By Cameron Lee
September 29, 2026
Music has always been an integral part of Charlotte Ballet resident choreographer Mthuthuzeli November’s work. A Benois de la Danse and Laurence Olivier Award winner, November often creates original music for his choreographic works, utilizing percussion and even his voice for chants and rhythms that evoke affections of his home in Zolani, a small township in Ashton, South Africa’s Western Cape.
“The music always comes first. And I think through music… I want to revisit home,” November said. “I always search for that feeling of wanting to go home and the closest thing that takes me home sometimes is driven by the music.”
The township of Zolani was last recorded as having a population of fewer than 6,000 people and covers roughly .53 square miles, a little more than a third the size of Central Park in New York City. Despite its size and economic and infrastructure challenges, November describes Zolani as a beautiful community surrounded by grape, apricot and peach farms.
Before being introduced to ballet at the age of 15 through Dance For All, a South African nonprofit organization that uses dance education as a tool for youth development, November was immersed in the kwaito music and street-dance culture of South African townships. Kwaito, a genre that blends house music with African rhythms, samples and spoken or rapped vocals, was a significant part of the dance culture he grew up with.
“They used to call them like a bash. So basically, there would be like a whole bunch of people drinking and there would be a DJ and a few towns would gather together to compete,” he said.
One of November’s most notable musical collaborations among his many accolades — and perhaps his coolest — came in 2019, when he performed onstage at Glastonbury Festival in front of a massive audience during grime rapper Stormzy’s headlining set. The performance was significant not only because Stormzy became the first Black British solo artist to headline the festival, but also because it brought the issue of representation in ballet to one of the world’s largest music stages
Just months earlier, Ballet Black, the London-based company founded to expand opportunities and visibility for Black and Asian dancers, had collaborated with Freed of London to create brown and bronze pointe shoes designed to better match dancers’ skin tones. November and fellow Ballet Black dancer Cira Robinson wore the shoes during the Glastonbury performance, highlighting a meaningful shift toward greater inclusivity in an art form where traditional pointe shoes had long been available primarily in pink and lighter shades.
November joined Ballet Black in 2015, created his first choreographic work for the company, Interrupted, in 2016, and followed it with Ingoma in 2019, which was inspired by the 1946 South African miners’ strike in Johannesburg, an important event in the history of the anti-apartheid movement. The piece combined classical ballet with contemporary and African-influenced dance and went on to win the 2020 Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production.
In 2023, November premiered another production that further defined his relationship with music while establishing a connection to North Carolina: NINA: By Whatever Means. The work explores Tryon native Nina Simone’s life as a musician, performer and civil-rights activist, tracing her journey from childhood as a piano prodigy through her career, personal struggles and activism. It’s a tribute to Simone, with the goal of encouraging audiences to learn more about her life beyond her music. NINA: By Whatever Means also won Best Choreography at the Black British Theatre Awards in 2023.
While music has deeply influenced November’s work, his choreography remains rooted in Zolani and the dance traditions he grew up with. His first ballet instructor, Fiona Sutton of Dance For All, encouraged him to incorporate the African and kwaito dance movements he already knew into his ballet training.
“In her [Fiona Sutton’s] way of trying to teach me ballet was always incorporating the world that I was from,” November said. “So that influence kept adding to my outlook of what ballet looked like. And when I moved to Cape Town … I was introduced to more contemporary styles of dancing and musical theatre.”
That connection to his roots is particularly evident with From Africa With Love, his first work for Charlotte Ballet, which returns this month as part of the company’s Black Box Series, further expanding the company’s repertoire with November’s blend of African, contemporary and classical influences.
“From Africa With Love was sort of the beginning of truly exploring the marriage between African dance and contemporary dance and ballet,” November said. “I was really trying to find a language that felt cohesive in all those different worlds and how they come together.”
November was initially connected through a friend with Charlotte Ballet Artistic Director Alejandro Cerrudo, an esteemed dancer and choreographer in his own right who joined the company in 2022. Their chemistry, friendship and shared interest in a more expansive artistic partnership intrigued him.
“We hit it off really like from the beginning,” November said. “It was one of those times where I felt that my voice was going to be important… and so I jumped on board quite quickly.”
From Africa With Love offers a fresh approach to traditional ballet, “challenging the ballet structure” while expanding the possibilities of dance through rhythm, movement, music and storytelling. November said creating the work also reignited his passion for dance.
“When I was working with the artists of Charlotte Ballet I really had the best creative time,” he said. “I felt like I was creating with friends. It just became… a love letter to the company.”
November is based in London and recently won the esteemed Benois de la Danse award for Choreographer in 2025, one of the highest honors in international ballet. He says he has spent a total of five months in Charlotte, but most of his time working while also checking out a few museums and restaurants. The next time he visits, he wants to explore more of Charlotte’s music and arts scene to learn more about the city. Until then, we can soak in the sounds, rhythms and movements of his hometown of Zolani.
Charlotte Ballet’s Black Box Series, a triple bill also featuring Dos y Dos y Dos, choreographed by Alejandro Cerrudo and Phoenix, a world premiere by German American duo FLOCK, Alice Klock and Florian Lochner, plays at the Patricia McBride and Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux Center for Dance October 2-17. You can use code CLTURE20 for 20% off price zones 1-3.
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