Sbonakaliso Ndaba's inspiring journey: From Kitchen Dancer to JOMBA! Legacy Artist

From dancing in her mother’s kitchen as a child to travelling the world, dancer Sbonakaliso Ndaba still shares her passion for dancing.

Ms Ndaba from Southfield is the artistic director of her Observatory-based non-profit dance academy called SboNdaba Dance.

SboNdaba Dance provides opportunities for underprivileged dancers who have had trouble learning in school or were unable to gain admission to prestigious dance schools, as well as for young dancers who have passed matric but are unable to afford attending prestigious dance schools.

She currently has 14 students, eight of whom have become professional dancers. Many of her students come from areas like Langa, Nyanga, Khayelitsha, Eerste River, Worcester, George, and Philippi.

She has had a love of dancing since the age of 8, growing up in Durban, and she even started doing dance choreography before her teen years.

“I remember turning my mother’s kitchen into a dance studio,” she said. 

She did her dance studies at Jazzart Dance Theatre in her early 20s and has worked as a professional dancer and choreographer for over 30 years.

Over the years, dancing has taken her many places in the local and global community. She was a singer and dancer in Sarafina!

When she was 17, she was a dance choreographer for the former local soap opera Backstage and a dance choreographer for the Big Brother series. As a dancer, she also performed in productions throughout Africa in countries like Zimbabwe, the Ivory Coast, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, and Namibia. With Cape Town Opera, she went to places like Italy, France, and China. 

She has been announced as the 2025 JOMBA! Legacy Artist at the 27th annual JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience, presented by the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) Centre for Creative Arts, at the end of this month.

“Receiving this acknowledgement is an honour for me, I do not see this as work, I am doing what I am supposed to be doing. I am supposed to be nurturing the young people; this is my calling,” she said.

Her style of dance is African Contemporary dance and as part of her tribute at JOMBA!, her SboNdaba Dance group will present In Search of Our Humanity which will be presented for two nights at the festival that runs from Tuesday August 26 to Sunday September 7 at The Sneddon Theatre in Durban, followed by the Johannesburg satellite edition at The Market Theatre from Wednesday September 10 until Saturday September 13.

“In Search of Our Humanity is about Ubuntu, about us as people, where are we now, we need to be in touch with our people, we need to hold hands, we talk about Apartheid and Slavery, that act of ugliness must never come to our people again,” she said.

Ms Ndaba said this production will include dance as well as spoken text.

“We will ask questions, who are we, why have we lost love, why have we not fed the hungry, why have we not clothed the cold, why have we not housed the homeless?” she said.

In Women’s Month, Ms Ndaba has also been recognised and nominated in the second Annual National Arts and Culture Awards. Her work, ke e: /xarra//ke – Diverse People Unite is shortlisted for outstanding dance production, where the winners will be announced at a live ceremony on Friday, August 22, at Sun City.

Going forward Ms Ndaba and the SboNdaba Dance group will be performing In Search of Our Humanity at UCT School of Dance on Monday, September 8, from 1pm in a free concert, and in November, they will be performing their Dancing with Nature concert at The Long March to Freedom Monument in Century City.

For more information about the SboNdaba Dance group, visit their website at https://sbondabadance.co.za/