Skirball Cultural Center Presents Nora Chipaumire 1/27

The Skirball Cultural Center will present the Los Angeles debut of contemporary African dance artist Nora Chipaumire on Friday, January 27, at 8:00 p.m. The Zimbabwe-born dancer/choreographer will perform Convoys, Curfews, and Roadblocks, from her Bessie Award–winning masterpiece Chimurenga. Chipaumire will also present Dark Swan, a meditation on a woman’s struggle to be free, and offer audiences a special preview of her newest work, Miriam, based upon the life of South African singer and civil rights activist Miriam Makeba. A second performance takes place on Saturday, January 28, at 8:00 p.m.

Chipaumire is presented at the Skirball in association with the exhibition Women Hold Up Half the Sky, on view through May 20, 2011. Inspired by the critically hailed book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, by Pulitzer Prize–winning journalists Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, Women Hold Up Half the Sky addresses the injustice and violence perpetrated against women and girls around the world as the central moral challenge of our time. Like the book, the exhibition spotlights women in developing nations who are leading the way in effecting change for themselves, their families, and their communities.

“When we began to plan for the exhibition,” explains Jordan Peimer, Vice President and Director of Programs, “it was critical that we identify and showcase women artists who take down perceptions of women as mere victims and of Africa as nothing more than a nameless, faceless place of famine, disease, and never-ending strife. For me, Nora Chipaumire is one such artist. A powerful dancer and an accomplished choreographer, she addresses death and dying in her native Zimbabwe but ultimately celebrates self-determination, courage, perseverance, and hope.”

In her artist’s statement, Chipaumire asserts: "My goal is to move people to action. My work is about people. My work is total propaganda; unapologetic agitations for human rights. My work is township! It is urban! It is now! It is not about that colonial-post–colonial-geo-political Africa. It is about the African people agitating for fair trade, not aid.”

On both nights of the performances, the Skirball will keep the exhibition Women Hold Up Half the Sky open until 8:00 p.m. Ticketholders may arrive early to visit the gallery for free.

About the Works
Dark Swan is a solo dance piece—both choreographed and performed by Chipaumire—that follows the perilous journey of one woman as she loses her bearings, her kin, and her country. It is inspired by the short ballet The Dying Swan (1905), made famous by the legendary Anna Pavlova and choreographed by Mikhail Fokine to music by Camille Saint-Saëns.

Convoys, Curfews, and Roadblocks is a major excerpt from Chimurenga, a performance memoir by Chipaumire named after the Shona word for “revolutionary struggle.” It brings to life Chipaumire’s personal history growing up during Zimbabwe’s second War of Liberation, relaying memories of everyday life in her war-torn homeland as a way to address the social and political geography of southern Africa. In 2008, Chimurenga was awarded a New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award.

The Skirball performance will conclude with a sneak preview of Miriam, Chipaumire’s latest work. For Miriam, Chipaumire drew inspiration from the life and persona of South African singer and civil rights activist Miriam Makeba, widely revered as Mama Afrika, as well as from Chipaumire’s own experiences and dreams as a self-exiled Zimbabwean. For her, Miriam is an investigation of fame, specifically the burden of a single person to represent an entire culture.

About the Artist
Since 2005, Nora Chipaumire has toured extensively throughout North America, Europe, and Africa, most recently performing in Bergamo, Italy, for the 2010 Takunda Prize, presented by Cesvi, an international humanitarian organization. She received a 2008 New York Dance and Performance (a.k.a. "Bessie”) Award for her choreographic work Chimurenga; and a 2007 New York Dance and Performance Award in the performance category for her work with Urban Bush Women, where she also served as Associate Artistic Director. She has been honored with the Mariam McGlone Emerging Choreographer Award from Wesleyan University Center for the Arts (2007). Chipaumire's work has received funding from the National Dance Project (NDP), Rockefeller MAP Fund, Creative Capital, and the National Endowment for the Arts. She is featured in the documentary Movement (R)evolution Africa (a story of an art form in four acts) and the focus of two dance films: Nora, directed by Alla Kovgan and David Hinton, and Dark Swan, directed by Laurie Coyle. Chipaumire was recently named a USA Ford Fellow for her achievement in dance.

Chipaumire studied dance formally and informally in her native Zimbabwe, Senegal, the United States, Cuba, and Jamaica. She is a graduate of the University of Zimbabwe’s School of Law and holds graduate degrees from Mills College of Oakland, CA, in dance (MA) and in choreography and performance (MFA).

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