The Ecstatic (U.S. Premiere) by Impilo Mapantsula & Jeremy Nedd at OZ Arts Nashville

The furiously fast footwork of Pantsula, a South African percussive street dance style, is juxtaposed with soaring Pentecostal “praise breaks” when the six members of Johannesburg-based Impilo Mapantsula make their U.S. Debut in The Ecstatic. This internationally-acclaimed collaboration with Basel-based choreographer Jeremy Nedd is a high-octane celebration of the youth-driven culture of Pantsula, which is rooted in high-speed virtuosic footwork but has also given rise to its own lifestyle, language, music, and fashion. In the final days of Apartheid, the movement gave a voice to a whole generation.

The praise break in Pentecostal services is a pause — a break in the church service, where the dancing body, voice, and music energetically coalesce and start to blur the difference between ecstatic and cathartic. As the artists ask themselves what happens when these two worlds converge –  what happens in this transcendental moment of “break” – they discover and “break open” a new space all their own.

Two Nights Only: Friday May 1st & Saturday, May 2nd at OZ Arts Nashville 

“Lightning-fast feet, dazzling tempo, passionate energy, relevance, combined with virtuosity. It will make its way around the world.”

— Neue Zurcher Zeitung (New Zurich News)

“Exuberant, virtuosic footwork…it is clear that pantsula is more than just a dance form. It is an attitude, a style of clothing, an infectious culture of ostentation.”

— Theaterkrant