A Women’s Day event which brought cancer survivors together through dance, raised R21 000 to fund telecounselling and support groups.
At the event, held on 8 August at the Rupert Museum in Stellenbosch, attendees participated in the Nia (Neuromuscular Integrative Action) movement led by Mia Steyn, a somatic educator at Nia with Mia and an international Nia trainer.
Steyn explained that Nia is a holistic movement practice combining elements of dance, martial and healing arts, guided by sensation rather than appearance.
On 8 August, at the Rupert Museum, a group of women and men gathers for the fifth annual Nia Cansa (Cancer Association of South Africa) Women’s Day fundraiser to partake in a session of various choreography and sound meditation led by Mia Steyn, somatic educator at Nia with Mia and international Nia trainer. PHOTO: Zeta Soule
“Rather than focusing primarily on what movement looks like from the outside, we teach people to notice how movement feels from the inside,” said Steyn.
Anette du Preez, who was a speaker at the event, was diagnosed in 2023 with pseudomyxoma peritonei (PMP), a rare form of appendix cancer that had progressed to stage four by the time it was found. She underwent extensive surgery in India, describing the experience as one that gave her “a second life”.
Du Preez said movement, including Nia, became part of her recovery process alongside art, which helped her process the experience.
“Life is unpredictable,” she said. “It’s messy, and that’s beautiful.”
Nia has held a CANSA (Cancer Association of South Africa) Seal of Recognition for five years, a partnership that Steyn said grew out of the practice’s focus on physical activity and wellbeing.
According to Cansa’s 2024 National Cancer Registry (NCR) data, breast cancer remains the most common cancer among South African women, with an estimated 19.4 million women aged 15 and older considered at risk over their lifetime, a figure close to the country’s total adult female population.
Rentia Robbertze, another speaker at the event, who received her breast cancer diagnosis in 2023 following a mammogram, also shared how Nia became a part of her recovery.
“I did not just join a movement class. I found my way home,” said Robbertze.
Attendees are led in a session of Nia, a holistic movement practice combining elements of dance, martial arts and healing arts by Mia Steyn, somatic educator at Nia with Mia and international Nia trainer and Almarie Venter, wellness and human performance consultant at Remind Wellness by incorporating movement and sound simultaneously. PHOTO: Zeta Soule
“We have the highest number of support groups in communities in Cape Town,” said Leillani Geduld, national corporate relations and sporting events manager at Cansa, adding that social workers staffing these groups are partly funded through a department of social development grant.
Inside the Nia session at the Rupert Museum, as Mia Steyn, somatic educator at Nia with Mia and international Nia trainer guides attendees through a sequence of movement and sound during the fifth annual Women’s Day fundraiser. VIDEO: Zeta Soule
“A steady rhythm can feel organising and grounding, while a faster or more dynamic rhythm can be energising,” said Steyn.
The Nia practice adapts to what an individual’s body needs on a given day, rather than following a fixed structure, said Steyn, who has worked with women before, during and after cancer treatment.
For someone navigating illness, she said, movement is not about doing more; it may be about rediscovering one thing that feels good, releasing tension, or reconnecting with a sense of self beyond a diagnosis.