Siphiwe Mbonambi is a Ga-Rankuwa, Pretoria-born performance artist and masseuse living and working in South Africa.
Beginning her career 20 years ago, Mbonambi began working in development theatre at the Sibikwa Youth Theatre Company. Here she discovered the power of theatre and community dialogue as a medium for positive change. She has since worked in Educational Theatre, Corporate Theatre, Film, and TV, and has remained committed to activating communities to encourage progress through constructive, critical conversation, and engagement with theatricality.
Presently, Mbonambi is completing a Masters in Applied Drama with the project Theatre of Touch. Using methodologies from Applied Theatre, this project integrates massage into theatre performance, using touch as a medium of connection. It aims to clear tensions from the body, particularly for Black womxn in South Africa. Her thesis is titled The Theatre of Touch; An Autoethnographic Exploration of Ritualised-safe-touch to Counter Dysfunction Caused by Distorted Cis-gender Identification in Black Womxn. It probes the power of drama/theatre/performance art as a tool for development and human growth.
Image 1-3: Siphiwe Mbonambi, Theatre of Touch
