Motsi Mabuse

Motshegetsi "Motsi" Mabuse (born 11 April 1981) is a South African dancer who has appeared on Let's Dance, the German version of Strictly Come Dancing. She originally appeared as a professional dancer but later became a judge on the show.[1] On 22 July 2019, it was announced that Mabuse would replace Darcey Bussell as a judge on the 17th series of Strictly Come Dancing.[2]

Motsi Mabuse
Mabuse at Deutscher Fernsehpreis in 2012
Born
Motshegetsi Mabuse

(1981-04-11) April 11, 1981
Mankwe, Bophutatswana, South Africa
EducationUniversity of Pretoria
OccupationBallroom dancer
Spouse(s)
  • Timo Kulczak
    (m. 2003; div. 2014)
  • Evgenij Voznyuk
    (m. 2017)
Children1

Biography

Mabuse was born in Mankwe in 1981 in what was then the nominal Republic of Bophutatswana.[3] Her birthplace became part of South Africa and her family moved to Pretoria when she was five. Whilst in Pretoria her sister Oti (Otile) Mabuse was born and they both took an interest in dancing.[1]

Dancing career

Mabuse was expected to become a lawyer and join the family law firm but she became intrigued by dancing whilst studying at the University of Pretoria. Her education moved to dancing and in 1998 she was the runner up in the national championships. The following year she found her dance and romantic partner, Timo Kulczak at the British Open Championships in Blackpool.[3] They married in 2003 and they competed in international dance competitions from their home in Germany.[4]

In 2013 she won the German Latin dance contest with the Ukrainian dancer Evgenij Voznyuk. The following year her marriage to Kulczak ended[5] and she published a book about her life in Germany.[6] In 2015 she was with Voznyuk. She became Motsi Mabuse-Voznyuk in a small legal ceremony before celebrating with more guests in Mallorca in 2017.[5]

Media career

Let's Dance

Mabuse became known nationwide in 2007 through the second season of the RTL dance show Let's Dance, in which she danced with Guildo Horn. The couple were eliminated in the fifth show and finished in 6th place. In 2010, she danced in the third season on the show with Rolf Scheider and reached fifth place.[7] In the first episode the couple had already been eliminated, but returned after the voluntary retirement of Arthur Abraham. Since 2011, Mabuse has sat on the judging panel with Joachim Llambi and Jorge Gonzalez.[1]

Further television and stage performances

Mabuse was among the ARD broadcasting team for the 2010 FIFA World Cup and delivered background reports from South Africa.[8] In 2011, she replaced Bruce Darnell on the jury of the fifth season of Das Supertalent.[9] She was also a judge on the German version of Stepping Out in 2015.

In 2016 she made her debut as an actress at the 66th Bad Hersfelder Festspiele in The Crucible directed by Dieter Wedel.[10] The same year she was a jury member of the RTL II plus-size model casting show Curvy Supermodel – Real. Nice. Curvy. In 2018 she became the presenter of the new styling show, Who Makes Me Beautiful on RTLplus.[11]

Strictly Come Dancing

Since series 17 in 2019, Mabuse has been a judge on BBC's Strictly Come Dancing.[2] Her sister Oti is a professional dancer on the show.

Filmography
Television
Year Title Role Notes
2007, 2010 Let's Dance Dancer 2nd and 3rd season
2011–present Judge Season 4 onwards
2011 Das Supertalent Judge 5th season
2015 Stepping Out Judge
2019–present Strictly Come Dancing Judge Series 17 onwards

References
  1. "Strictly Come Dancing – Oti Mabuse – BBC One". BBC. Retrieved 2018-07-23.
  2. "Welcome our new Strictly Judge Motsi Mabuse!". BBC. 22 July 2019.
  3. Online, TV Spielfilm. ""Das Supertalent"-Jury: Motsi Mabuse wird der neue Bruce Darnell – TV SPIELFILM". TV Spielfilm Online (in German). Retrieved 2018-07-23.
  4. "Motsi Mabuse | Steckbrief, Bilder und News". WEB.DE News (in German). Retrieved 2018-07-23.
  5. "Heimlich auf Mallorca! Motsi Mabuse hat Evgenij Voznyuk geheiratet". rtlnext.rtl.de (in German). Retrieved 2018-07-23.
  6. 1981–, Mabuse, Motsi (2014). Chili im Blut : mein Tanz durchs Leben. Carstensen, Regina (Originalausgabe ed.). Köln. ISBN 9783431039139. OCLC 904085280.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  7. "Endstation für Rolfe und Motsi". rtl.de.
  8. "Wir wollen ernst genommen werden". www.t-online.de. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  9. ""Supertalent": Motsi Mabuse ersetzt Bruce Darnell". TV Wunschliste. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  10. "Dieter Wedel und Hexenjagd-Ensemble eröffnen die Probenzeit". Osthessen|News. May 11, 2016. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  11. Freedman, Joanna S. (July 22, 2019). "Who is Strictly judge Motsi Mabuse as she's announced as Darcey's replacement?". mirror. Retrieved 22 July 2019.

Further reading
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.