dark swan
Past Dates
| Dates | Location |
|---|---|
Aug 23, 2020 |
OperaEstate Festival, Bassano Al Grappana, Italy |
May 02 - May 05, 2018 |
Harlem Stage, New York, NY, USA |
Apr 18, 2018 |
The Rubin Museum of Art, New York, NY, USA |
Jan 01, 2016 |
HIFA Harare International Festival of the Arts, Harare, Zimbabwe |
Apr 23 - Apr 30, 2016 |
MeYaBe Festival, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo |
Jan 09, 2014 |
The Joyce Theater, New York, NY, USA |
Jan 01, 2008 |
Martha's Vineyard, Cape Cod, MA, USA |
Jul 26, 2007 |
Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival, Becket, MA, USA |
Jun 29, 2008 |
Bytom Festival, Poland |
Jan 01, 2007 |
Ecole des Sables, Toubab Dialow, Senegal |
Jan 01, 2006 |
Bytom Festival, Poland |
Jan 01, 2006 |
OPEN LOOK International Dance Festival, St. Petersburg, Russia |
Jan 01, 2006 |
Summer Stages Dance, Boston, MA, USA |
Jan 01, 2005 |
The FLEA, New York, NY, USA |
Jan 01, 2005 |
Haba na Haba, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania |
Jan 01, 2005 |
Tangente, Montreal, Canada |
“One of the most poignant dance moments I’ve seen.”
– The Philadelphia Inquirer
The award-winning dark swan was first created as a solo in 2005 by and for nora chipaumire. The work has grown into a much-celebrated group work and has been performed by the NYC-based Urban Bush Women, amongst others. Tumbuka Dance Company was the first African contemporary dance company to perform this work.
dark swan | 2005
dark swan serves as a reminder of how living work lives from one body to another from one time to another from one purpose to another I made dark swan for my mother – the late Francisca Saungweme – a salute to the black African woman. dark swan served then and now as an alternative swan, in the pantheon of swans – black swan, white swan, dark swan! Michel Fokine’s legendary choreography for the legendary dancer Anna Pavlova. What would this Russian masterpiece look like if it were imagined for a savanna landscape, on a black heroine? I had these thoughts in mind as Dafur | South Sudan unfolded – hundreds of African women marched off their lands into unknowns futures and imminent deaths. I recalled my own mother‘s courage and her refusal to surrender. Dambudzo Marachera’s house of hunger and his traumatized | stubborn shona women was an important influence for this dark swan – a swan that refuses to die. As this work moves more and more into other and non zimbabwean bodies I welcome the challenge of looking at how work lives. How archives become living archives, the prevention, accumulation, reinvention of knowledge. (Feb 23, 2018)
I made dark swan in 2005 in an effort to respond and acknowledge contemporary dance’s debt to those Russian masters and their contribution to the art of dance. Michel Fokine‘s “dying swan” (and the phenomenal dancers who have peopled it) allowed me to tap into a known/unknown place. I also made the solo black and African in response to classic white/black swans and to celebrate my mother/African/black women who refuse to wither away and die or die beautifully.
In its short eight years my dark swan has proved itself resilient and malleable, whether being re/gendered for nine men, reassumed by 21 women, and now reimagined by eight women. I am grateful to all the swans (men and women) who have kept this solo relevant for me, to Ananya Chatterjeaa, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, plus the numerous curators/presenters who have allowed this work to shine from St. Petersburg, Russia to Zanzibar, Tanzania. I am grateful to fellow artists Souleymane Badolo, Lacina Coulibaly, and Pia Murray who have assisted me in remounting the work at various times.
– nora chipaumire (The Joyce January 9, 2014)
Duration
25 Minutes
Year Of Production
2005 / Recreated 2014
Years Performed
2005, 2014 – 2020
Premiere Date
2005
Premiere Venue
Haba na Haba, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Premiere (recreation)
2014, reconstructed for Urban Bush Women at FOCUS DANCE, The Joyce Theater, New York, NY
nora chipaumire, creative direction / nora chipaumire, performer 2005 – 2008 (solo) / Shamar Watt, performer 2018 (solo) / Tumbuka Contemporary Dance Company, performance 2016 /
Urban Bush Women, Performance 2013, 2014 / Selamawit Biruk, performer 2020 / Beatrice Bresolin, performer 2020 / Vittoria Caneva, performer 2020 / Giacomo Citton, performer 2020 / Ilaria Marcolin, performer 2020 / Elena Sgarbossa, performer 2020 /
Urban Bush Women (for 2014 revival)
