As part of our commitment to local creatives we are using this time to get to know the Winchester scene a little better! Our ‘In a Nutshell’ interviews are aimed at local creatives, practitioners, freelancers and independent businesses residing in Winchester. We want to use our platform to meet new people and showcase the incredible talent residing in this city.

Mukeni Nel trained at a dance school in Winchester up until the age of 16. At 16 he went to full time boarding school at Tring Park School for the Performing Arts for two years then trained at The Urdang Academy for three years. During his graduate year he secured a job in the recent international tour of Cats the musical, playing Bill Bailey and understudying Mistoffelees. As well as Cats he’s done an array of music videos for artists such as Jasmine Thompson and Oscar Jerome.

Henry caught up with Mukeni to discuss his dancing career, creative expression and international touring; enjoy!

HM: Can you tell us about your background and your creative education?

MN: So, I'm Mukeni Nel and I'm 22. I started dancing back in Winchester from the age of six...well, I properly started dancing at age six but my mum put me into this thing called Joe Jingles at the River Park Leisure Centre initially which is where she knew I had this, like, creativity and love for music and messing around. I got to reception staff and I had no discipline. I remember getting up and walking to different classes and not really paying attention so my mum was like "this boy needs to focus on something". She put me into ballet, she didn't really think much of it and thought I would probably do it for a couple of months or a year max and next thing you know, years later, I'm still going with it. I trained at the Wendy Allsopp School of Dance at River Park for about ten years and then I went off to Tring Park for two years before going to the Urdang Academy for three years from where I graduated last year!

HM: And you were doing Royal Associates as well, right?

MN: Yeah, so when I was at school in Winchester I did the Royal Ballet School Associates every Saturday up in Covent Garden. I also did English Youth Ballet three times as well.

HM: Yeah, I have memories of me starting with one ballet class a week and you were like "well I was in London and all over the place, working on this, teaching that". You were doing so much amazing stuff, it was awesome! During your time at Tring or Urdang did you have the opportunity to create any of your own work?

MN: Yeah, when I was at Tring we had this thing called Choreo-Show and it was a chance for dancers to make up different pieces for other performers, so, I made a solo with one of my friends which got entered and got to the final! When I was doing A-level dance we had to create a solo and group piece as well. Then, at Urdang, I was really lucky because I got to create a piece with my best friend and we got to go to a convention where other schools were performing pieces and ours consisted of all boys. We felt it was important to show another side of the boys at Urdang that didn't fit into the commercial genre, so we created a much more contemporary lyrical piece, but still with a commercial aspect to it. So, yeah I guess I have done a bit of choreography!

HM: Do you find with any of the work that you make, be it on yourself or others, that there has been anything in particular you've tried to communicate or get across?

MN: Well, the piece I made at Urdang with my friend was called 'Broken' and it was about mental health, more specifically about men's mental health. We wanted to show the other side of men that we don't usually see whilst using a complete contrast of different dance styles that we could pair up to help us really convey the story.

HM: Did that, for yourself or the people involved in the piece itself, hit a nerve or feel like it came from somewhere within you or from your own life experience?

MN: Definitely. Especially when you go off to dance school...it's such an experience and a roller-coaster with so much go-go-go all the time you never really get time to sit-back and reflect and process what's going on. Before we made the piece, we sat all the boys down and explained the premise of the story and they really enjoyed it because it wasn't something that they would normally get to do. It seemed important to us and to them to show people our other side. Do you know what I mean?

HM: Absolutely, that's really clear. You were only recently still touring the world in Andrew Lloyd Webber's incredible Cats! Do you think touring is still something you would like to get back to?

MN: I love touring. Getting out to places you've only really ever heard of and actually being about to go there and to have your eyes opened to so many different cultures and people. I think I did a lot of growing-up in that time and would love to continue now! It can be challenging though, for sure. Some of the countries you go to can be... everything can be so challenging in some places! There were so many great audiences but there were some audiences that were just on their phones or so bored and are just there because they can. One woman was sitting in the front row with her legs up sleeping and you're like "what is going on!?"

HM: Audience members using their phones can be very frustrating. I don't really see why they are even there in the first place!

MN: In Cats there is loads of audience interaction and we used to, if someone was on their phone, just slap it out of their hand! We would get told off but it's just so annoying. Someone sitting there, not even on dim but with full brightness.

HM: (lots of laughing) Thanks so much Mukeni!

In a Nutshell: Mukeni Nel