Creating a Dance Legacy

Under enormous political and financial strain the dance community in South Africa has kept producing powerful, relevant and cutting edge content reflecting the plethora of intricate dynamics playing out in this country through the decades.

Through their work, these artists and industry stakeholders have contributed to the political progress of South Africa and the  Humanities at large. The heritage, apart from its immeasurable artistic value, offers a wide range of useful applications to the dance, performing arts, research, arts administration and Humanities disciplines.

Within the various collections lives a history richly nuanced by socio-political South African content spanning from Apartheid  South Africa to current Democratic South Africa. This particular expression of history exists in no other accessible and safe space than with The Ar(t)chive NPC. 

The Ar(t)chive NPC is an independent South African Contemporary Dance and Physical Performance archive based in Studio 53 in the Historical Transwerke Building, on the Constitution Hill Campus in Braamfontein Johannesburg. The Ar(t)chive was housed at WITS University's School of Arts from 2012-2022.

The mandate of the archive is to collect, collate and make available to the dance and research sector a range of materials which have never before been accessible to the public.

The only way to create a dance heritage and legacy is to make what has been recorded available to the public. In so doing we aim to grow the existing body of knowledge on South African Contemporary Dance and Physical Performance through writing, research, events and creative output. It is of the utmost importance that the writing on South African Contemporary Dance and Physical Performance by African researchers and writers take the forefront. Dance history does not belong to any one person or entity. The Ar(t)chive invites all collaborators (dancers, choreographers, companies and festivals), depositors, writers, researchers, potential donors to join in open and collaborative discussions about how we can secure the posterity of the legacy and share it with pride.

Jessica Denyschen (MADA WITS University)
Director of The Ar(t)chive NPC
​CEO Arts & Culture Trust
​Director of Phoenix and Owl Pty LTD

/ Specialised Research

/ Curated Research Packs

/ Video Library

/ Book Library

/ Dance 1/4

/ Book Sales

/ Events

Adrienne Sichel and Mamela Nyamza in discussion at The Ar(t)chive's Dance Umbrella Legacy Colloquium in 2018. Photo by Jessica Denyschen.

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Robin Orlin Skyping in from Berlin to converse with Adrienne at The Ar(t)chive's Dance Umbrella Legacy Colloquium 2018 about her personal Dance Umbrella experience. Photo by Jessica Denyschen.

The origin of The Ar(t)chive

A   lasting   journey

The Ar(t)chive started as an independent South African Contemporary Dance and Physical Performance archiving project in 2012 as an initiative by queer filmmaker and writer Jessica Denyschen. Denyschen noticed a monumental gap in access to South African choreographers and dancers' work whilst completing her undergrad and Masters Degrees at WITS University. Denyschen approached veteran dance writer Adrienne Sichel to collaboratively establish and grow South Africa's first Contemporary Dance and Physical Performance archive late in 2011 and with the support of then head of school Georges Pfruender, The Ar(t)chive was born at the WITS School of Arts. Denyschen and Sichel combined their respective collections and resources to elaborate on a mapping of Contemporary Dance In South Africa, which Sichel had been working on as a Visiting Researcher at WITS from 2010 to 2011 at the invitation of Warren Nebe, founder of Drama For Life. Over the course of 7 years Denyschen and Sichel have grown The Ar(t)chive's collections to include contributions from our country's finest choreographers and performers and in 2018 released Sichel's book, Body Politics; Fingerprinting South African Contemporary Dance, under The Ar(t)chive's banner.

​In 2017 The Ar(t)chive was officially registered as an non profit company with Denyschen as Director. The Ar(t)chive is generously housed at the WITS School of Arts, currently under the leadership of Brett Pyper, in Braamfontein Johannesburg. Sichel, who officially retires in April 2019 will stay active in The Ar(t)chive as a specialist consultant. The research arm of The Ar(t)chive will be headed by dance writer and teacher Tammy Ballantyne.

As The Ar(t)chive it is important to us that the dance legacy of South Africa is honored and that this archive has continuity, drives tangible; creative, academic and socially relevant outputs. As The Ar(t)chive we facilitate access to research materials related to South African Contemporary Dance and Physical Performance. We build relationships with artists, companies, festivals and other stakeholders to make materials available to researchers, writers, academics, students and all who are interested in learning more about our country's dancers and choreographers and/or want to contribute to growing the body of knowledge and writing about South African dance.

The NPC is currently run completely unfunded through volunteerism and internships. Please visit our Donate page to find out how you could make a contribution to  the legacy building of South African Contemporary Dance and Physical Performance. We believe in a strong collaborative process, transparency and collective productivity.

The Ar(t)chive will in 2019 produce, in collaboration with Sylvia 'Magogo' Glasser, the mother of Afrofusion, a book on her iconic dance work; Tranceformations (1991). A work which helped shape the career trajectories of award winning artists like Gregory Maqoma and Vincent Sekwati Mantsoe.

We believe in a living and organic archive. An archive that can adapt to the needs of artists, researchers and institutions whilst creating events and content that is current as well as reflective of the history of dance in South Africa.

Partnerships we love