Dialogues Across Culture: reflecting on international exchange

Dialogues Across Culture: A Model for Building Enduring Partnerships

a free, two-day symposium presented by

MAPP International Productions and The Africa Contemporary Arts Consortium in partnership with the Museum for African Art, The Center for African Education at Teachers College and the Institute of African Studies at Columbia University

Friday, October 28 (7pm-9pm)
Saturday, October 29 (11am-4pm) 

This symposium is designed to open up conversations around international cultural exchange, to share lessons learned through case studies, to introduce some of the projects and artists with whom the Consortium has partnered, and to promote and build understanding and connections among artists, arts organizations, and public communities in the United States and the African continent.

Activities of the symposium include informal performances by choreographers Faustin Linyekula, from Democratic Republic of Congo, and Maria Helena Pinto from Mozambique; interviews with the choreographers; and presentations and discussions with members of the Consortium, MAPP, the Museum for African Art, and Columbia University faculty.

Friday, October 28 (7pm-9pm)

Performances followed by a reception

This event will take place at The Milbank Chapel at Teachers College, Columbia University. Enter on 120th Street midway between Broadway and Amsterdam (State-issued ID required for entry)

Saturday, October 29 (11am to 4pm)

Plenary session, interviews with artists, project presentations and discussions including: 

Investing in Curatorial Research

Dana Elmquist, Producer of Theater Programs at the Museum for African Art (NY)

Lisa Binder, Visual Art Curator, the Museum for African Art (NY)

Ken Foster, Executive Director, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco)


Advancing the Creativity of the Artist

Faustin Linyekula, Artist (Democratic Republic of Congo)

Ralph Lemon, Artist (NY)

Randy Gener, American Theater magazine (NY)

 
Connecting Artists and Communities

Maria Helena Pinto, Artist (Mozambique)

Laura Faure, Director, Bates Dance Festival (Lewiston, ME)


Building and Sharing Knowledge

Zoe Strother, Professor of African Art at Columbia University (NY)

Ann-Marie Bouttiaux, Royal Museum for Central Africa (Brussels)

Joan Frosch, Director, World Arts & Culture at University of Florida (Gainesville)

This event will take place at The Institute of African Studies, Columbia University
606 West 122nd Street (State-issued ID required for entry)

Admission for both days is free. Reservations required.

To RSVP for the October 28th event, click here.

Movement (R)evolution Africa

A few days ago, I posted my review of Nora--a 2008 documentary about Nora Chipaumire and her life in Zimbabwe by filmmakers Alla Kovgan and David Hinton. At the end, I added a link to information on Movement (R)evolution Africa (a story of an art form in four acts), an earlier documentary directed by Kovgan and Joan Frosch, Nora's producer.

Unfortunately, at the time, I was unable to say anything more about M(R)A, since my computer's media player had balked at reading the DVD. However, since then, my regular DVD player kicked into action, and now I'm thrilled to be able to urge you to add both films to your must-see list.

If anything, M(R)A electrified me even more than Nora--which is really saying something.

M(R)A is an absorbing, kaleidoscopic introduction to contemporary dance as conceived by artists from many of Africa's regions, artists committed to reflecting 21st Century African realities.

Creators and performers familiar to most serious dance fans--such as Chipaumire, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar of New York's Urban Bush Women and Germaine Acogny of Senegal's Jant-Bi--flow through. But we're also treated to numerous tastes of unfamiliar cultural aesthetics and troupes, such as exquisite Company Rary from Madagascar. If your notion of dance from Africa extends only to theatricalized versions of traditional tribal dancing from Africa's West, it's time for you to see M(R)A. Among other things, this film certainly makes the point--still a necessary lesson for many Americans--that the continent of Africa is not only abundant in cultures but historically impacted by, and, in turn, strongly influential upon, a world of cultures.

With lush, fast-paced imagery and a range of intimate interview clips, M(R)A celebrates Africa's contemporary artists as searching innovators who clearly have much to teach and share with American artists. One of my favorite segments involves an exploration of the African concept of contact dance. The filmmakers piece together samples of this from many of the companies, and I found the palpable human connectedness, groundedness and inherent drama even in abstract movement deeply affecting.

You will want to own a copy and revisit M(R)A many times to catch new ideas and inspirations and to dream of seeing artists you might not yet have had the opportunity to see in New York or elsewhere.

For further information and to view a clip from M(R)A, click here.

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/