Stéphanie Mwamba

Dancer, choreographer – Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo
Participant International Forum 2024

Stéphanie Mwamba is a dancer-performer, comedian and journalist born in Goma in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Passionate about dance since 2015, after training in contemporary and traditional dance at the Foyer Culturel de Goma, she has been evolving as a soloist with her company Ochula Cie. Since 2017, she has had various collaborations and experiences shared between local, national and international dancers. As a performer in the revival of Pina Bausch’s “The Rite of Spring”, Stéphanie Mwamba represents the Democratic Republic of Congo alongside some thirty wonderful dancers from 14 different African countries.

Since 2019, she has also been the founder of the Ochula Center, a centre that facilitates training and offers a space for exchange and encounters, but also a place for artistic research and residencies, as well as transmission in traditional and contemporary dance, located in Minova in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Her childhood was characterised by the break-up of the country by several rebellions, which separated her from her roots in Kasai, in central Congo. Dance and cultural identity became the original link connecting her to her lost roots, and the building blocks of her artistic approach, which finds its roots in traditional dances that she confronts with contemporary dance techniques.