This paper is an analysis of the work of three principals in an impoverished black township in post-apartheid South Africa. Based on qualitative approaches, it discusses the principals' entry into the township, and their navigation of their schools' surrounding social dynamics. It combines the lenses of "space" and "performance" to analyse the reflexive basis on which they establish their principal roles. The paper suggests that their identities as principals were established in light of a range of engaged pedagogical performances. It is argued that these were enacted based on nuanced readings of their discursive environment and the enactment of strategic practices that provided them an authoritative platform for their principal roles.