Photo by Mieke Uifig
World Premiere nora chipaumire NEHANDASeptember 16 I 17 I 18, 2022 Alexander Kasser Theater
In consideration of both audiences and performers, please turn off all electronic devices. The taking of photographs or videos and the use of recording equipment are not permitted. No food or drink is permitted in the theater.
(Natives | Empire) Friday, Sept. 16, 7:30pm chapter 2 (Pungwe | Comrade Judas ne ma jekenishi) Saturday, Sept. 17, 8:00pm chapter 3 (Manifesting Thinking) Sunday, Sept. 18, 3:00pm
Sound Engineer Vusumuzi Moyo Technical and Production Manager Heidi Eckwall Production Assistant Sylvestre Akakpo Adzaku Executive Manager Alexandre Lemieux
Artistic Direction nora chipaumire Shona spiritual dramaturgy by Gwinyai Rutsito
Mamoudou Konate tyroneisaacstuart Corey Baker
Nehanda has been commissioned by Quick Center for the Arts at Fairfield University, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council as part of the Extended Life Dance Development program, PEAK Performances at Montclair State University, and Komische Oper Berlin. Nehanda is being made possible through generous support from The Mellon Foundation, the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with friendly support from NYSCA and NEA. The work was developed through residencies at PACT Zollverein, Essen and CSC, Bassano del Grappa. Produced in Association with ArKtype.
Gilbert Zvamaida
Jonathan Daniel Fatima Katiji
chapterChapters1
Nehanda is performed in the languages of all its participants (Shona, English, Ndebele, Ewe, Afrikaans, Kriolu... among others).
Peter van Heerden Sylvestre Akakpo Adzaku
Cast nora chipaumire
World Premiere nora chipaumire NEHANDA
Lucia Palmieri
Kei Soares-Cobb Shamar Wayne Watt
Daniel Gurskis, Dean, College of the Arts Jedediah Wheeler, Artistic Director, PEAK Performances
David Gagliardi McIntosh “SoKo” Jerahuni
Tour Producer ArKtype / Thomas O. Kriegsmann
Duration: Each chapter approximately 2 hours, no intermission.
Tom Jules Samie Tatenda Chabarwa
Nehanda is a juridical opera, taking up questions of jurisprudence in defense of the native freedom fighters murdered by the British South Africa Company (BSAC) 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 into the confusing and conflicted world of Shona spirituality, politics, power, and methodologies of anticolonial resistance.
About the Artist
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Full program with all artists to found at
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nora chipaumire was born in 1965 in what was then known as Umtali, Rhodesia (now Mutare, Zimbabwe). She is a product of colonial education for black native Africans—known as group B schooling—and has pursued other studies at the University of Zimbabwe (law) and at Mills College in Oakland, CA (dance). chipaumire’s latest work is Nehanda, a largescale opera. Before and up to the start of the global pandemic chipaumire was touring #PUNK 100% POP *NIGGA (verbalized as “Hashtag Punk, One Hundred Percent Pop and Star NIGGA”), a three-part live performance album. Her other live works include portrait of myself as my father (2016), RITE RIOT (2012), and Miriam (2012). She recently released a Radio Opera (2021), has been featured in several dance films, and made her directorial debut with the short film Afro Promo #1 King Lady (2016). Her long-term research project “nhaka,” a technology-based practice and process to her artistic work, instigates and investigates the nature of black bodies and the products of their imaginations. nhaka bhuku 1 has been published in 2020 at the courtesy of Matadero Publishing House (Spain).
biographies
chipaumire is a four-time Bessie Award winner and was a proud recipient of the 2016 Trisha Mckenzie Memorial Award for her impact on the dance community in Zimbabwe. She was also nominated for a NAMA award as one of those exiled Zimbabweans making an impact on the arts at home and abroad in 2020. chipaumire is honored to include the acknowledgements of the arts communities in awards such as a recent three-year structural support from the Mellon Foundation (2022–25), a “Dance Bubble” grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (2021), a Guggenheim Fellowship (2018), a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grant (2016), a Doris Duke Artist Award (2015), and a Princeton Hodder Fellowship (2014). She is currently a Fellow at Quick Center for the Arts at Fairfield University (2022–23).
