Heather van Niekerk grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa. From a young age she has had a keen interest in the expressivity of the arts, always pursuing a variety of artistic forms through her participation in theatre, music and dance. Not one to be put in a box, she was the first student at Rhodes University to do a joint Honours (a one year postgraduate qualification) in Drama and Ethnomusicology, specialising in Applied Theatre, Choreography and Arts Management. Her Honours thesis, an ethnography on pantsula dance in Grahamstown, led her to find a research interest in forms of creative resistance in South Africa. Feeling that the research on pantsula dance, a hybrid street-based dance form situated in the townships of South Africa, was not yet done, she enrolled in a Masters at Rhodes University to continue her research. While conducting field work in Johannesburg, alongside prominent pantsula dancers, she received word of her acceptance into the international Master of Dance Knowledge, Heritage and Practice (Choreomundus). While finishing her thesis she embarked on the Choreomundus journey and graduated a year into the programme. Having recently completed Choreomundus, where she focused her research on Breton dance in Brittany, France, she is settling back into her home city of Johannesburg, eager for the next adventures that await.