Letters to Gaza is a haunting and urgent dance-theatre work created by Jika Uluntu, a grassroots arts and community organisation based in the Eastern Cape. This powerful piece gives voice and body to the devastating loss of young lives in conflict zones — focusing on the children of Gaza while echoing the struggles faced by many South African communities living with trauma and inequality.
Rooted in the South African township dance style of pantsula — born from stories of survival and resistance — six young performers move as a living letter: a message that cannot be intercepted, censored, or erased. In a world where words, images and videos are silenced or lost at borders, this is a letter without an envelope or stamp — a child’s body speaking directly to another child across the world.
There are no spoken words. Instead, breath, rhythm, gesture and raw emotion speak for themselves. Rooted in the collective memory of South African mothers who wept for their children in Soweto and Nyanga, this dance-theatre work is a living lament for Gaza’s children — a borderless cry for peace and protection.
This performance rises from Jika Uluntu’s commitment to using the arts as a pathway for social change, healing and safeguarding children’s voices. Directed by the acclaimed Chuma Sopotela, the work invites audiences to witness the question at its heart:
When words fail, how do children tell the truth about war?
Premiering at the 2025 National Arts Festival, Letters to Gaza is more than a performance — it is a borderless dance of solidarity, hope and courage. It asks each of us to listen to the voices we too often silence: the voices of children.
Production Credits
Created by: Jika Uluntu as part of Voices of Ubuntu Project
Director: Chuma Sopotela
Performed by: Children from Tikinini the Eastern Cape
About the Artists
Chuma Asanda Sopotela — Director, Performer, Theatre-Maker
Chuma Asanda Sopotela is a multi-award-winning South African theatre-maker, director, performer, and facilitator whose work bridges experimental performance, community-rooted arts, and radical political theatre. Her practice draws from the body as an archive, ritual as resistance, and storytelling as truth-telling.
Widely recognised for her visceral, movement-driven works that break silence and centre the voices of the marginalised — especially women and children — Chuma crafts performances that are as healing as they are confrontational. She works at the intersection of social justice and creative expression, partnering with communities to create works that spark dialogue and restore dignity.
As the lead facilitator for the Jika Uluntu Voices of Ubuntu Project in the Eastern Cape, Chuma mentors children and youth through dance, puppetry, and Forum Theatre — amplifying unheard stories and creating safe spaces for reflection, play, and protest.
In 2025, she directs Letters to Gaza, a bold new dance-theatre work that mourns the loss of children in Gaza and echoes South Africa’s own history of mothers and children bearing the cost of violence. Rooted in pantsula dance and the spirit of African lament, this piece is a living act of remembrance and defiance — performed by South African children who refuse to be silent."
- Venue: The Playhouse Mobile Stage
- Location: The Village Green
- Programme type: Curated Programme
- Genre: Dance & Physical Theatre
- Duration: 20 to 30 minutes
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Ages:
ALL AGES