Program Notes
Rhodes, then Prime Minister of Cape Colonies, advanced the Union Jack past the Limpopo River, making way for further industrial development and encouraging colonialism and immigration. Three years later, these encounters resulted in conflicts with the Ndebele people residing in modern-day Zimbabwe. Again in 1896, led by the Shona, Africans took up arms against these European invaders. It took 94 years to finally overthrow the British; however, the work that began in 1896 continues today.
PEAK Performances gratefully acknowledges our student staff and volunteers.
Colin Van Horn | Technical Director Blake Zidell Associates | Media Representative
William Collins, Maureen Grimaldi | House ManagersDaniel Gurskis | Dean Jeff Lambert Wingfield | Box Office Manager
Yazeed Alomar, Jabob Batory, Shannon Mulraney,Christine Lemesianou | Associate Dean Martin Pyda, Eliezer Ramirez, Katya Reyes,Linda D. Davidson | Assistant Dean Susanne Oyedeji | Box Office Lead Associates Zacrah S. Battle | College Administrator
Kevin Johnson | Senior Production Engineer Martin Halo | Percy Cole Media, Website Development
J. Ryan Graves | Director Camille Spaccavento | Marketing & Media Director
Andrew Dickerson | Production Manager Patrick Flood @ Flood Design | Graphic Designer | Art Director
Jedediah Wheeler | Artistic Director
Gene Lotito | CART Facilities Director Abigail Pope | Marketing Assistant
Christopher Kaczmarek | Chairperson, Department of Art and Design Anthony Mazzocchi | Director, John J. Cali School of Music Keith Strudler | Director, School of Communication and Media Randy Mugleston | Chairperson, Department of Theatre and Dance Patricia Piroh | Director, Broadcast and Media Operations Megan C. Austin | Director, University Galleries
Chrissy D’Aleo Fels | Company Liaison Susan R. Case | Program Copy Editor Emily Gocon, Dan Mackle, Joey Messana, Bart Solenthaler | Program Layout Design Justin Stewart | Production Run Crew
PEAK defies convention by supporting new performance ideas without compromise. We believe that for the performing arts to be sustainable, audiences must evolve and that the way to achieve this goal is to empower the best artists of our time to achieve new heights of imagination.
With PEAK Plus, video-capture programs, Montclair State University makes live performances accessible worldwide, drastically expanding audiences for new work. Through the Creative Thinking course, artists are engaged to participate in groundbreaking research, illustrating for students of all fields of study that art and science are symbiotic. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are core values manifested in a longstanding embrace of work by artists not yet supported by other major institutions in the region. Because PEAK provides the highest-quality production values, audiences have an opportunity to engage with creative viewpoints that are bold, insightful, and fully realized. PEAK Performances is credited with 60 world premieres, 57 US premieres, and 69 commissions. This season was made possible, in part, by the Alexander Kasser Theater Endowment Fund, PEAK Patrons, and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. Thank you.
PEAK Performances Performance Operations
College of the Arts
Laurel Brolly | Business Administrator Maya Siguenza | Student Administrative Assistant
Stephanie Benjamin Flores | Wardrobe
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Robert Hermida | Audience Services Director
Ronald L. Sharps | Associate Dean
PEAK Performances presents dance, music, theater, opera, and circus performances in the Alexander Kasser Theater, on the campus of Montclair State University, for students and the general public.
About the Artists
McIntosh “SoKo” Jerahuni is a musician, dancer, and choreographer from Zimbabwe. He has established the Jerahuni Movement Factory with free dance classes for those interested in moving. He believes that the physical expressions give an outlet to spiritual and emotional undercurrents that are entirely ignored in other art forms. A former dancer, choreographer, and artistic director of Tumbuka Dance Company, he is moved by the mindset of exploring the body using his “Jena practice” without any judgment of bodies, their abilities, and disabilities. Jena practice is an expanding understanding of the impact of black life, the importance of the black body at every stage of life, and relationships between body and physical and emotional wellness.
