Impilo Mapantsula – or how to jump from a moving train.Recording the first hand history of South Africa’s dominant sub-culture and contemporarydance form.

Dr Daniela GoellerDOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.2592.6643

Abstract

Pantsula is the main and most constant South African sub-culture, originating in the 1970s intownships and representing the identity of several generations of its black population.Incorporating political consciousness, life-style, language, dress-code, music and dance, the dancealone is practiced as an art form today, alongside other street-dances. The contribution is anintroduction to this sub-culture, its historical development and contemporary situation, and arguesthat, given its visual and narrative structure, pantsula-dance is in itself a document – reflectingSouth Africa's history and the cultural identity of its population, a living legacy of the past fivedecades and the country's way from Apartheid to democracy.

Dance as document

A young man is walking around in the audience, selling sweats from a wooden crate he carries. Heis wearing a pair of beige Dickies trousers and a long-sleeve DMD shirt with geometric patterns.His head is covered by a red cotton hat with a black pompon and he is wearing a pair of whiteConverse All Stars sneakers.1 Conversations are engaged, people start calling him, bargaining andnegotiating over the sweats, jokes and laughter fill the air. We are in 2013 in a theatre in Paris andthe South African dance company Real Actions Pantsula from Orange Farm, a township in thesouth of Johannesburg, is about to perform a full evening show called “Days of our Lives”. As theshow starts, the stage is dark and we hear the characteristic sound of a train passing on the rails,hitting the sleepers: Pata-tata, pata-tata... The train is nearing; as it stops, the doors are opening. Agroup of dancers, all dressed in a different style, but all wearing white Converse All Stars sneakers,gather on stage and get on the train. As the train is departing, the young man comes running by withhis crate. Two dancers block the doors and look out for him, calling and shouting. He is adjustinghis steps, jumping on and off the train. He finally gets on board, the others let go off the doors andclose them. The young man continues to sell his sweats, passing through the train. The dancers starttaking over the sound of the moving train and adjust it to a single step, tapping the ground with theirfeet and clapping their hands. Moving on with the accelerating rhythm, they come together in aformation. On the up-beat rhythm of a house-music track, they perform a short routine. Theirmovements are strong, their feet are fast, the lining is precise and the group is perfectlysynchronised. The sound of the train is coming back, overlaying the music and replacing it, the

1Clothing is a highly significant element in Pantsula-culture. The main brands worn are of American or Italian origin.The cotton hat with the pompon is called topi or Navarro. Converse All Star Sneakers are the trademark of Pantsula-fashion since the 1970s, Dickies is the largest American workwear brand, and DMD is a supposedly Italian label, created by the South African company Linea Italiana (see also: Pantsula our culture).

group breaks up. When the train stops again, we hear a voice: “Welcome to Johannesburg ParkStation. Platform number 1 the train to Pretoria is ready to depart...” The dancers spread, somegreeting each other, saying goodbye, before they leave the stage.

Throughout the show, a narrator takes the audience on a journey through the reality of people's lifein the townships and the dancers translate these historical and contemporary situations in aseemingly unbridled but strictly encoded flow of virtuoso movements, full of creativity and joy.Pantsula-dance is a narrative and highly contextualised dance, it is a truly mesmerising form ofstory-telling – entertaining and moving in the same time. The dance is itself a document – reflectingSouth Africa's history and the cultural identity of the majority of its population, the living legacy ofthe past five decades and the country's journey from Apartheid to democracy.

Pantsula-dance is highly illustrative, it is an expression of black identity in the townships throughmovement, dress and music. Pantsula (literally: to waddle like a duck, or to walk with protrudedbuttocks) appears to be a flat footed tap-and-slide style of dance. Pantsula-dance pays a majorreference to tap-dance and has integrated all kinds of sometimes seemingly contradictoryinfluences. It incorporates elements of traditional South African dances, especially miming andpace, and combines them with a vocabulary of movements derived from modern urban dances, alsoof African American origin, alongside clownerie, contorsion, acrobatics and magic tricks.Influenced by Marabi and the South African Jazz culture of the 1920s and partly inspired by acouple dance from the 1940s and 1950s, called Kofifi or Sophiatown (after the famous area inJohannesburg), pantsula is a direct offspring from a soloist dance form of the 1960s called Monkey-Jive, that shows almost the same characteristics than pantsula.2 Whereas Kofifi or Sophiatown is stilldanced today by the young generation and part of the repertory of the community dance groups,only some of the older people are still able to dance the Monkey-Jive, such as musicians VusiShange and Ray Phiri, the founder of the South African afro-fusion band Stimela.

