Boyzie Cekwana

Born 1970 in Soweto/South Africa.

Even though his artistic livelihood is cut on the touring circuits of the Northern and Western hemispheres, Boyzie Cekwana chooses to live and work in South Africa. Much of his work is invested in developing deep connections within and across Africa.

His work has graced the repertoire of companies such as the Scottish Dance Theatre and The Washington Ballet. He has performed and presented his work across Africa, Europe and North and South America. Although he is principally an autodidact, his formal, tertiary education was realized through the Johannesburg Dance Foundation (from 1987 to 1990). From 1996, he was choreographer and Artistic Director of The Floating Outfit Project; he is now leading a new structure, randomirekshnz. He is in a cycle of a three-and-a-half-year collaborative exchange with Faustin Linyekula’s Studios Kabako (DRC) to create momentum and mobility for South African and Congolese dance makers. This group of artists just completed a residency in Basel, Switzerland.

His recent Projects are: Redefining… Homework, Roxy Theater & Atelier Mondial, Basel/Switzerland, The Last King of Kakfontein, Creation, Durban/South Africa in June 2017, Banana Republics, Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin/Germany in 2015, In Case of Fire, Run for the Elevator, Theater Spektakel, Zurich/Switzerland in 2014. He was an artist in residence at Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Portland, OR/USA in September 2016.

He was a laureate at the African & Indian Ocean Choreography competition/Madagascar, 1999 and at the 3rd International Choreography Competition in Helsinki/Finland in 1995. Since 2001, his focus has been on developing a viable environment for his craft on the African continent, as well as key partnerships with like-minded artists in the sector. He has collaborated with as diverse a community of artists as Davis Freeman, Guillaume Bernardi, Faustin Linyekula and Opiyo Okach.