Lions Will Roar, Swans Will Fly, Angels Will Wrestle Heaven, Rains Will Break: Gukurahundi
Past Dates
| Dates | Location |
|---|---|
May 21, 2010 |
Kumble Theater, Long Island University, Brooklyn, NY, USA |
Apr 23 - Apr 25, 2010 |
Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA, USA |
|
Reynolds Industries Theater at Duke University, Durham, NC, USA |
|
August Wilson Center for African American Performing Arts, Pittsburgh, PA, USA |
Oct 01 - Oct 04, 2009 |
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL, USA |
“Ms. chipaumire’s deliberate, almost predatory approach is fascinating; she gestures to the audience, flashing a false, knowing smile and signaling with a thumb’s up or a cautionary index finger before turning her back again.”
– The New York Times
Artist’s Statement from company nora chipaumire (an africanallstarscollective!)
I wanted to make a work that tackled the African brands: Africa as violent/ Africa as disease and dying/ Africa as famine and hunger/ Africa as exotic/ happy/ Africa the silent/ ancient/ darkness. I felt the shame and sadness of my fellow Zimbabweans, uprooted and on the run. I wanted to hold us all accountable. To this end, I invited a visual designer, a lighting designer, a costume designer, the world famous Thomas Mapfumo and The Blacks Unlimited, and fellow dancer Souleymane Badolo to journey with me, and own “the horror” of it all.
nora chipaumire, Creation, Choreography & Performance / Souleymane Badolo, Performance / Mallory Starling, Performance /
Music performed live by Thomas Mapfumo & The Blacks Unlimited
Lighting by Olivier Clausse dit Maurice.
Video Design by Romain Tardy; Early Design by Joelle Dietrick
Technical Direction by Robert W. Henderson, Jr.
Costume Design by Naoko Nagata
lions will roar, swans will fly, angels will wrestle heaven, rains will break: gukurahundi is funded in part by the National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and additional funding from the Ford Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Community Connections Fund of the MetLife Foundation.
Additional generous support has been provided by Creative Capital, The Rockefeller Foundation Multi-Arts Production Fund and The National Endowment for the Arts. Lions… is co-commissioned and presented by 651 ARTS’ Black Dance: Tradition and Transformation program, primarily funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and co-commissioned by Dance Theater Workshop’s Commissioning and Creative Residency Program with support from the Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and the Jerome Robbins Foundation.
The development of lions will roar, swans will fly, angels will wrestle heaven, rains will break: gukurahundi was made possible through a Choreographic Fellowship at the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography at Florida State University, and creative residencies at ASU Presents, Tempe, Arizona; Dance Theater Workshop, New York City; Ecole des Sables, Senegal; The Yard, Wendy Taucher, Artistic Director; and at the Museum for Contemporary Art, Chicago.