The main inspiration for the creation of the pantsula movements comes from the street: scenes ofeveryday life are translated into dance and most of the movements depict ordinary, everydaygestures that refer to a specific situation. Some of them are universal and easily recognisable, othersare more specific to the South African context and the reality of life in the townships and thereforemore difficult to decode for an outsider. There is not one way of defining pantsula as much as thereis not one way of dancing pantsula. The story of pantsula is as manifold as the people who areidentifying themselves with this culture. Documenting this culture necessarily means to record thestories – as they are told by the people, shown in the dance and expressed in their lifestyle – andrevealing the unifying components within these stories. There are a couple of basic or “classic”dance steps, that can be identified with a trained eye, although their interpretation might varyconsiderably from individual to individual, from group to group and from township to township.These steps will always appear in a specific scene – the dancers call it “situation” – or serve toevoke a specific context. The first scene of Real Actions Pantsula’s show “Days of our Live” asdescribed above, is such a “situation”, moreover it is the key-situation to understand the dynamic aswell as the historical and narrative structure of pantsula-dance.

Dancing pantsula may be likened to taking a train. The basic step to get on board the train is called

2Concerning the influence of American Jazz culture in South Africa see Ballantine 1993 and Nixon 1994.

S'Parapara and it is a 4 part sequence of steps. In order to execute it, one has to get off the ground(1) and literally jump into the step. One then hits the ground with one foot (2) and then twiceconsecutively with the second foot (3-4). Not only is the name of the step – S'Parapara – anonomatopoeia, but the step itself is also an onomatopoeia: when done repeatedly, the sound of thefeet hitting the ground recalls the sound of a moving train. S'Parapara is the one main and basicstep of pantsula. “There is no pantsula without S'Parapara”, says Sello Modiga, director of thecompany Real Actions Pantsula and choreographer of their show.3 S'Parapara is the step that willget you started. “When there is S'Parapara, there is always a style after ...” adds one of the dancers.It is very significant that you have to jump into the dance in a way – you take a big leap and thenyou move on, with the train.

In contemporary South Africa, space, mobility and transport remain key-issues in a country that,during the course of history, has seen almost its entire population forcibly deported from one placeto another, although in very different circumstances and for very different reasons. The train has along history in South Africa. Coming from the rural areas and the neighbouring countries, mainlyMozambique and Zimbabwe, people used to get on the trains to come to the cities, particularlyJohannesburg, to find work and go back home to see their families. Coming from the townships,people used to get on the train to go to the city of Johannesburg for work early in the morning andcome back late in the evening. The trains used to be common meeting places and sites ofinterchange and therefore represented more than just a means of transportation.4 The title of an oldand famous song about the train, “Shosholoza”, is still written on some of the carriages. ThisNdebele folk song, originally from Zimbabwe, is a song of hope and solidarity that has somehow

3Given the crucial lack of written sources and documentation on pantsula-culture and -dance, the information that Iam providing has, in the main, been taken from personal encounters with people who identify themselves as beingpantsulas. I rely almost exclusively on primary research. My research is action based and is located within the fieldof Cultural Studies. My knowledge of pantsula-culture and -dance is based on a number of individuals that I haveknown for several years and with whom I have established close working and personal relationships (cf. ImpiloMapantsula).

4cf. Santu Mofokeng (1986) In a series of black-and-white photographs, Mofokeng captured a very singular churchservice, taking place in a train from Soweto to Johannesburg: “Soweto trains are not known for their safety. A trainjourney is undertaken with a mixture of determination and dread. Never mind the discomfort of the jostling, thepickpockets and the crush in a crowded train coach. Add to this, irregular train schedules, the railway police who arenot there to serve or to protect you. This anxiety coming seamlessly with daily worries associated with theimmediate ride where it blends in with other unpleasant memories of train disasters, gang warfare and generalhooliganism in a politically unstable climate and a country trawling through a second state of emergency. Trainchurch as a social phenomenon appealed to me for several reasons. It captures two of the most significant features ofSouth African life: the experience of commuting and the pervasiveness of spirituality. The system of commuting towork did not evolve naturally for the black majority. It was enforced through removals, resettlements andgeographical zoning. Its progeny begins in the migrant labour system.” (Santu Mofokeng, Train Church, quoted in:cargocollective.com)

become the second South African anthem and is ingrained in the history of the migrant workers.5

