Fools

Mthuthuzeli November is an award-winning choreographer born in Cape Town, South Africa. Mthuthuzeli started dancing at the age of 15 with Dance For All. Graduating in 2014, he is a two time gold medal winner in the Contemporary category in the South Africa International Ballet Competition. He has danced with Cape Dance Company, where in 2014 he created his debut choreographic work. He danced in a South African production of West Side Story before joining Ballet Black in September 2015.

Since then, Mthuthuzeli has made multiple award-winning and nominated works for Ballet Black, which include the Laurence Olivier Award for INGOMA. He was awarded South Africa’s Emerging Artist prize at Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees for his solo work. He has made two works for the Cape Dance Company, Visceral and The Rite of Passage. Mthuthuzeli has created short works for English National Ballet’s Emerging Dancer competition in 2018 and 2020. He also created and danced for British Grime artist, Stormzy at Glastonbury Festival in 2019. He created a work commissioned by Cape Town Opera and Cape Town City Ballet for a film production of Pergolesi, Stabat Mater. He was also commissioned by The Grange Festival to create a work on the production of Precipice (2020). In November 2023, Fall For Dance North commissioned My Mother’s Son which was performed by himself and his brother Siphe.

Mthuthuzeli has continued to make works around the world with The Washington Ballet (USA), The Royal Ballet (UK), Northern Ballet (UK), Tanz Luzerner Theatre (Switzerland), Cape Town City Ballet (SA), Ballet Zürich (Switzerland), Charlotte Ballet (USA), Staatsballet Karlsruhe (Germany), Gibney Company (USA) and most recently Dutch National Ballet (Netherlands). In 2022, he was nominated for Best Soloist in a Dance Production by the Black British Theatre Awards and for Best Classical Choreography by the Critics Circle National Dance Awards for The Waiting Game. Most recently he won Best Choreography for his work Nina: By Whatever Means at the Black British Theatre Awards 2023.