Motshegetsi Mabuse a.k.a Motsi: a dance enthusiast from South Africa

Motshegetsi a.k.a Motsi, Mabuse was born on 11.04.1981 in Mankwe, South Africa. Her family relocated when she was five to Pretoria where she completed her primary and secondary education. Although she always had a passion for dancing, she went on to study law at the University of Pretoria, in an attempt to take over her dad's law firm in due time. However her enthusiasm for dance changed the course of her life. She left law school after two years and began a full time training with a state grant at the North-West Arts Council in South Africa.

She became south african vice-champion 1998. A year later she met her future dance partner and husband, Timo Kulczak,  at the Blackpool Dance Festival in Britain. Here is an extract from an interview with Dancesportsinfo.net on how they got together:

Timo: Actually it happened here, in Blackpool (1999). We had neighbouring rooms in the same hotel, and Ton Greten from the Netherlands was outside making a lot of noise [laughs], so I looked out of my window in order to see what was going on, and Motsi did the same. We saw each other in each other windows, so we started talking for about 3 hours, until other people in the hotel started complaining that we should shut up. It was more of a boy meets girl type thing, and I liked her, but nothing happened in the end [laughs]. We exchanged telephone numbers."

Motshegetsi: I flew home, and before I had even arrived he had already called!"

Timo: So for about half-a-year we talked on the phone every day - most of the time I called three times a day [laughs], and then she invited me to visit South Africa, but it was December of the Millenium, and I couldn't get a plane ticket, so I said "Motshegetsi, you try to get a ticket to Germany"

Motshegetsi: And I missed my flight!!

Timo: Oh yes. She told me that she'd arrive, let's say, on 18th December at 10 o'clock. So, I was nervous and waiting there at 1 0 o'clock thinking, "She's coming, she's coming" and then she called me and said, "I'm not coming, I missed my flight." At first I thought - no, she's lying, she doesn't want to meet me after all, it's over - but it was true and she came the next day. We both had dancing partners then. First we actually fell in love, and I had arranged to go on a holiday together, and on the holiday we started to dance socially. We liked it, and...

Motshegetsi: ...and I was going to stop dancing anyway, so I said, "before I stop dancing, I'll dance with Timo." I wasn't happy with my old partner, and I wanted to stop and concentrate on my studies.

Timo: Then back home, we met one of the officials, who lived right next to me, and we spoke to him. He said to us, "Yes, you have to do it! Motsi, fly back home, get your stuff together and come back here in a week, and in two weeks you can dance the regional championships"

Motshegetsi : I hadn't spoken to my parents or anything, it was just "you're back in a week!" And that's how it started. ....Read more here: http://www.dancesportinfo.net/Articles/5733.aspx

Motsi and Timo danced for the Schwarz-Weiss Club Pforzheim from 2000 and became German Amateur Latin Champions 2009 and 2010. They represented Germany at the IDSF World Latin Championship where they got to the semi-finals. in 2010 they danced at the IDSF European Latin Championship and were 6th.

They retired after 10 years (2010) from the stage but not from dancing. 

The spotlights fell on Motsi when she participated 2007 and 2010 as a professional dancer in the TV Show "Let's dance",  a german version of british " Strichtly Come Dancing" or american " Dancing with the Stars".  She became a member of the jury 2011 in the Show's fourth season 2011.

Motsi is planning a come-back with her dancing shoes on stage and a new dance partner Evgenij Vosniuk from Ukraine.

 http://www.motsi-mabuse.de/