On board the trains, besides the travellers and everyday commuters, there were also the so-calledSmokesas, young boys who would go through the train, selling apples or sweats from the woodencrates they carried. Vusi Shange – a famous musician of the 1960s and 1970s – recalls the timeswhen he used to travel go on the train with his crate to sell apples. “Have you ever tried to jumpfrom a moving train?” he asks. “Yes? Well, then you know that you can't simply jump with yourtwo feet, else you fall. You need to compensate between the speed on one side and the standstill onthe other side. That's S'Parapara.” And when he demonstrates how he used to place his crate, jumpon the wagon, get through the flapping doors, we are taken back to the first scene of “Days of ourLives” and the rhythm and the sound arises again: Pata-tata... “S'Parapara”, says Vusi Shange, “isa vital step, it helped to jump on and off the train while it was moving and from one wagon to thenext.” Furthermore, S'Parapara is the step that will keep you in the rhythm and serve as a linkbetween different movements in Pantsula-dance – or, in Sello Modiga's words: “S'Parapara is theconnector” - it literally keeps the dance together. The dancer and choreographer Vusi Mdoyi, co-director of the company Via Katlehong, was, significantly enough, born on a train. When hismother gave birth to him, she was in a train on the way from the Eastern Cape, where her familystayed, to Johannesburg. For him, as for many other dancers too, pantsula is his life, his identity6:“Pantsula is a signature” he says, “it is unconscious, like a reflex. Think of a cat that jumps down awall and amortises the shock in its body, in its bones, moving on, without breaking anything – that'swhat it is all about.” Pantsula-dance is about being smart, it engages wit, speed, skill-fullness andthe power of suggestion. Pantsula is more than a dance, it is a lifestyle and reflects a specificmindset, an attitude – and as such it represents the spirit of survival against all odds, the belief inalways finding ways to move on.

Pantsula used to be (and partly still is) danced in the streets, accompanied only by the sound of thetapping of the feet, whistling and shouting. Whistling was (and is) used as a very sophisticatedmeans of communication and identification, that also helped to escape from the police in the days ofApartheid. The stockfells, taverns, or she-beens were the only places with music to accompany thedance. It is still practiced in these places in the townships today, especially on Saturday nights. Acrowd surrounds the dancers, and as they perform one after the other, people encourage them,shouting and whistling, and throw money into the circle. Pantsula is a competitive dance. It isbasically about who dresses the most originally and performs the most inventive dance steps. It isalmost exclusively practiced in dance competitions. Pantsula originally is a soloist dance and the

5 Shoholoza means to move fast and the lyrics of the song read as follows:

Shosholoza (move fast) Ku lezontaba (over these mountains) Stimela siphume South Africa (a train from SouthAfrica) Wen' uyabaleka (you are running away) Ku lezontaba (over these mountains) Stimela siphume South Africa(train from South Africa). Concerning the migration to the cities, see for example Louw 2004.

6"Pantsula our culture! Pantsula our choice! Pantsula our life! Pantsula our future! Pantsula for life!" is a famousslogan that one would hear at almost every occasion.

solo, called Fucuza, which highlighted an individual's own creativity and ability, remains asignificant element of the dance. Nevertheless, the dancers have always also formed dance groupsand performed group choreographies, called routines. Today, both forms co-exist, but pantsula isabout individuality; and individual and local styles are very important, up to the point where adancer can spot another dancer's origins by simply observing the way in which he walks. Eachindividual or group creates its own outfit and its own style, the signature - reflected in the so calledsignature pose and the signature move. Some of the groups compose new outfits for every season orevery new piece they create. These pieces are generally like short-stories, they last between 5 and15 min and are generally structured around one “situation”. Only a few groups have undertaken tocreate shows of one hour or more, dedicated to theatre, like Real Actions Pantsula. These shows areoften made of different situations, linked by a narrator and the journey of one main character, as inthe case of “Days of our Lives”.There is a complete lack of notation for pantsula. The dancers themselves don't write anythingdown, there is no notation system, neither for the movements, nor for the choreography. "When Idance a choreography several times", says Vusi Mdoyi, "the movements shall enter in my veins, mybrain, my heart. If I hear the music, my body, soul and mind refer to these movements, that are, Iwould say 'spiritually' recorded within me. If I don't practice a choreography for a long time, smalllosses or changes may occur, but it is difficult to completely forget a choreography. It ultimatelybelongs to the realm of spirituality." The term ‘"spirituality’" might occur surprising here, but itrefers back to the context of oral tradition and transmission of knowledge. The dancers learn fromeach other in order to and perfection their skills. The connection to the spiritual world remains verystrong, even in everyday life. Although they live in contemporary times, the beliefs and traditions oftheir ancestors are present and continue to inform their ways of relating to each other and to theworld. This is reflected by the way they believe in and are committed to their art and how theypractice it. Before they start performing, the dancers will gather on or off stage, where theysometimes sing and dance in a circle and greet each other. Obviously, the audience, especiallyoutside South Africa, can see and sense the spirituality on stage, but as they cannot design it, theywould generally use the term ‘"energy’", which is something the dancers, in return, cannot relate to.The same issue arises for many other dances, especially dances originating in a ritual or religiouscontext. Pantsula is not a traditional dance, although it incorporates elements of indigenous dancesand is often designated as a traditional dance by the dancers themselves. While it follows the sameschema as some traditional dances, it's points of reference are hybrid and multi-layered.7 Like withmany other sub-cultures, pantsula's parentage is complex, sometimes contradictory, not only inregard to the movements, but also when it comes to elements of dress and music and its socio-political direction.8

7Concerning the relation of tradition and modernity see Rani 2008.

