Soweto Skeleton Movers

Hailed as the best act of the world’s biggest hip hop dance theatre festival - Breakin’ Convention - these skeleton movers will thrill and delight you with their joyous dance.

With a bounce in their steps and looks of mischief, The Soweto Skeleton Movers fuse ‘pantsula’ - a South African street dance style - with cheeky contortionism, incredulous footwork and magical hat tricks.

You will be astounded as these rubber-limbed dancers twizzle into pretzels, and turn their limbs into skipping ropes and Hula Hoops. The Soweto Skeleton Movers made their start busking all over the streets and on the trains of Johannesburg to make ends meet for their families. They rose to fame after being discovered by the world’s biggest international hip hop dance theatre festival, Breakin’ Convention, in 2016.

The South African dance style, Pantsula, has fascinating origins. In Soweto in the 1950s, commuters developed a dance style known as ‘isparapara’ inspired by their jumping on and off of moving trains.  

Influences can be seen in jazz, breaking, popping, house and bone breaking.

“You can’t tell where the illusion of superbendiness ends and the real thing takes over… The Soweto dancers are the cream of this year’s crop… sensational.” The Independent, UK May 2016.

Want more? Participate in a free workshop with the artists.

You can also catch Soweto Skeleton Movers as part of Fresh Voices of the Commonwealth at Surfers Paradise Main Stage.

About the creators:

The Soweto Skeleton Movers are four dancers - Jabulani, Junior, Molefi and Topollo - who hail from Soweto, South Africa.