7–14 March 2026 | Entokozweni, Emakhazeni Local Municipality
The My Body My Space: Public Arts Festival returns to Entokozweni on 7–14 March 2026, bringing together arts educations programmes, public performance that ranges from award-winning contemporary dance, to international visiting artists, community-based arts practice and international cultural exchange — and hosting a first ever Mpumalanga Community Arts Centre (CAC) Expo as part of this year’s programme.
Curated by the Forgotten Angle Theatre Collaborative (FATC), My Body My Space is a rural, site-responsive public arts festival rooted in movement through shared spaces and communities. The festival, now in its 11th year, continues its commitment to shifting conventions around bodies, environments and the human, while foregrounding access, participation and dialogue across social and geographic divides.
Four programmes across Entokozweni
This year’s festival main programme known as the Central Nervous System/CNS unfolds across four interconnected programmes on the 13th and 14th March, inviting audiences to experience Entokozweni & Emthonjeni as a living performance landscape:
The festival opens on Friday evening 17.30 with performances and a night market and CAC exhibition, creating an informal gathering space for artists, makers, cultural practitioners and audiences.
On Saturday morning 09.30, performances and activations weave through the Emthonjeni township, animating public spaces and exploring the relationship between body, place and everyday life.
The programme then gathers at Chazon School at 13.00 for lunch and performances on the school field, offering a moment of shared encounter and reflection.
The festival closes at Pholani Park 17.30, with more performance and where the CAC Expo culminates in public “dragon’s den” styled pitching sessions take place — providing a platform for artists and cultural practitioners to present ideas, projects and initiatives within a supportive, community-centred environment.
This year audiences can expect performances from choreographers and artists from partners like Moving into Dance, Sibikwa Arts Centre and Working Title MultiMedia Curation, as well as names that are familiar to lovers of contemporary dance: Musa Hlatshwayo, Thamsanqa Majela, Kwanele Finch Thusi, Smangaliso Ngwenya, Vincent Mantsoe, Kaldi Makutike and more. Artists from beyond SA’s borders include Nashilongweshipwe from Namibia’s Owela Live Arts Collective, contact improvisation specialist Lucia Walker, artists from La Reunion, and sound artist Sophie Mitiki from Ethiopia/Korea.
The annual arts education programme known as the Arteries Progarmme will run from the 7th to 10th March at various schools and places of learning across Emakhazeni.
Hosting the CAC Expo
By hosting the CAC Expo within My Body My Space, the festival extends its focus beyond performance to include cultural entrepreneurship, exchange and sustainability in the creative sector. The CAC Expo is a celebration of five years of The National Department of Sports, Arts and Culture and the Mpumalanga Department of Culture, Sports and Recreation’s Community Arts Development Programme (CADP) in Mpumalanga for which FATC has been serving as implanting agency. In this role, FATC has worked to capacitate and uplift Community Arts Centres and their leaders, and now brings together alumni of the programme to pitch, exhibit, network and connect with other artists, producers and stakeholders working across the arts and culture ecosystem.
A festival rooted in place
“Since its inception, My Body My Space has developed a distinctive rural public arts identity — bringing people to the art and to communities, rather than following urban festival conventions,” explains PJ Sabbagha, FATC’s founder and director. “Entokozweni is not simply a backdrop, but an active collaborator in the festival’s unfolding, with each site shaping how work is encountered and experienced.”
The 2026 edition invites audiences to move, gather and engage — tracing how creative practice can reimagine shared spaces and open new ways of being together.
My Body My Space Public arts Festival is funded by The National Arts Council of South Africa, The Presidents Employment Stimulus Programme, The Oppenheimer Memorial Trust, critical local support and partnership with the Emakhazeni Local Municipality and additional in-kind support from UJ Arts and Culture, Splitbeam Gearhouse and numerous other partners.
The Community Arts Development Programme (CADP) is a project of and funded by The National Department of Sports, Arts and Culture Mzansi Golden Economy in partnership with the Mpumalanga Department of Culture, Sports and Recreation.