8Emile YX? correctly states that township dances are often considered as bastardisations of the “pure” Eurocentric and cultural African art forms, resistant to change: “To ‘OVERstand’ this development, we have to look at how people migrate or are forced into different environments. With slavery, immigration and the ongoing movement of people, various dance styles and music fuse. Irrespective of the process, it is inevitable that artists are inspired by everything that they come into contact with.” As a result of multiple influences, what is institutionalised as “Hight Art” is often “replaced by a hybrid version of that art form. It is only when we research the origins of these new dance styles that we see the innovation and revolutionary mentality of its creators.” (Emile YX? 2008: 12).

Pantsula our culture

Pantsula became a predominant sub-culture in South Africa in the 1970s9. It incorporates language,dress-code, music and dance. The roots of pantsula go back to the 1950s and the development ofpantsula is intrinsically linked to the socio-political context of Apartheid. Following the forcedremovals of the black population from the city centre to “locations” outside the cities, a vitalcultural life emerged in the townships and helped to maintain a social life within a population thatwas largely deprived of its basic human rights as citizens. The townships saw the development of amicro-society with its own unwritten laws and a unifying solidarity against the oppressor. Culturalpractices, were it expressions of traditional culture or more contemporary manifestations, such aspantsula, played an important role in holding the community together by providing a form ofcultural, social and political autonomy that ultimately shaped the identity of generations of blackpeople in the townships. “Black nationalists have combined political, spiritual, and culturalleadership, and recognised the importance of this aspect of black identity.”10 In this sense, pantsulaand all cultural activities, are to be considered as being political.

Under Apartheid, pantsula-dance was used to convey political messages against the system throughmiming scenes of everyday life, including racial violence, prosecution, harassment, humiliatingtreatment and the bad working and social conditions.11 Being an artist and going to a performancewas sometimes used as an argument to side-step the pass-laws and other restrictions concerningfreedom of movement and gathering, as well as to overcome roadblocks set up by the police, whenthe reason for going to a certain place was not primarily, or not only to attend a performance, but

9The exact origin of pantsula is impossible to determine, both culturally (see above) and geographically. Some indicate it originated from Pretoria, others say it started in Alexandra, the oldest township of Johannesburg, some assume it came from the Eastrand (Katlehong, Vosloorus, Thokoza) and others locate its origins in Soweto. It is likely that pantsula culture spread rapidly and emerged simultaneously in different places and it is a fact that each of the locations has developed a distinctive and recognisable style of the dance, dress and language.

10See Coplan 2007: 2

11See Myburgh 1993: 3

rather a political gathering. The Stockfells were places where the dancers would meet and also thepolitical parties would recruit their members. “There was no way of running away from politics as ablack person and as a person in the townships. Community events were good platforms and it wasalways a question of entertainment and consciousness in the same time.” says Sicelo Xaba, directorof the company Red For Danger from Mohlakeng, a township in the West of Johannesburg.Consequently, pantsula is simultaneously politicised and non-politicised.

The 1970s in South Africa were a decade of important political uprisings in the townships. Thesemovements were carried by a generation whose parents had been removed and that grew up in thenew context of the townships. It was that second generation and the following ones, who started toactively question and redefine their situation. Pantsula became a major expression of this new blackidentity, a visible sign of their otherness and as such, an active form of resistance.12 The dynamicthat inspires the creation of pantsula-dance groups appears to be rooted in the existence of bothcultural groups and street gangs. Inspired by their leaders, most of Amapantsula were politically andsocially active. Pantsula-dance groups were (and are) governed by the strict respect of discipline,especially regarding time (punctuality and commitment), costume (neatness and cleanness) andexercising. Attendance of rehearsals and shows was (and is) crucial and since in the competitiononly the best counts, regular training and reliability comes first. Structure and discipline were themain weapons used to fight gangsterism and are still used to keep the youth off the streets.Participation in the sub-culture offers the youth an opportunity to engage in a meaningful andrewarding activity, for the price of serious commitment – the message being “dance and becreative” rather than wasting your life.

There is a permanent current of political, social and artistic elements in pantsula-culture, whereasthe dance form alone is considered as an art form today and the aim of the struggle has shifted frompolitical consciousness to escape of poverty.13 In the same way as the American hip-hop generation,growing up after the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements in the United States, Amapantsulatoday experience a crucial disappointment, following a period of initial promise and profoundchange at the end of Apartheid. This disappointment is also partially due to a phenomenon thatWilliams describes as “laissez-faire exclusion”14 and that Hill Collins terms “colourblind racism”

12See Dick Hebdige's analysis of black youth culture (Reggae) in England: Hebdige 1979: 40

13Many of the dancers interviewed by Collin Vincent Myburgh name financial interest as a motivation to dance (see Myburgh 1993 and Rani 2008: 129).