Fatima Katiji is a Zimbabwean musician, songwriter, performer, percussionist, and dancer. Most people recognize her as “Stimy Stimela,” backing vocalist for Jah Prayzah and 3G The Band. She studied music and dance at Amakhosi Theatre. Katiji then became a member of an all-female group called Amakhosikazi, lead vocalist Five Fold led by Hudson Simbarashe. She worked with So What?, an all-female outfit, Alexio Kawara, Diana Samkange, and Josh Meck before she joined Jah Prayzah. As an artist, she has recorded with various artists like Thanda Richardson, Nesto, Gift Amuli, Tariro neGitare, Simbarashe, and UK-based gospel artist Jane Doka. She was an opening act at HIFA 2011, shared the stage with Chioniso Maraire, and continues to work with many more artists to date. She is also a studio session artist. If she is not on stage, Katiji spends time with her kids at StimyBee Arts Factory (which she founded), grooming children from age five (dance, music, and theater).
Tatenda Chabarwa is a Zimbabwean-born and bred performing artist, dancer, and musician who plays a traditional Zimbabwean instrument called mbira. He began his journey when he joined a community group called Free Souls and moved to Zvishamiso Arts, artistic director Brian Geza. Further developing his artistry, he received a scholarship to study dance professionally at the Dance Trust of Zimbabwe. In his training program of Dance Foundation Course, under the leadership of the artistic director and coordinator Soukaina Marie-Laure Edom, he learned from artists from around the world. After he graduated from his dance training, he joined Tumbuka Dance Company under the leadership of Anna Morris, and later, McIntosh Jerahuni took over the position. Currently, he works as a freelancer with local and international
Shamar Wayne Watt is an experimental multidisciplinary independent artist born in Kingston (Jamaica), raised in Miami, and based between Miami and New York City. He was nominated as one of the top 25 performers/choreographers to watch for in 2019 by Dance Magazine. Watt was a 2018 Bessie nominee, and in 2019 he received the prestigious Bessie Award for Outstanding Performance. Watt is driven by the politics of black frequencies as they shift/manipulate space and can enable the body to respond in radical ways towards illumination.
Gilbert Zvamaida started playing a handmade banjo in 1976 in Mutare, then later joined a local band in 1979. He did his primary education in Chimanimani and never attended secondary. It was during the liberation struggle. Things were tough. From Perjury, his first band, next was Nuclear Reaction, still in Mutare by then. He went on
tyroneisaacstuart is an interdisciplinary, concept-driven artist whose skills originate from jazz and hip-hop theater. He was educated by the Tomorrow’s Warriors Jazz organization and multi-award-winning Boy Blue Entertainment. From there, he went on to achieve a BA in Jazz Saxophone. With over 12 years of professional working experience as a performer across dance and music, his dance practice has grown to become a mixture of Krump (street dance), contemporary dance, visual art, and jazz music. He has worked with established artists within the hip-hop sector such as Joseph Toonga, Theo Godson, and Botis Seva and toured nationally with Boy Blue Entertainment. Within contemporary dance, he has worked with Irene Wernli, Hofesh Shechter Company, and multi-award-winning artist nora chipaumire. Within music, he has worked with many artists shaping the current jazz scene (Moses Boyd, Theon Cross, Cassie Kinoshi, Mark Kavuma, and Kokoroko). Commissions include a full-length theater work for the Barbican, An Earnest Life; a duet for Dance Umbrella, “Beyond Words”; and an international solo work for Hayley Matthews Ensemble. He is a recipient of the Steve Reid Innovation Award 2019–20 and a 2020 Artist in Residence at Clarence Mews Space.
dance companies. Chabarwa worked with Dunia Dance Theatre from Brussels, Belgium, Tumbuka Dance Company from Harare-Zimbabwe, and Company nora chipaumire from the USA. He also collaborated with Unmute Dance Theater from Capetown, South Africa, and Moving Into Dance from Johannesburg, South Africa. He has also had the chance to perform on local and international platforms.
