From Bonteheuwel township on the Cape Flats in Cape Town to the world, South African choreographer Lee-Ché Janecke is a household name in the dance space and this year’s National Arts Festival currently underway in Makhanda has the privilege of being the first to experience his first personal work.
Predominantly a commercial choreographer, Janecke is most famed for his viral dance to Tyla’s Water that has been performed worldwide.
He has become one of the most influential figures in contemporary South African and global pop culture, choreographing for major TV productions such as Idols SA, and top local and international artists including Mafikizolo, Shekhinah, Sho Madjozi, Uncle Waffles, and more.
Co-founder of the legendary male dance crew V.I.N.T.A.G.E., Janecke has been challenging norms and reshaping the SA dance scene for more than a decade.
His style is singular, signature. He blends contemporary SA styles Amapiano and Bacardi, with global urban styles like whacking, hip-hop, voguing and krumping.
But there is a very specific feminine quality to all his work. A fluidity that makes it so uniquely his.
Yet, despite his success and influence on a global scale, his recognition as the 2026 Standard Bank Artist of the Year for Dance is an honour he has never let himself imagine.
“When I got the call, I couldn’t believe that I got this opportunity. Me? I got this honour?”
A euphoric Janecke shared this at the opening night of his piece, Majaivan, at the NAF on Saturday.
Receiving a standing ovation on opening night, this is the first piece Janecke has choreographed for himself and no-one else.
The first piece that is entirely his own voice, with no artist brief, specifications or limits.
“I felt like my skin was tingling the whole time I was watching it. Internally, I’ve never felt that before.
“This is fully my own creation. To not have to be attached to anything else, to have my voice at the top of the conversation and this freedom to express myself is just, wow!
“I have this overwhelming feeling of fulfilment seeing it.
“It’s the first time I’m in a theatre space and watching it and watching the audience receive it in this way is amazing. This was incredible.”
Majaivan is Janecke in every way. It is his story, his style, his soul, represented in a vibrant, wild and unfiltered sequence of dance.
While each scene reflects a different aspect of his life, the piece is not a clear-cut, chronological retelling of his life’s journey.
But rather, it feels more like a celebration of all the lived experiences that have shaped him as a choreographer, dancer and human being.
Janecke gives us a glimpse into himself; his childhood traumas, mental health struggles, his own exploration of his sexuality, his passions, and everything in between.
Mostly a self-taught artist, Janecke grew up with a ballerina mother and a breakdancer father.
So while formal training was not something he had access to, his “teachers” were all the movement around him, the dance styles he learnt from the streets and rich dance culture surrounding him growing up.
“The piece reflects some key points that stand out for me in my life.
“My childhood traumas, feeling boxed in to a certain identity, depression, gangsterism. Things I grew up with in Cape Town.
“Then living in Johannesburg and the dangers of it, getting mugged, discovering my sexuality, thinking I was attracted to women, then no I’m not.
“Realising it was just that feminine quality of movement that I really loved, the hint of training I never had access to.
“The streets, the way they gave me that title of ‘Majaivan’...
“All those moments go into the piece. It’s everything that has influenced me and my style of choreography,” Janecke said.
And the dancers who perform his story on the NAF stage give it their all and more.
Majaivan is bold and loud, it is in your face and the energy never stops.
The performers hit every beat, hard.
Their charisma and sheer talent is daring and you can’t help but admire their nerve, their unapologetic expressiveness, and cheer them on.
“What an amazingly gifted bunch of South African individuals. SA is really where it’s at,” Janecke said.
“I’ve already said to the dancers that this is not a one-off. The world needs to see it.
“These dancers need to go to the world and hopefully we can make that happen.”
Janecke is proof that South African artists are not just part of the conversation.
They can be and ARE the conversation. That they can be iconic.
“SA creatives should be the conversation. We can create our own identity that the rest of the world will follow and reference and follow.
“Rather than us just always referencing the rest of the world.”
Daily Dispatch
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