NEHANDA
Artistic Director, Concept, design, performance by nora chipaumire Shona spiritual dramaturgy by Gwinyai Rutsito
JURIDICAL OPERA | ZIMBABWE
“Defiantly charismatic…nora chipaumire has long been a kind of rock star of dance.” —The New Yorker
nora chipaumire returns to PEAK Performances with Nehanda. A powerful juridical opera, taking up questions of jurisprudence in defense of the native freedom fighters murdered by the British South Africa Company on behalf of the British EMPIRE and QUEEN Victoria in 1898. nora chipaumire‘s sonic libretto uses the case law “Regina v NIANDA, 1896“ as an introduction to the confusing and conflicted world of Shona spirituality, politics, power, and methodologies of anti-colonial resistance.
Chapter I
Natives | Empire | Jail
Fri., Sept. 16 | 7:30 PM
Chapter II
Pungwe | Church | Judas
Sat., Sept. 17 | 8:00 PM
Chapter III
Manifesting Thinking
Sun., Sept. 18 | 3:00 PM
Each chapter is approximately two hours.
General Admission: $40 per performance
SPECIAL OFFER: All (3) performances for $72 per person with no handling charges.
Call the Box Office Hotline at 973-655-5112 to claim this special offer.
WARNING: NEHANDA includes a strobe effect, nudity, and some high-frequency audio from megaphones.
Program
Gallery
Amplify
September 18, 2022 | New York Times: Review: In ‘Nehanda,’ the Band Played On
The choreographer and performer Nora Chipaumire’s new six-hour work at the Alexander Kasser Theater invokes ancestral spirits.
It would take years to document the crimes of European colonialism, and nora chipaumire only has three days. So the choreographer focuses on what she knows best — the outrages the British perpetrated in her native Zimbabwe. “Nehanda,” the immersive theater work in three parts that chipaumire’s pickup company premiered Sept. 16-18 at Montclair State University, plunges us into an ongoing struggle for freedom and human dignity.
Credits
Produced by ArKtype
Commissioned by Fairfield University Quick Center for the Arts; Lower Manhattan Cultural Council; PEAK Performances at Montclair State University; Komische Oper Berlin
With support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s Artists “Bubble” Residency program, New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, NYSCA, NEA, Mid
Atlantic Arts Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; Residency hosted by PACT Zollverein (Essen), CSC, Bassano del Grappa
Co-directed by Théâtre de la Ville – Paris; Festival d’Automne à Paris
Programs in this season are made possible in part by the Alexander Kasser Theater Endowment Fund, PEAK Patrons, and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