14 “The stock story of colourblindness is that the only motive of the civil rights movement was to free individual blackpeople from state-sponsored discrimination. This depiction of the civil rights movement put assimilation (an optionavailable primary to middle- and upper-class blacks) as the engine that drove the civil rights movement. Afterformal, state-sanctioned barriers to individual mobility are removed, any continuing inequality must result from thepersonal failure of individuals or, in its modern reiteration, the dysfunction of black culture.” (Guinier / Torres 2002:35 quoted in: Hill Collins 2006: 6)

(2006, 6). The numerous contradictions that arose from this phenomenon in post-apartheid SouthAfrica are certainly worthy of discussion, as are the parallels between pantsula and hip-hop,particularly on the background of the undeniably strong influence of black African Americanculture on black South African culture – especially in the fields of fashion and music. The maindifference between hip-hop and pantsula is that the former appeared after the civil rights and blackpower movement, whereas the latter carried the struggle and remained as a living legacy for thenext generations.

From the 1940s and prior to this, African American Jazz music was popular in South Africa and itappealed to black and white audiences alike, creating one of the few spaces for cross-racialencounters even during Apartheid. Throughout the 1950s, the American style of dress, as seen onrecord covers and in movies, became the ultimate standard of elegance for the black South Africanyouth. Pantsula is emerging as a culture in the 1970s in the townships of South Africa, in parallel tohip-hop culture in the United States, and is often referred to as ‘African hip-hop’, although thereseems to be no direct influence of hip-hop music or dance styles such as b-boying or breaking 15.Hip-hop only became popular in South Africa in the early 1980s, and more especially in CapeTown, whereas pantsula was more popular in Johannesburg and Pretoria. Nevertheless, similaritieswith hip-hop and the Black Pride movement can be found in pantsula as a lifestyle and a culturewith a significant social background and incorporating elements of dress, music, dance andlanguage, together with the formation of a strong identity and a certain political consciousness. Inthe early 1980s, alongside hip-hop, American house music came to South Africa and had a hugeimpact on the local music scene, up to making South Africa the country of house in the 1990s. Untiltoday, house music is still the most frequently used music to accompany pantsula-dance. The fastand up-beat sound of the South African house, with its characteristic beat, suits the danceparticularly well, but transformed it considerably in regard to the tempo. Although pantsula-dancecan be accompanied by house music, there is no obvious influence of house dance in the pantsulamovements; on the contrary, when compared to the fluid house dance, pantsula seems to be rigidand contained. However, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, a new dance form called Sbhujwa (fromFrench: bourgeois) emerged. Sbhujwa derives from pantsula. Sbhujwa combines fast footwork withundulating movements of the torso and the hips, inspired by Kwasa-Kwasa. Floor work andpostures such as those used in house dance, especially Afro House, b-boying or breaking, are alsoadded.

Dress-codes play a critical an essential role within all sub-cultures in relation to shaping a specificidentity and making strong recognisable visual statements. “You get respect for what you wear, howyou talk, how you walk” resumes Sicelo Xaba. Dress-codes are often heterogenous, deliberately

15The parallel between hip-hop and pantsula is more prominent in the music than in the dance, especially in regard to Kwaito, a South-African rap music, that was extremely popular in the 1980s and 1990s and is often associated with pantsula. The stage name of rapper and MC Jabulani Tsambo, alias Jabba, from Mafikeng, a township in the North-West of Johannesburg is HHP for: Hip Hop Pantsula.

eclectic and seemingly arbitrary. The pantsula dress-code is dominated in the early years by the so-called ‘American style’, mainly derived from American movies and Jazz record covers. An outfitwould comprise hats, suits, shirts, ties, pleat-front trousers, and two-tone or simple leather shoes,sometimes combined with dusk-coats. The labels worn by Amapantsula are American, Italian orBritish imports, including Pringle, Florsheim, Brentwood, and Saxone. e.g. There is also a morecasual style, with knit pullovers and vests and checked flannel shirts. The American fashion shownoff by Amapantsula led to an association of pantsula culture and gangsterism. Johannesburg'sreputation as a city of violence and crime is not a recent phenomenon. Since the 1950s, gang-cultureand crime have been ongoing issues in the City of Gold. These issues have been problematised anddiscussed in the media. The 1950s saw important gang fights, carried by illustrious groups, whodressed in specific styles. One of the most notorious groups amongst them were the Americans –named after their American dress style.16 The women, later called Mshozas17, mostly dressed in thesame labels as their male counterparts, wearing berets, blouses, checked or plain skirts over kneelength, tights held by suspenders, and semi-heeled leather shoes, sometimes combined with shortwaist-tailored jackets, and occasionally held by a belt. When forming a pantsula dance group, dresswas a major issue and it had to serve as a unifying, recognisable element. All the members of thegroup are usually dressed the same, sometimes they are split into several smaller groups butgenerally, when they are dancing a “routine” together, they would wear the same clothes or at leasthave one unifying element in their clothing. Furthermore, the classic clothes of the older generationwere expensive and out of reach for most of the youth. This explains the use of school uniforms ascostumes for performances and partly also the use of working clothes. But working clothes wouldalso be used in specific scenes and thus related to the context. Dickie's trousers and various workingoveralls and dungerees have been and still are common stage costumes. Workwear includes the“kitchen-suit” – a short sleeved overall with short legs and a belt, decorated with double stripes atthe sleeves, legs and on the belt. The kitchen-suit is a notorious relic from Apartheid times. It is nolonger worn for work, but is still worn by pantsula dancers, in a slightly modified and more adaptedcut and in a wide array of colours. The dancers generally wear them without binding the belt so thatthe loose ends hang down from their backs like the tail of a smoking. These overalls are nowfabricated by South African labels, such as Alaska and City Outfitters. Today, alongside thesedifferent clothing styles, dancers wear clothes designed for them by local fashion designers, some ofwhich have created their own brands and are well known, and combine them with contemporary

