{{Short description|South African dancer and choreographer (1985–2024)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}} {{Use South African English|date=September 2012}} {{Infobox Artist | name = Dada Masilo | image = InfectingTheCity2012 Death&Maidens DadaMasilo SydelleWillowSmith 20120306 (45) (cropped).jpg | alt = | caption = Masilo in 2012 | birth_date = {{birth date|1985|2|21|df=y}} | birth_place = Soweto, South Africa | death_date = {{death date and age|2024|12|29|1985|2|21|df=y}} | death_place = Johannesburg | field = Dance | training = {{ubl| Dance Factory | Jazzart Dance Theatre | Performing Arts Research and Training Studios }} | movement = | awards = Standard Bank Young Artist Award }}
'''Dada Masilo''' (21 February 1985 – 29 December 2024) was a South African dancer and choreographer, known for her unique and innovative interpretations of classical ballets.<ref name="CNN">{{cite web |first=Robin |last=Curnow |publisher=CNN |date=2 November 2010 |url=http://articles.cnn.com/2010-11-02/world/south.africa.dada.masilo_1_ballet-moves-classical-ballet-international-dance-world?_s=PM:WORLD |title=Dada Masilo: South African dancer who breaks the rules – CNN |access-date=10 April 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120528213747/http://articles.cnn.com/2010-11-02/world/south.africa.dada.masilo_1_ballet-moves-classical-ballet-international-dance-world?_s=PM%3AWORLD |archive-date=28 May 2012 }}</ref> Masilo was trained in classical ballet and contemporary dance, and fused these techniques with African dance steps to create her high-speed style. She appeared and collaborated internationally.
==Background== Masilo was born on 21 February 1985 in Soweto, a township of Johannesburg, South Africa, where she was also raised.<ref name="Sunday World">{{cite web |first=Coceka |last=Magubeni |publisher=Sunday World |date=30 December 2024 |url=https://sundayworld.co.za/news/decorated-dancer-dada-masilo-passes-away-following-short-illness/ |title=Decorated dancer Dada Masilo passes away following short illness |access-date=30 December 2024 }}</ref> As a girl, she appeared with other girls in a troupe that she formed to dance in the streets to Michael Jackson's songs. They were invited to the Art and Dance festival of the Dance Factory in Newtown, Johannesburg,<ref name="Culture">{{Cite news|url=https://theculturetrip.com/africa/south-africa/articles/dada-masilo-south-africas-star-choreographer/|title=Dada Masilo, South Africa's Star Choreographer|last=Vernon|first=Diana|work=Culture Trip|access-date=27 October 2017}}</ref><ref name="Sunday World" /> a school to find and train young talents. She was noticed by its director Suzette Le Sueur, who invited her to train professionally and became her mentor. She gained recognition when she danced for Beatrix of the Netherlands at age eleven.<ref name="Sunday World" /><ref name="FAZ" /> She saw her first classic ballet at the time, Tchaikovsky' ''Swan Lake''; she fell "in love with tutus and pointe shoes", and the performance prompted her interest in choreography. She began teaching at the school at age 19.<ref name="Culture" />
Around the age of 15, Masilo came out as a lesbian to her "very religious" mother, who "couldn’t accept it". When asked in 2022 about her tendency to focus on "controversial subjects" such as homophobia, Masilo stated "From that moment, I made it a point to try and make people understand it’s a choice. If you come out to your parents, they’re not going to have a heart attack and die! No. This is who I am, and you deal with it. I do not want to discriminate; I want to be the person that I am without having to hide."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Foyer |first1=Maggie |title=Dada Masilo: Dancing Under the Heartstrings |url=https://www.danceicons.org/pages/index.php?p=221126115036 |website=Dance ICONS |access-date=5 January 2025 |date=December 2022}}</ref>
Masilo studied at Braamfontein{{'}}s National School for the Arts from 2002.<ref name="Sunday World" /> In 2003 she moved on to train at the Jazzart Dance Theatre in Cape Town with Alfred Hinkel, preparing for training at the Performing Arts Research and Training Studios in Belgium from 2005.<ref name="Culture" /><ref name="FAZ" /><ref name="SABC" />
With a background in both classical ballet and contemporary dance, she fused these techniques with African dance steps to create her high-speed style.<ref name = "CNN"/> She transformed classic ballets into "powerfully grounded, hip-shaking, moves of African dance" to tell stories of modern-day characters who suffer issues such as discrimination, inequality and domestic violence.<ref name="Culture" /> Although she was interested more in the personal challenge of choreography than political statements, her pieces often addressed taboos such as homosexuality and race relations.<ref name="CNN"/> One of her notable partners on stage was South African contemporary dancer Kyle Heinz Rossouw. She collaborated with William Kentridge, Ann Masina, and Gregory Maqoma, among others.<ref name="SABC" /><ref name="WT" />
