Surely there has been no greater love.
A love that lights you up from the inside langa.
There are those that are envious of that very light. You see it in their admonishing glooms and glares as you walk by proud, head up to the most high. The very embodiment of the kings who came before, before and before was a thing.
How dare the child of a former slave be so brave. How dare you be so black, so proud. I say how dare you not.
Camagu (Gratitude).
CLOSING TEXT
The spirits of the water have seen a great many things. They have seen a people, captured, abducted and sold over the centuries only to be bought and sold again.
She has borne witness to lifeless bodies washed up, drowned on the shore, no compass to direct them home, the only connection with home being the ocean herself. Does she grievefor the lives lost journeying between her seas? Mothers, brothers, sisters. Others separated by you…others reunited in spite of you.
So again we meet at the water’s shore. This time for healing, for cleansing, for forgiveness. In honour of those who have come before and in honour of ourselves. We too are always moving forward as a people as her people. We have learned the spirit of resilience, of carrying others more than we carry ourselves. We give birth to new heartaches at the start of each new moon. The heartbreak that colours our skin. A colourful swearword in today’s day.
Black.