For ten years, Moving into Dance has been teaching dance in Johannesburg schools, serving learners with disabilities, week after week, in the same classrooms. On 18 September at 11:00, the young people, at the centre of that work, step onto a professional stage. Moving into Dance presents its Enable through Dance at the Keorapetse William Kgositsile Theatre at the UJ Arts Centre on Kingsway campus. Hosted by UJ Arts & Culture, entrance is free, and the performance runs for approximately 70 minutes.
Established in 2016, the project works with seven special needs schools and organisations from Eldorado Park to Hillbrow, reaching over 160 young people each week. It uses dance and movement as a medium for creative expression among young people who are, more often than not, defined by what they are told they cannot do. The participating schools are Don Materra School, Johannesburg Hospital School for Autism, Phiri Special School, Thembalethu Foundation, Winnie Madikeleza Mandela School, Johannesburg Society for the Blind and Philile Foundation Pre-School.
The project aims to build a sense of belonging and recognise the lived experience of disability, restoring confidence and self-esteem through artistic exploration and movement. It culminates in the participants performing in a professional theatre, to a live audience, under stage lights, which school programmes rarely do.
Sunnyboy Mandla Motau, Artistic Director of Moving into Dance, says:
“When Moving into Dance launched Enable through Dance ten years ago, we knew it was an important initiative for dance and for dancers. We are grateful to funders such as the City of Johannesburg’s Directorate of Arts and Culture for supporting the teaching in these schools. But the moment that matters is this one. Working in special needs schools and then giving young people the chance to perform in a professional theatre, to feel the excitement of a live dance production, is nothing short of amazing.”
UJ Arts & Culture hosts this edition of Enable through Dance as part of its long-standing and mutually beneficial partnership with Moving into Dance. The programme is a powerful example of meaningful societal impact, widening access to the arts, creating opportunities for young people, and demonstrating the role of artistic practice in advancing social and cultural transformation within diverse communities. By providing a professional performance platform for this work, UJ Arts & Culture supports the community-based practice of Moving into Dance while contributing to the development of dancers and of the broader dance sector in a meaningful and sustained way.
EVENT DETAILS
Date: Friday 18 September 2026
Time: 11:00
Venue: Keorapetse William Kgositsile Theatre, UJ Arts Centre, Kingsway Campus, Auckland Park
Admission: Free. https://www.quicket.co.za/events/394040-moving-into-dance-enable-through-dance-celebrating-10-years#/
Accessibility: [wheelchair access, accessible parking, accessible bathrooms, assisted listening]
About Moving into Dance
Moving into Dance was founded in 1978 by Sylvia “Magogo” Glasser as an artistic response to apartheid’s policy of separateness, drawing on the creative capacity of the human spirit to connect, enliven and transcend. Nearly five decades later, the company continues that legacy through its signature Afrofusion dance.
Moving into Dance leads through a professional company whose artists have been recognised by awards at home and abroad. It teaches through an accredited Performing Arts Training Course and an internship programme. It includes social justice work such as Enable through Dance, which brings disabled and non-disabled dancers together to disrupt societal narratives around disability and explore creative potential. And it returns, going back into communities to share the gifts of that experience, because community is core to our identities as human beings and as Africans.
About UJ Arts and Culture
UJ Arts & Culture, a division of the Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture (FADA) produces and presents world-class student and professional arts programmes aligned to the UJ vision of an international university of choice, anchored in Africa, dynamically shaping the future. A robust range of arts platforms are offered on all four UJ campuses for students, staff, alumni and the general public to experience and engage with emerging and established Pan-African and international artists drawn from the full spectrum of the arts.
In addition to UJ Arts & Culture, FADA (www.uj.ac.za/fada) offers programmes in eight creative disciplines, in Art, Design and Architecture, as well as playing home to the NRF SARChI Chair in South African Art & Visual Culture, and the Visual Identities in Art & Design Research Centre. The Faculty has a strong focus on sustainability and relevance, and engages actively with the dynamism, creativity and diversity of Johannesburg in imagining new approaches to art and design education.