16The relation of pantsula-culture and gangsterism is a major and very complex issue, that needs far more explanationthan what can be provided here. This easy and seductive shortcut covers up a series of very complex socio-politicalfactors and needs a far broader discussion that I will engage later on in a separate text, where I will provide furtherinsight on this highly controversial topic and how the gangster-image defines black masculinity. cf. Haupt 2012:153.

17Although pantsula is a culture dominated by carried mainly by men, women have always played a their role in it,albeit in a less visible way, and on different levels. I will address the story of the Mshozas, questions of gender andgender roles within pantsula-culture in a separate article. See also note 9.

sports clothes by international and – again – American labels. Hats are still important, but theStetson's and Borsalino's have been replaced by small hats made of cotton cloth, like the so-calledspoti – which has become a major trademark for pantsulas – or its larger version, the ‘pot-head’,inherited from the 1920s Harlem fashion. The dancers also wear woollen bonnets with pomponsand nowadays, even baseball caps are worn. The expensive leather shoes have largely been replacedby more affordable sports shoes and sneakers, especially from the label Converse All Stars, whichhave become the second unmistakable trademark of Amapantsula. Another reminiscent ofAmerican fashion of the 1920s, All Stars, first produced in the United States in 1917, were onlydistributed in South Africa in the 1970s, and immediately became the most significant andcommonly worn item in the Amapantsula’s wardrobe. They were even customised using home-made irons, and transformed into tap-dance-shoes, when some dancers started to mix classic tap-dance-moves with pantsula, creating a successful but short-lived dance style, which became knownas Tapsula.18

Imagination as social practice19

A common trait of sub-cultures is that they are based on fashion, music and performative elements.They have adopted one of the main concepts of fashion, which is ‘image-making’ – a term that Iborrow from Anne Hollander.20 Images, in both understandings of the word – as ‘looks’ and

18Mixing tap-dance and Pantsula is an obvious idea that everybody could have and therefore it’s origins are contested.There was an early collaboration of the late Jacky Simela with the company Via Katelhong for the creation of apiece performed in the Dance Umbrella festival in 2000 that leaded to what was then called Tap-Pantsula. In 2004,Tapsula became widely known through a dance-musical-show of the same name, created and choreographed byCinda Eatock and performed at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg, with additional choreography by Lesley More(Alaska) and music by Eugene Mthethwa (Trompies). Following the success of the show, Tapsula has been taken upby a number of Pantsula dancers and is still occasionally performed today by some of the groups.

19Imagination as social practice is a term used by Arjun Appadurai to describe how imagination has shifted from therealm of fantasy into the field of social and political agency: “The image, the imagined, the imaginary – these are allterms that direct us to something critical and new in global cultural processes: the imagination as a social practice.(…) the imagination has become an organised field of social practices, a form of work (in the sense of both laborand culturally organized practice), and a form of negotiation between sites of agency (individuals) and globallydefined fields of possibility. This unleashing of the imagination links the play of pastiche (in some settings) to theterror and coercion of states and their competitors. The imagination is now central to all forms of agency, is itself asocial fact, and is the key component of the new global order.” (Appadurai 1996: 31)

20Desirable form in fashion is shown and told in pictures. Repeated pictures keep images present in the eye, desirable,ready for associative significance, and prone to instant imitation Followed by swift modification, subversion,replacement and eventual rediscovery. The modern clothed body is a complete figural image, cinematic ortelevisionary in its impact. This is a currency not just of images but of the mode of making them - 'realistic',fictional, bound to a dramatic human narrative that is never finished, a modern serial tale.” (Hollander 1994: 27)

