"Pantsula Dancers" © Brian Rolfe 2011
Pantsula Dancers in Kliptown, Soweto.

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Pantsula has evolved over decades to become synonymous with township culture and lifestyle.

Pantsula dance was born in the townships of the 1970s. The name is believed to have been taken from a traditional Tsonga dance style.

In the politically turbulent 1980s, it came to represent the dance and dress of the township. With the rise of township gangs, Pantsulas came to be slick, well-dressed and dangerous young men. As the genre becomes middle-aged, it remains relevant as it reinvents itself.

Jabulani Dube, choreographer of Pantsula 4 Life, is adamant that the style evolved as migrant labourers experimented with dances such as gumboot dancing and the jazz dances of Kofifi, the old Sophiatown.

“It evolved from gumboot and marabi dancing,” says Dube, as he demonstrates how the marabi dance of the 1950s, similar to the jitterbug, evolved to Pantsula and contemporary township styles he refers to as the isibujwa dances of Kwaito videos.