Vincent Sekwati Koko Mantsoe

Vincent Sekwati Koko Mantsoe is a South African choreographer whose work synthesizes ritual knowledge, street-dance experience and contemporary concert-dance craft into a spiritually grounded stage language. Born in 1971 in Soweto, Johannesburg, Mantsoe grew up in an environment where ritual song, dance and drumming were part of spiritual practice, alongside the movement vocabulary of township street dance. At nineteen, he entered formal training at Moving Into Dance Mophatong in Johannesburg, the influential company and school founded by Sylvia Glasser, where he encountered Afrofusion practice and broader contemporary-dance techniques alongside his earlier lived knowledge.

Mantsoe's early choreography attracted rapid recognition. Moving Into Dance documented *African Soul* in 1992, which received a Pick of the Fringe distinction at Dance Umbrella, followed by *Gula* in 1993, for which he was named Most Promising Male Dancer. In 1994 he received an FNB Young Choreographers Grant and created *Hanano*. He was recognized as a Standard Bank Young Artist for Dance in 1996, an honor that marked his emergence as a significant voice in South African contemporary dance.

His repertory expanded through works including *Phokwane* (1998), *Barena* (2000), *Men-Jaro* (2006), *Ntu* (2005), *Motswa-Hole*, *Ndaa*, and *Lefa*. These pieces circulated his inquiry internationally through residencies, performances and teaching. In workshops, Mantsoe identifies his evolving approach as KOBA, a method that uses breath, cyclic energy, grounded natural positions and an inside-to-outside progression rather than a fixed vocabulary of decorative steps. He has sustained a presence in South African contemporary-dance history while building an international career, and was honored as JOMBA!'s Legacy Artist in 2022 in recognition of his contribution to African contemporary dance.