Bridging Bionics gala features award-winning dancer Musa Motha

Anyone who has gone through a major illness or severe injury knows how it changes a person’s entire life — and perspective. For some, the challenges seem insurmountable, while others find a way to not only survive but also thrive. Musa Motha is one of the latter examples. He uses his crutch as an artistic tool to express himself and inspire others.

He grew up south of Johannesburg in South Africa, where he played football (known as soccer here) on a dusty pitch, dreaming of becoming a professional athlete. At age 10, an injury to his left knee during a tournament caused unusual and intense pain. At first, doctors were perplexed, but they eventually found osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer, in his left leg. When the first round of chemotherapy didn’t work and the tumor continued to grow, doctors amputated his leg.

With strong support from his mom, he continued to play football on crutches.

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“I knew that even though I was not going to be at a professional level, at least I was playing football,” he said. “The only setback is just thinking about, ‘Oh, I’m not going to be on those big screens and big games playing on the pitch, being with professional players, playing for my national team.'”

But as it turns out, he amassed a much larger following on plenty of big screens throughout many, many nations once he learned how to dance.

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“It was eye-opening,” he said. “I realized there was more to life — there’s more options (than football).”

It all began around age 12 when he watched neighborhood friends street dancing and asked them to teach him some moves. Two years later, he joined a local dance crew, Dynamic Entertainment. They performed and entered street battles and dance competitions. At the time, he hadn’t benefitted from any special training.

“The only challenge was just the balance and making sure I’m always working with the gravity,” he said.

But gravity takes quite a toll on the body, particularly if you have to hold your entire body up with your left arm — balancing your full body weight on an arm crutch, nonetheless. He tore ligaments in his shoulders multiple times, and other parts of his body, like his right ankle and overall muscles, hurt a lot after intense performances.

Although he admits he faced some “tragic injuries,” he said: “I never really had a rough patch. I always had support.”

He toughed out the injuries by using ice packs and drinking honey and letting his body naturally heal. Eventually, physical therapists and other experts taught him how to properly stretch and strengthen his body to avoid torn ligaments and other overuse injuries.

“The other problem was anytime I had to perform on slippery floors, it literally would scare me, and I wouldn’t enjoy my performances,” he said.

But that didn’t stop him.

Posting videos brought him recognition, which led to starring in Drake’s music video, “One Dance,” as well as South African television ads and shows. In 2018, he auditioned and was accepted into Vuyani Dance Theatre in Johannesburg, where he trained in contemporary and other styles of dance — including tap, ballet, and afro-fusion — and toured internationally.

“I’ve always wanted to explore different styles of dance and express my feelings more clearly,” he said. “Street dance is not really that clear, but when I started to do contemporary, that’s when I started to be clear about the stories that I tell on stage. It was about growing into the industry, and it was about upgrading my skill and wanting to be international and experience being in a world-class dance company.”

Within the company, he worked with renowned choreographer Gregory Maqoma, who helped him extend the use of his crutch — and how he perceived it.

“He was the one who helped me to think about what the crutch means to me — what is it to me when I step on stage,” he said. “It’s not (just) the crutch that helps me to jump around, to move from one step to another, but it could be like an extension of my arm. It could be anything that I want it to be. Right now, I take it as: This is my extension, this is my paintbrush … this is my other leg, this is a wall. I take it as anything I want it to be, and it makes my stories clear in my mind.”

In 2021, he secured a position in the world-class Rambert, Britain’s oldest dance company. There, he continued performing in groups, just as he did when he started on the streets — a form he enjoys just as much as solos, though it does pose some challenges.                             

“It’s good and not so good. The good part is I feel like a unit — I feel like a team player on stage when I perform it with other dancers, but at the same time, I struggle a lot when we have to dance closely together because I have to be extra aware, so that I don’t hit anyone with my crutches, so I don’t step on someone’s toes or slip someone (up),” he said. “But it’s always a good thing for me to perform with others because it shows unity, and I like to perform with people.”

Last year, he auditioned for “Britain’s Got Talent,” where he made the finals and became the first contestant to earn a group Golden Buzzer. Judges had used all of their allotted golden buzzers, which automatically grants a performer a place in the semi-finals, but standing ovations and powerful demands from audience members compelled judges to break the rules.

“It was really an amazing experience,” he said. “The feeling was really intense. I was nervous, and at the same time I was calm.”

That year, he also won the Emerging Artist Award 2023 at the National Dance Awards and made the cover of Vogue in May. Since then, he’s been able to work with many of his heroes and travel to big gigs all over the world. Amanda Boxtel, founder and executive director of Bridging Bionics Foundation, saw him earlier this year on the “America’s Got Talent Fantasy League” series and invited him to perform at the gala.

And, it seems that Motha has only begun to hit his stride, so to speak. He’s a DJ, a motivational speaker, a runway model, a video editor, and a photographer, among other talents. His message:

“Believe in yourself and always allow yourself to be vulnerable,” he said. “Vulnerability is not a sign of weakness.”

He fits right into Bridging Bionics’ vision to create “a world where movement is a fundamental human right.”

“There’s no better way to portray movement without limitation than with Motha. He dances with his heart and his soul,” Boxtel said. “I love his vulnerability and that he’s true to himself and who he is, and I feel that that’s going to come through to our audience and all of our athletes in our program. We don’t call them clients. We call them athletes because I feel like once an athlete, you’re always an athlete. Disability doesn’t determine who you are and how you act in the world. And I really feel his heart and his vulnerability and believing in himself, and that message is going to come through to our audience very clearly and strongly.”