....above this dead-weight night
Directed by Viv Hamblin & Anna
Morris. This programme began
with an Email invitation from Anna Morris to some Zimbabwean dancers abroad
with a return flight, to each bring a solo to build a shared performance.
DANCE PEOPLE have subsequently improvised their way through fire, stay
away and sub-zero studios. The
programme looks at the dancers different ways of presenting their individual
identities on returning to their dance peer group.
The second half of the title comes, from the first verse of a poem by Dambudzo
Marachera, 'Darkness as a Bird of Prey'.
That within me no longer moves
No longer bruptly leap clear to soar
Towards the stars above this dead-weight night?"
PROGRAMME
Return Flight
......above this dead-weight night
1) "Light - Above
This Dead-Weight Night"
Choreography: Viv Hamblin
Music: a) Geoffrey Oreyamu, b) Soweto String Quartet
Dancers: Anna Morris, Jimmy Makurumbandi,
Jonathan Kamupando, Leah Matereke, Koshiwayi Sabuneti.
Choreography: Emiliah Adeløw
Music: From 'Silence of the Lambs"
Dancer: Koshiwayi Sabuneti
Note: Emiliah Adeløw is an award winning new Scandinavian
Choreographer currently studying with Koshiwayi in Oslo
Choreography: Viv Hamblin
Music: Song by John Richards performed by Fairport Convention
Dancers: Megan Allardice, Anna Morris, Jimmy Makurumbandi, Jonathan Kamupando, Leah Matereke, and Koshiwayi Sabuneti. Note: This dance was premiered in HIFA '99 when Zimbabwean Troops had just been sent
into the DRC. The Herald reported that the ratio of Military Police to regular Soldiers was 1: 3
Choreographer and Dancer: Jimmy Makurumbandi
Music: Stanley Mambo, Raymond Kasawaya, Jimmy Makurumbandi (recorded in France)
Travelling and meeting with different experiences of spirits as well as being the spirit medium.
Choreographer and Dancer: Leah Matereke
Music: Drumming from Senegal
Choreographed and Performed by Anna Morris
On a structure from Ann Morris, vocals by Simon
de Swardt & dancers: J Makurumbande & K Sabuneti.
Who's move is it anyway..?
8) 'Sikelela Africa"
Choreographer: Gilbert Douglas (a dancer
with Tumbuka)
Music: Soweto String Quartet
Dancers: Leah Matereke and Jonathan Kamupando
9) "Masendeke" (The art of
existing in two worlds)
Choreography: Work in Progress - Anna Morris
Music: Jules Keogh with help from Nkosi , Eleanor Morris and Jimmy Mukurumbandi
Mbira - Norman Muza and Vocals - Sibosiso Moyo
10) "Finale"
Arranged by Jonathan Kamupando
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Links to other DANCE PEOPLE pages
DANCE PEOPLE in Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA) 1999
Viv Hamblin returned to Zimbabwe in 1989, after choreographing & teaching in Cape Town, New York, Zurich & London, to expand and develop a Black Dance programme for The National Ballet. Viv holds a Masters Degree in Fine Art (Dance) from NYU and was the initiator and first Director of the Dance Foundation Course (DFC). She has been artistic director of DANCE PEOPLE since 1989.
Anna Morris: Choreographer & Soloist, grew up in Harare attending Arundel School, studied ballet with Betty Lamb and danced with National Ballet, where she won the NB Choreography prize. She was an apprentice dancer with TUMBUKA for two years. She has rejoined DANCE PEOPLE after attending the American Dance Festival in June 1999 and working at Earth Dance Movement Centre in Massachusetts until Jan 2000. She formed Stillwater Collaboration with Tsitsi Jaji for a Music/ Dance Performance at Grahamstown. In 2001, she choreographed and danced a solo dance programme which first appeared in the Mannenberg JazzCafe-Theatre described as "…the cutting edge of dance illusion." She performed with poetry reading by Simon de Swardt. Two of the works from that programme appeared in Return Flight.
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DANCE PEOPLE
JULY 2001
Koshiwayo Sabuneti, studied on the Dance
Foundation Course at the National Ballet. In 1999 NORAD awarded him a
three-year scholarship to study at the Royal Norwegian Ballet School,
Oslo. He aspires to become a member of The Alvin Ailey Dance Company USA.
Jimmy Makarumbandi, after working with Savannah
Arts, studied on the Dance Foundation Course at the National Ballet. He
became apprenticed to TUMBUKA and went to work with the Theater Talipot
Company in Reunion, with whom he has made several European Tours.
Leah Matereke, studied on the Dance Foundation
course at the National Ballet. She has worked with DANCE PEOPLE since
HIFA 99, also with Essence of Women and toured to the Grahamstown Festival
2000 with Stillwater Collaborations, directed by Anna Morris. She has
worked as a model and currently teaches handicapped children on the National
Ballet Outreach Programme.
Jonathan Kamupando, as a student on the first
Dance Foundation Course in 1989, became a founder member of DANCE PEOPLE.
He has toured with them to Chimanimani Festival and with Stillwater collaborations
to The Grahamstown Festival 2000. He has been teaching on the National
Ballet Outreach Programme for ten years.
Megan Allardice has been with DANCE PEOPLE
since HIFA 1999, and also danced with Essence of Women in HIFA 2001. She
comes from New Zealand, where she did a degree in Philosophy. Not only
a dancer, she is a poet and writer.
THANKS to…
Reps for use of the Adrian Stanley Room, Kim Brauer, Tony Miles &
Dave Smeda, Sue Powell & Dawn Saunders of TUMBUKA
for the Dance Floor, Jules Keogh, Simon de Swardt, Spotlight, Trish MacKenzie
of National Ballet, Heeton Bhagat …. our friends & relatives
for their continued support.
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Links to other DANCE PEOPLE pages
DANCE PEOPLE in Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA) 1999
DANCE PEOPLE from 1989 - the history....