‘appearances’ and as actual pictures – are used to create open narratives, a form of second life, thatcan be both, suggestive and addictive; sub-cultures are ways of self-imagining. Dick Hebdige(1979) points out that sub-cultures are necessary forms of resistance and revolution, as theychallenge and question the rules in place in different levels of society. Furthermore, he points outthat post-war (and consequently post-colonial) sub-cultures are spaces of agency for negotiatingrelations of race – black and white – and, to a lesser degree, gender. In this context and against onthe backdrop of post-colonialism and globalisation, imagination is better read as an intersection inthe political, social, and artistic fields, rather than as mere fantasy, and is better be considered as anactivity or social practice, rather than a form of escape. What John Peffer’s observations whenlooking at family pictures in the townships are also applicable in many regards to pantsula. Peoplewould have their portraits taken and collected these images as alternative and autonomousrepresentations of themselves, in contrast to official images of crime, miserable living conditionsand the violence of the struggle.21 Equally, the vibrant cultural life in the townships was a way ofimagining and preserving a positivity in life. Pantsula is a style and a cultural identity, and as such,it created a space for social and political agency, or as Neo Ntsoma once put it: “Style is not allabout dress sense. It is about cultural identity and expression. It can be even a way of resistingoppression.” The streets of the townships were the stage where the fears and joys of everyday lifewere transformed into a creative and inventive lifestyle, and used to express the spirit of survivaland brotherhood.22 The youth found their pride in competitions where elegance and originality ofdress was combined with strictly encoded and virtuoso dance-movements. Pantsula-dance itself is ahistorical document of township life. It is narrative in the way it tells stories and depicts scenes ofeveryday life. Thus, it does not merely imitate life. Elements of daily life serve as inspiration, theyare appropriated by the dancers and transformed in the dance. The movements are based on realisticmovements; they are mimetic and often exaggerated so as to appear comic. Mimicry is employed inthe same way. By adding elements of surprise and suspense into the dance, as well as speed andvirtuosity, the dancers create a certain magic. The props that are commonly used by the dancersillustrate this transformation: for instance, brooms, walking sticks, empty beer-crates and chairs are

21Portrait photography was extremely popular amongst the black community and particularly in the townships. “They(portrait pictures) represent a kind of (…) self-imagining (…) They are evidence of how the people lived andenjoyed life despite the segregation and violence that surrounded them. Most people did not collect images of streetprotests and violence, but they did have pictures of themselves made for their own pleasure, often imagining awholeness to everyday life that was full of imagination and positivity. They pictured what they wanted in ways thatwere not always limited by what they were given.” (Peffer 2013: n.p.)

22See also Myburgh 1993: 1 and Rani 2008: 124

found objects that are used in the dance in ways that are not related to their everyday functions. Abroom is used to wipe the floor, but the dancers swirl it around, jump over it and perform all kindsof tricks with it, and suddenly, the broom becomes a rifle, a walking stick, a microphone or is usedas a stick to carry a bundle. There are no limits to creativity in the dance and the dancers changewithin seconds from one context to another. Looking at how stories are expressed and acted out inthe dance and the way documentary and imaginative elements are combined, reveals the true powerof this kind of alternative storyline.

Impilo Mapantsula

When people speak about pantsula today, they are referring primarily to it as a dance form. Pantsulahas become a performing art, alongside with other street dances, and pantsula-dance groups performin festivals and theatres around the world. In South Africa, they work for the music and advertisingindustries, appearing in music videos and publicity clips. Dancers occasionally run workshops inschools or prisons and are called in as judges on national or private television shows and dancecontests, organised by the government or private brands. Some manage to live fully or partly offtheir art, but most of them are still working in other businesses aside to have some consistency intheir lives. A huge gap separates a couple of established, professional and well known groups, suchas Thembisa Revolution, Via Volcano, Real Actions Pantsula, Shakers and Movers and ViaKatlehong, for example, who are all touring internationally, more especially in Europe, from theyoung and upcoming groups, who are sometimes not even registered as companies and lack notonly of infrastructure and financial means, but also of professional training and facilities. Somestruggle to find space and alternatively use the streets, abandoned buildings or garages as rehearsalspaces. There is little support for cultural activities such as pantsula-dance in the differentmunicipalities. In the township of Bekkersdaal, in the west of Johannesburg, the town-hall has beendestroyed in the course of protests against the municipality, ultimately leaving the dancers and theyouth without a space to practice. According to the pantsula-dance company Via Bekkersdaal,nothing has been done to accommodate the youth and hear their claims and support them incarrying out meaningful activities. In the township of Simunye in the west of Johannesburg, apantsula-dance group has created a joint-venture with a local business man who runs a car wash, inorder to provide them a certain sustainability. The government and the National Lottery, as well assome other institutions, such as banks and private foundations provide funding, but thesepossibilities are only open to registered companies as they all require company records, financialaudits and tax clearance certificates.