Sylvestre Akakpo Adzaku is a New York–based dancer, choreographer, performer, and teacher originally from Togo, West Africa. He performed in Le Sacre du Printemps at Joyce Theater and Jacob’s Pillow during the 2007–09 world tour with the French company La Compagnie Heddy Maalem. He has worked with choreographer Souleymane Badolo since 2006 in Burkina Faso and in the 2016 Bessie Awardwinning piece Yimbégré at River to River Festival, BAM New Wave, and Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. He has worked with choreographer nora chipaumire since 2013 as dancer and studio assistant and is currently production manager for the opera Nehanda.
to join the late Susan Mapfumo in 1980. That same year saw the band leaving Susan for Gweru. In Gweru, they called themselves Yolk 80! From Gweru they went to a small town of Zvimba in late 1981, then ended up back in Kwekwe in December that year. The name had changed from Zigzag Yolk to just Zigzag Band! 1986 saw them hired by the late Oliver Mtukudzi as his backing group. Two years later, they left him and stood on their own as Zigzag Band, touring all over. After 20 years in Kwekwe, Zvamaida was invited to join the renowned musician Thomas Mapfumo. That was December 2003 up to this day. As for recordings, they did several albums, both as Zigzag and with the names mentioned above. Spanning from 1987 to today.
Jonathan Daniel is a Zimbabwean artist. His first encounter with dance was at St. Michael’s Primary School at the age of 12, where he was taught Zimbabwean traditional dances such as Muchongoyo, Chinyambera Mhande, etc. A few months later, he joined Chiedza Child Care Center and began to tour nationally and internationally. To further develop his career, he then joined Chipawo Arts Trust in 2014. In 2018, he joined Ngorimba Arts Trust, founded by Clinton Master, for three months before its closure due to a lack of funds. As a young upcoming artist eager to learn, he then obtained a full scholarship to study dance more professionally and enrolled in AfriKera Arts Trust, a three-year professional dance program of artistic director and founder Soukaina Edom Marie-Laure. With the extensive curriculum of art disciplines taught at AfriKera Arts Trust, he studied subjects such as Contemporary, Ballet, Traditional Dance, and many more. He graduated in 2021 and started working
David Gagliardi is a New York–based guitar player and composer. He plays with Los Angeles punk band Trash Talk, Azealia Banks, and several others.
Kei Soares-Cobb is a Cape Verdean-American performance artist, sound designer, and healer based on the shores of the Atlantic. Since studying music technology and philosophy at Northeastern University, Cobb has been pursuing a more traditional education under the wings of mentors, masters, and spirit guides. Cobb has collaborated and performed with yonTande (Whitney V. Hunter), Ronald Kevin Lewis and Low Mountain Top Collective, RISD Museum, and Trinity Repertory Company. Cobb is currently an artist-in-residence at AS220’s Blackbox Theatre and is supported by the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts in creating experimental opera, Basso Continuo, an interpolation of Narcissus and Echo that revalues and reanimates the reflective and reflected self(s).
Tom Jules Samie is a professional artist, dancer, performer, and choreographer in contemporary dance and traditional Togolese dances. He started dancing in his middle school’s ballet class and then joined a traditional Togolese dance company while taking African and contemporary dance classes and workshops. In 2010, he worked as a dance interpreter on the project The Rite of Spring, organized by the Pina Bausch Foundation and the Sadlers Wells Theater. In 2015, he started studying at the Alvin Ailey Senegal Academy, where he trained for three years in other techniques such as modern jazz and classic and contemporary dance. In Senegal, he worked with the groups Bakalama and Sunu Percu Dance and took part in professional training for three years at Ecole des Sables, where he learned many different types of dance styles and techniques. In 2020 he joined nora chipaumire’s company for the artistic residency of Nehanda opera, developing the Nhaka technique practice.
with different dance companies such as AfriKera Dance Theatre, Faye Jackson Dance Academy, Company Chabarwa, and now nora chipaumire company. Apart from being a dancer, he is also a multi-instrumentalist; he plays Zimbabwean instruments such as mbira, drum, and marimba.
