معرفی
Dr. Sara Matchett is an Associate Professor at the Centre for Theatre, Dance & Performance Studies, University of Cape Town (UCT). Her work bridges academic research, performance-making, and transdisciplinary practice, with a focus on embodied methodologies and breath as a connective thread in performance. She co-founded and serves as Artistic Director of the Mothertongue Project, a women’s arts collective, and is a Lead Trainer of Fitzmaurice Voicework® and Advanced Breathwork Practitioner in South Africa.
Research Interests: Sara's research investigates breath-body-voice connections in performance, proposing somatic methods for autobiographical storytelling and collective grief rituals. Her projects include Embodied Sustainability, GlobalGRACE (funded by UK Research Council), and Lamentation at the Liesbeek (collaboration with Arizona State University). She explores themes like gender equality, sex workers' wellbeing, and planetary mourning through co-sensing, radical lament, and transborder aesthetics.
Notable Projects: Her performance Womb of Fire and film Brandbaar examine embodied storytelling, while An Apprenticeship with Sorrow (2023-present) blends digital and physical realms to interrogate personal and collective collapse. The forthcoming documentary Lamentation at the Liesbeek (2024) merges cultural mythologies and activism in contested spaces.
Supervision & Collaboration: Sara has graduated 1 PhD, 10 MA/MFA, and 40 Honours students and currently supervises 5 MA/PhD candidates at UCT. She collaborates internationally, including with Professor Micha Espinosa (Arizona State University) and South African practitioners like Aja Marneweck.
Key Publications: Recent works include chapters on Precarious Landscapes (2025) and Breath-Body-Self (2024), alongside peer-reviewed articles on breathwork, somatic pedagogy, and decolonial feminist methods in journals like South African Theatre Journal and Agenda: Empowering Women.
