Chipaumire: dancing her path of light

For fans of Nora Chipaumire--and anyone who has yet to encounter this extraordinary dancer-choreographer--I strongly recommend Nora (2008), a 35-minute, award-winning film by Alla Kovgan and David Hinton.

"I am a dancer," begins the film's opening narrative text, "Born by the side of the road/on June 26, 1965, in Zimbabwe/which was then called Rhodesia." These simple facts--and shots of the rounded humps of mountains and of hands quietly resting atop the skin of drums--soon give way to poetic, often fanciful, always passionate storytelling by way of text, dance, breathtaking cinematography by Mkrtich Malkhasyan and original music by the legendary Thomas Mapfumo.

Chipaumire, who left Zimbabwe in 1989 and lives in New York City, collaborated on the screenplay with directors Kovgan and Hinton. Due to the repressive political situation in her homeland, the film was shot in Mozambique, near the Zimbabwean border. In a dream-like collage of sequences, Chipaumire revisits the red earth of her land, her people, her memories of childhood and youth. We get a sense of the often terrible familial and societal ingredients that set in motion a free-spirited, strong-willed, committed artist.

The film highlights Chipaumire's skillful chameleon nature--athletically masculine at one moment, romantically demure at another; towering and severe at one turn, playful at another. It is--all of it--utterly convincing, absorbing, intriguing. The film also draws together the sources that flavor her contemporary dance, which has won her world-wide acclaim and a 2007 Bessie Award--from village women's dancing to the fierce toi toi of Zimbabwean freedom fighters of the chimurenga (war of liberation) and to expansive, celebratory disco dancing.

Malkhasyan often shoots Chipaumire's dance segments through partitions or the framing of schoolhouse windows and doorways, not only achieving arresting compositions but also alluding to the searing realities of Zimbabwean and familial conflict that shaped this woman and, for a time, confined her. Together, these two artists create a most effective, imaginative partnership of dance and environment.

For additional information about Nora and to view brief excerpts, click here.

For information on Joan Frosch and Alla Kovgan's 2007 film, Movement (R)evolution Africa--which features Chipaumire as well as performers from Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, South Africa, Ivory Coast, Cape Verde, Senegal and the US--click here.

Upcoming screenings of Nora

• July 17-27, 2009 - Festival internazionale del cinema d’arte, Bergamo, Italy, http://www.teamitalia.com/
• July 22 - August 2, 2009 - Durban International Film Festival, Durban, South Africa http://www.cca.ukzn.ac.za/
• July 29 - August 2, 2009 - Pan Africa Film and Arts Festival, Atlanta, USA, http://www.paff.org/
• July 24-August 9, 2009 - Melbourne International Film Festival, http://www.melbournefilmfestival.com.au/