The energy that Adele Blank exudes and infuses into a class, an audience or a listener interviewing her, is what you would expect sitting in the company of an Olympic athlete. She radiates enthusiasm and pleasure; a gratitude and an awe of life, wrapped in an unfailing love of all things. She takes bits from life, from people, cultures, from stories and from personal experiences and works all these into dance, into a moving sculpture of bodies, a worship of the human form.

For five decades her name has been omnipresent in the world of dance, a thousand students have passed through her hands, been touched and enthused by her passion, inspired by her vision. She has undoubtedly earned the title given her, ‘South Africa’s Mother of Contemporary Dance’ even though she would prefer to bestow that title on her mentor Sheila Wardski.

In 2015 Adele was named a Living Legend by the Arts and Culture Living Legends Legacy Programme.