Masilo died unexpectedly in Johannesburg on 29 December 2024, at the age of 39, after a brief illness.<ref name="Sunday World" /><ref name="SABC">{{cite news|date=31 December 2024 |title=Award-winning dancer, choreographer Dada Masilo dies at 39 |url=https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/999748-2/ | work=SABC| access-date=31 December 2024}}</ref><ref name="FAZ">{{cite news|first=Wiebke |last=Küster |date=30 December 2024 |title=Dada Masilo ist tot|url=https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/buehne-und-konzert/choreografin-dada-masilo-ist-tot-sie-interpretierte-klassiker-auf-ihre-art-110202725.html | newspaper=FAZ | language=de | access-date=3 January 2025}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=31 December 2024 |title=Celebrated S.African contemporary dancer Dada Masilo dies aged 39|url=https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/celebrated-safrican-contemporary-dancer-dada-masilo-dies-aged-39/ar-AA1wKC8w | work=MSN | agency=AFP| access-date=31 December 2024}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=31 December 2024 |title=Dada Masilo, Who Fused Ballet With African Dance, Dies at 39 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/31/world/africa/dada-masilo-dead.html | work=The New York Times | access-date=15 April 2026}}</ref>
== Performance venues == <!--* Jazzart Dance Theatre, Cape Town, 2003 * London School of Contemporary Dance, 2004--> * ''Dancing with Dada'', in collaboration with William Kentridge, 2011<ref name="WT">{{cite web |first=Donna |last=Bryson |work=The Washington Times |date=17 September 2011 |url=http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/sep/17/artist-william-kentridge-on-stage-in-south-africa/ |title=Artist William Kentridge on stage in South Africa – Washington Times |accessdate=10 April 2012}}</ref> * ''The Bitter End of Rosemary,'' Düsseldorf, Germany, 2011<ref name="OUP">{{cite web |first=Kathrina |last=Farrugia-Kriel |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=5 March 2020 |url=https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/34636/chapter-abstract/295102886?redirectedFrom=fulltext |title= Dancing Her Death: Dada Masilo's The Bitter End of Rosemary (2011) as a South African Contemporary Rethinking of Hamlet's Ophelia |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190498788.013.27 |isbn=978-0-19-049878-8 | access-date=3 January 2025 }}</ref> * Infecting the City 2012 festival, Cape Town<ref name="ITC" /> <gallery mode=packed heights="220px"> InfectingTheCity2012 Death&Maidens DadaMasilo SydelleWillowSmith 20120306 (18).jpg|Death & Maidens InfectingTheCity2012 Death&Maidens DadaMasilo SydelleWillowSmith 20120306 (22).jpg|Death & Maidens InfectingTheCity2012 Death&Maidens DadaMasilo SydelleWillowSmith 20120306 (32).jpg|Death & Maidens, at Infecting the City </gallery>
== Awards == Masilo achieved a Gauteng Arts and Culture MEC Award in 2006, as the Most Promising Female Dance in a Contemporary Style.<ref name="SABC" /> She was recipient of the Standard Bank Young Artist Award in 2008.<ref name="SABC" /><ref name="ITC">{{cite web |title=Infecting the City 2012 |url=http://www.infectingthecity.com/2012/artists/dada-masilo |access-date=10 April 2012 |archive-date=3 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303205905/http://www.infectingthecity.com/2012/artists/dada-masilo |url-status=dead }}</ref> She received a Premio Positano Léonide Massine, an Italian lifetime achievement award for classic and contemporary dance, in September 2024. The City of Johannesburg named Masilo one of 44 "artistic icons in the City of Gold" in 2024, with a star carved into the wall of the Soweto Theatre.<ref name="Sunday World" /><ref name="SABC" />
==Works== ===Classical ballets=== * ''Romeo and Juliet'',<ref name="SABC" /> 2008<ref name="Tanz" /> * ''Carmen'',<ref name="SABC" /> 2009<ref name="Tanz" /> * ''Swan Lake'',<ref name="SABC" /><ref name="Tanz">{{cite web |last=Hannemann | first=Rando | url=https://www.tanz.at/index.php/kritiken/kritiken-2021/2491-dada-masilos-fruehlingsopfer-the-sacrifice | title=Dada Masilos Frühlingsopfer: "The Sacrifice" | website=tanz.at | date=29 July 2021 | language=de | access-date=3 January 2025}}</ref> 2010<ref name="Tanz" /> <!--* ''Death and the Maiden''--> * ''Giselle'',<ref name="SABC" /> 2017<ref name="Tanz" />
===Original works=== * ''The Bitter End of Rosemary'', 2011, based on Ophelia<ref name="OUP"/> * ''Dancing with Dada'', 2011<ref name="WT" /> * ''The Sacrifice'' based on Pina Bausch's ''Frühlingsopfer'',<ref name="SABC" /> 2021<ref name="Tanz" />
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{IMDb name| 12714472}} * {{YouTube|tncjJSU9t8k|Dada Masilo / The Dance Factory "The Sacrifice"}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Masilo, Dada}} Category:1985 births Category:2024 deaths Category:Contemporary dancers Category:Lesbian dancers Category:LGBTQ ballet dancers Category:21st-century ballet dancers Category:LGBTQ choreographers Category:People from Soweto Category:South African ballerinas Category:South African ballet dancers Category:South African lesbians Category:South African LGBTQ dancers Category:South African women choreographers Category:South African choreographers