The dancer on growing up in the ‘mess’ of South Africa, the pressures of competing and the joys of the BBC dance show
Born in 1981, Motsi Mabuse spent her childhood in South Africa, living under apartheid until the age of nine. Encouraged by her father and mother, a lawyer and teacher respectively, she began dancing when she turned six and was competing by 11. In 2000, Mabuse moved to Germany to continue her career as a ballroom dancer, as well as launching her own dance school and transitioning from stage to TV screen for her show Let’s Dance, first as a competitor, then as a judge. Now she appears on Strictly Come Dancing, alongside her sister Oti, and lives in Germany with her husband, Evgenij Voznyuk, and their young daughter. Her memoir, Finding My Own Rhythm, is out now. Strictly Come Dancing 2022 is on BBC One.
Back in my family’s house in South Africa, I was always a bit of a showgirl. Every time I got an opportunity to be in front of a camera I was posing and performing. I am more feminine now, but as a child I was a tomboy. Mum kept our hair short because she hated doing it, and she probably didn’t have the time and perhaps even the knowledge of how to soften our hair up. I was really skinny too because I was so active, always running around and burning energy. I looked like a boy. Then, aged 16, I started to think: “Hold on, things are changing. I am a girl!” With that my behaviour started to shift too. I began to cover up a bit more as I became more aware of my body.
