Pirouetting from township to dance glory
CHOREOGRAPHER Paul Modjadji is South Africa’s dance diamond.
He has two world dance championship titles under his belt, has received a Mandela Washington Fellowship, choreographed South Africa’s first dance film, Hear Me Move, and owns a dance academy.
Now Modjadji will shine on another international stage as a judge at the DanceStar world finals in Croatia later this month.
“The fact that they invited me to sit on that level shows I’ve really come a long way,” said Modjadji, one of 12 judges on this year’s panel.
Each year the organisation holds qualifying events across the world in categories such as jazz, ballet, tap and hip-hop.
Modjadji, 32, said that growing up in Hammanskraal, dancing was not a priority for him.
“We didn’t grow up in a world where we saw a lot of Africans in that role, and as a result it’s not something I dreamt about.
“I always knew I was going to be an artist, I just never thought it would be dance.
“I actually wanted to be an actor so badly, but I got rejected when I applied for acting at school and instead got accepted into the dance programme.”
Dancing had always felt natural to him, and it was not something he necessarily needed to “learn”, he said.
“In dance, we say you can’t have only one strong leg,” he said.
“You have to develop both legs in order to be a good dancer and giving back feels like that to me.
“I can’t just be strong and successful by myself, I need to give back to the community so we can both be strong and successful.”
In 2011, Modjadji opened his Dare to Dream dance academy where he teaches dance to children from his township twice a week.
He said that while South Africa was making strides in the global dance industry, it was a shame that few other African countries were. He plans an African tour to try to spread enthusiasm for dance across the continent.
Starting in August, the tour will see Modjadji and his team jeté across 12 countries including Ghana, Zambia, Senegal and Uganda, running dance clinics and a social investment drive.
“I will use dance to speak to people about various issues, such as identity, self-expression, body image,” he said.
In dance, we say you can’t have only one strong leg