Nora Chipaumire

Nora Chipaumire was born in Mutare , Zimbabwe during the Chimurenga Chechipiri, or second war of liberation. A self-exiled artist now based in New York , she investigates the collaborative process within cultural, political, economic, and technological identities of African contemporary life. Her work is transnational, unafraid, and eager to burn cultural, creative, and geographic boundaries. She creates provocative and politically relevant multimedia dance work, illuminating the struggles of human identity in an increasingly borderless world. Her work is inspired by art from her native country such as shona sculpture and chimurenga music - art that results from the often violent convergence of rural, urban, African, non-African, cultural, economic, colonial, and technological ideas. A visionary African contemporary dance artist, her work speaks to the human condition with power, authority, and urgency.

Nora Chipaumire is a Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography (MANCC) 2007-08 Choreographic Fellow. She is a recipient of National Dance Project (NDP) Tour Support in 2007-08. She also received a Jerome Travel and Study Grant to participate in the JANT-BI Diaspora Project in Toubab Dialaw , Senegal in May and August 2007. Nora was honored with the Mariam McGlone Emerging Choreographer Award from Wesleyan University Center for the Arts on March 10, 2007. She is featured in the documentary Movement (R)evolution and is the subject of the documentary-in-progress, Nora Chipaumire: A Physical Biography, directed by Alla Kovgan and David Hinton, supported by a 2007 EMPAC DANCE MOViES Commission.

“Her dancing hits you with a vengeance.”

-- Marcia B. Siegel, The Phoenix

Currently on Tour:

Chimurenga (struggle, cry, revolution) – A 60 minute multi-media performance memoir confronting Chipaumire’s experiences growing up during Zimbabwe’s second war of liberation. Chimurenga weaves historical as well as personal recollections into a celebration of life, while honoring the human tribulations that Zimbabweans—and all survivors in war-torn countries—endure, past and present.

poems – A 60 minute evening of solo dances or self-portraits revealing the artist in dialogue with herself, with Africa, and with humanity. Chipaumire journeys through despair, dislocation, loss, and provenances unknown. poems consists of four dances, including Dark Swan, an interpretation of Michel Fokine’s Dying Swan ballet created for Ana Pavlova.

In Development:

The Thomas Mapfumo Project (working title) – A cross-genre collaboration between Chipaumire and legendary master musician, people’s poet and “The Lion of Zimbabwe” Thomas Mapfumo. The Project will examine the art-making landscape in Zimbabwe after years of independence, and question the limitations and benefits of what it means to live outside of one’s native culture

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