SYDNEY – One of the highlights of musician and dancer Nomathamsanqa Mkhwanazi’s career was meeting Dolly Parton.
The American country music star joined Mkhwanazi and the Cirque Mother Africa company on stage at the end of a performance last year.
“She came to the show in Tennessee for the second time and said she had never seen anything like it before. Mkhwanazi had a brief conversation with Parton – “less than a minute” – but was impressed by her.
“She was wonderful, very appreciative and very down-to-earth.”
Mkhwanazi, who was a founding member of Cirque Mother Africa in 2006 had been thinking of leaving the show to focus on her solo music career. But she’s glad she didn’t.
“If I had I wouldn’t have met Dolly Parton.”
She would also have not had the opportunity to return to Australia. She was last here with the show in 2010 and is glad to be back. “I love it,” she says, “I like the weather, It’s not as cold as Europe. Russia I didn’t like at all, it was too cold!”
Mkhwanazi joined Cirque Mother Africa when it was formed in 2006 by former street performer Winston Ruddle. Since then it has toured around the world “I sing and I dance,” she says.
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“There’s a live band. I have two songs where I do the lead.”
The music in the show is a mixture of traditional African songs and more contemporary pieces.
And that blend of old and new is characteristic of the show, which features perfomers from several African countries including Ethiopia, South Africa, Kenya, the Ivory Coast, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.
It features new and old acts, new music, and new costumes including masks and beads in a show that combines music, dance, acrobatics, and more.
“There are 26 artists and 10 different acts,” Mkhwanazi says. Among them are foot juggling and bounce juggling – “a man from Ethiopia bounces about 15 balls at the same time”.
The music is played live by the Stomping in Africa Band which features the traditional tones of the Kora, a 20-string instrument from the West Coast of Africa that sounds like a cross between a harp and a guitar.
Mkhwanazi (31) was born in Zimbabwe. She sang in church as a child and was an extra in the film The Power of One.
She joined Mpopoma Drama Club and worked as an actor, singer and dancer before joining Cirque Mother Africa.
She’s enjoyed the opportunities for travel it has provided but says, “I would like to settle down some someday. Home is best.”
Her 11-year-old son is staying with her parents and attending school and it’s this as well as thoughts of pursuing her own career as a singer – both in live performance and as a recording artist – that has made her think about leaving.
“It’s a difficult decision,” she says.
But for now she is focusing on her performance. now has come to Australia for a two-month tour that will include regional centres as well as capital cities. It came here from New York where actor Robert De Niro was among the appreciative audience – “he sent a message to us saying, ‘I love the show, I’ve never seen anything like it’.” – The Sidney Morning Herald
