“A brilliant, beautiful piece.” Business Day (South Africa)

A global fusion of rousing live music sets the pace for this solo tour de force by exquisite dancer and choreographer Gregory Maqoma, a bright star in South Africa’s dance and theater scene. Maqoma invited three of the world’s most refreshing and articulate choreographers to contribute their unique artistic voices to Beautiful Me—Akram Khan (U.K.), Faustin Linyekula (D.R. of the Congo) and Vincent Mantsoe (South Africa)—forging an expansive movement vocabulary that layers the influences of contemporary Kathak, Afro-fusion, and visual dance theater with breathtaking precision and lyrical warmth. As he performs to a soaring score for sitar, violin, cello and percussion, Maqoma unspools the personal journey—and larger social history—through which he discovered his own rich theatrical form. The internationally acclaimed production plays out as a series of conversations, incorporating “minutes” of movement, music and text into a heartfelt self-portrait and a kinetic reflection on African identity.

The debut U.S. tour of Beautiful Me is produced by MAPP International Productions in association with The Africa Contemporary Arts Consortium. Funded in part with generous support from The George and MaryLou Boone Fund for Artistic Advancement, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Ovation TV.