For more than 52 years, Jazzart Dance Theatre has created pathways for South African dance artists to develop their own voices.

Now, its Artistic Residency programme is taking Chesney Stanfield and Lfene Mfene into the next stage of their professional development: building the leadership, management and organisational skills needed to lead professional dancers.

Both artists have progressed through Jazzart’s development pathway, from training to company dancers and now into artistic leadership.

As Stanfield reflects: “If you’re in an institution that enables you to stretch beyond what you think you can do every day, it really does prepare you to enter into this world and this field; whether physically or in terms of your mindset.”

Their 2026 residency culminates in Our Bodies Remember, a new double bill presented at the Toyota Stellenbosch Woordfees on Friday 9 and Sunday 11 October, before moving to Artscape Theatre from Friday 15 to Saturday 17 October.

The production brings together two new works united by a central question: what do our bodies remember, and what happens when we wake up to who we really are?

Bodies remember

At the heart of the season is the idea that the body carries stories, histories, relationships, wounds and possibilities, often long after the mind has moved on.

Ancient Souls, choreographed by Mfene, journeys beyond the boundaries of a single lifetime, imagining a timeless realm where souls gather between lives to reflect, heal and encounter the lessons of human existence.

Through memories, emotions and fragments of lives, the work explores what we carry with us and what it means to rediscover who we are.

Unveil, choreographed by Stanfield with Jazzart alumnus Emile Petersen, turns inward, asking: are we truly awake for the life we are living?

The work explores moving through life in a state of inertia, beneath a metaphorical veil. Through moments of revelation and confrontation, the dancers question what has become familiar, what remains hidden and what it takes to awaken.

New voices

Together, the works offer two distinct perspectives while inviting audiences to consider not only what we remember, but how we choose to live in the present.

For Jazzart, the residency also connects new artistic voices with new audiences.

By allowing artists the opportunity to lead, work with professional dancers and develop the practical skills needed for the next stage of their careers, Jazzart is investing in the future of South African contemporary dance, both on stage and in the audience.

• Our Bodies Remember will be on stage at the Adam Small Theatre Complex as part of the Woordfees. Tickets can be booked online through Quicket.