The younger generation of dancers is interested more in the dance and less in the pantsula life style.They know little about the history of the dance, but they know that there is a possibility of making acareer in the arts. They aim to becoming professional dancers, and to perform overseas – followingthe example of the established companies and dancers, who are their role models. The pantsula-dance sector is divided and underdeveloped. Most of the companies lack information,administration skills, professional training, facilities, infrastructure and are isolated due to financialproblems, translating into permanent challenges for communication (cellphone airtime), transportand ultimately regular training. Impilo Mapantsula was founded by Vusi Mdoyi, Sello Modiga,Joshua Mokoena (dancer/choreographer, director of Ezomdabu Young Entertainers from thetownship of Vosloorus in the east of Johannesburg), Sicelo Xaba. Impilo Mapantsula is a registeredcompany and meant to become a collective structure which represents all Amapantsula. Thecompany’s aim is to develop a solid network for Amapantsula in South Africa, increase theexposure of the dance, act as an agency and improve the local working conditions, strengtheninternational connections, and in so doing, help the dancers and companies to further develop andprofessionalise their art. Impilo Mapantsula goes back to an initiative that arose at the DlalaMapantsula Festival in 2010, and was called the “Pantsula Collabo”, but never put into practice.

The Dlala Mapantsula Festival 2014 was hosted and co-produced by the Soweto Theatre. With 46participating groups and 20 soloists in the competition, the third edition was the largest since thecreation of the festival.

There is an historical lack of documentation on pantsula in museums and other institutionalarchives. Articles in newspapers and magazines have been published, some documentary andfictional films as well as a number of television series have been produced, and there is recentphotographic documentation of Pantsula-dance.23 However, there seems to be little, if any, materialthat contextualises this culture under a historical perspective, relating it’s tradition to the broadercontext of the global and South African entertainment industry. The urge for documenting thisculture is clearly expressed by the dancers themselves. They feel the need to record the history oftheir art in order to educate their audiences and the upcoming generation of dancers. They want totell their unique story and reveal the true spirit of Pantsula-culture and, in so doing, develop their artfurther and increase its value and visibility to both, South African and international audiences.

23In 1993, the Johannesburg Dance Foundation published Collin Vincent Myburgh’s study “Pantsula dance: casestudies on the origins and makings of a township art form”. It was followed by Georges Samuel’s “Shifts in pantsulain a performance context in KwaZulu-Natal: a case study of Pearl Indaba’s Golden dancers between 1998-2001,published in Footsteps Across the Landscape of Dance in South Africa, Shuttle 02 Dance History Research SkillsDevelopment Project Workshop proceedings, Articles and Working Papers. Articles in newspapers and magazinesinclude Chris Saunders “Pantsula” Colors Magazine #78, Dance, Mailand: Benetton, 2010; Jackie Bischof “See Ya,Twerk. It’s Pantsula time” The Wallstreet Journal, Dec 2013 and a number of similar articles in South African andinternational newspapers on the occasion of events related to pantsula-culture (performances, music videos, movies).The South African photographers Alexia Farber and Chris Saunders have over recent years (ca. 2010-2015)produced a significant body of documentary photography work on Pantsula, but there is to my knowledge nocomparable historical body of work. In 1988, Oliver Schmitz produced the film “Mapantsula”. Co-written bySchmitz and Thomas Mogotlane (1953-1993), who also played the main character, it tells the story of township lifeunder Apartheid, seen through the eyes of a small thief, but doesn’t show the dance (see also note 9). This shallchange with an upcoming film titled “Tjovitjo”, directed by Vincent Moloi, with the participation of many Pantsuladancers and Warren Masemola as the lead actor (in production). The documentary movie “African Cypher” byBrian Little (2012), based on material shot for the RedBull Beat Battle dance competition, prominently featurespantsula, as well as Martin Meissonier’s television-documentary “Dancing City Johannesburg” (2012). Musicvideos that feature pantsula-dance include: Beyoncé “Run the world (Girls) 2011, Bassment Jaxx “What aDifference Your Love Makes” 2013, Okmalumkoolkat “Allblackblackkat” 2014. Pantsula has been mostprominently featured on South African television, with shows like “Lapologa” (SABC 1, presented by CollinsMashego, 1980), “Shell-Road to Fame” (SABC 1, 1994), “Stumbo Stomp” (SABC 1, 2014-2015). These showscome in the format of a dance competition and have inspired thousands of young people in South Africa. Somedancers recall that they learned to dance pantsula in the 1980s in front of the television, particularly throughwatching “Lapologa”.

Illustrations

Sparapara (Sello Modiga) 2013Picture by Chris Saunders © Chris Saunders and Impilo Mapantsula

Simunye on Fire (Simunye) 2013Picture by Chris Saunders © Chris Saundersand Impilo Mapantsula

Broken Train Window (Johannesburg) 2013Picture by Chris Saunders © Chris Saunders and Impilo Mapantsula

Vusi Mdoyi and Sello Modiga in the train 2013 Joshua Mokoena, Sello Modiga and Vusi Mdoyi Picture by Chris Saunders © Chris Saunders on the platform in Jeppestown 2013and Impilo Mapantsula Picture by Chris Saunders © Chris Saunders

and Impilo Mapantsula

Vusi Mdoyi at the station in Jeppestown 2013 Sello Modiga in the train 2013Picture by Chris Saunders © Chris Saunders Picture by Chris Saunders © Chris Saundersand Impilo Mapantsula and Impilo Mapantsula

Literature

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