Mamoudou Konate received his musical gifts as a seventh-generation descendant of a lineage of professional Griots (storytellers) on both his mother’s and father’s side. He learned the variety of tribal rhythms of the cultures of his homeland as an infant while his mother carried him on her back in an African Kanga or gave him a tomato to bang and play the rhythms that she sang at ceremonies. Now a maestro percussionist, Konate has mastered the djembe, dunduns, bendre, talking drum,
and calabash. Konate has performed in Africa, Europe, Canada, and America. Through collaborations with other artists and exposure to a widening circle of musical forms from diverse cultural traditions, Konate’s distinctive and unique style has evolved to incorporate a broad and kaleidoscopic spectrum of musical genres. As a virtuoso musician of reggae, hip hop, jazz, and rock genres, he is also a composer, arranger, singer, and director. His quest to learn new musical forms has gone hand-in-hand with his commitment to keeping traditional West African drumming alive through his continual effort to improve his talent and technique and to share his gifts with others. Konate satisfies this mission as an active and accomplished teacher and music educator.
Corey Baker is a multi-platinum artist and producer living in Austin, TX. Baker’s career in recording and touring has been well-rounded and fruitful, with the Kill Paris project existing as a staple dance music act for 10+ years. Hobbie Sound is his second moniker, focused primarily on modular synthesis and the experimentation with Ableton and analog gear. When he is not touring, Baker is deeply devoted to teaching as an Ableton Certified Trainer. His lessons are untraditional and blend music production and mental health tips. In addition, Baker works as the in-house audio engineer for Field Trip Health & Wellness, a psychedelic therapy company, producing meditations and soundscapes for consciousness expansion. His objective to bring a sense of wellbeing and mindfulness to the music community has made a deep-rooted impact.
Peter van Heerden, born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and based in Westport, CT, is an artist, educator, producer, and director. He currently serves as executive director of the Quick Center for the Arts at Fairfield University, where he is focused on developing and implementing some of the most innovative and dynamic performing arts–based programs in Fairfield County. At the core of Van Heerden’s work as an artist is the question of “how the privileged perform themselves once their privilege is deflated.” His live art installations are some of the most provocative, ethically engaged, and challenging work coming out of contemporary South Africa. He shows a multidisciplinary approach to performance in which his works weave together performance, art, architecture, and history. He works in close collaboration with artist and social activist Andre Laubscher, and the two present work under the initiative erf [81] cultural collective.
Heidi Eckwall (Technical and Production Manager) has been designing lighting for live performance for over three decades. She is based in Minneapolis, MN, and tours nationally and internationally as a designer and technical director. She has taught lighting design at Colorado College since 2006.
Lucia Palmieri has been seen on BRAVO TV, ABC, NBC, ESPN, the US Open, and on international tour, taking her to perform in Paris, Rome, Munich, and across Europe. She is not only professional, unique, and captivating; she is a Juilliard-trained soprano who sings internationally. After her critically renowned debut at Carnegie Hall, she has since performed multiple roles in the New York City area, including the 9th Avenue Street festival, the New York Public Library, and Alice Tully Hall. Additionally, she has had leading roles in the Central Park Summer Series since 2006. Born in Westport, CT, Palmieri specializes in Italian and Latin songs. A former executive chef, a current liturgical music director, a sought-after soloist, and an educator at Fairfield University, Palmieri lives a life of music, cooking, adventure, philanthropy, and happiness.
ArKtype / Thomas O. Kriegsmann (Tour Producer) specializes in new work development and touring worldwide. His past work includes projects with Kaneza Schaal, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Peter Brook, Daniel Fish, Victoria Thiérrée-Chaplin, Yael Farber, Anna Deavere Smith, Annie-B Parson and Paul Lazar, Lisa Peterson,
Vusumuzi Moyo (Sound Engineer), better known as Vusa, is a professional freelance sound engineer based in Zimbabwe whose illustrious career spans over two decades. He has toured internationally and regionally as the principal sound engineer for some of southern Africa’s greatest bands and artists (Oliver Mtukudzi, Mahube, and Victor Kunonga, among others). His quiet and courteous disposition and his “acute ear” and technical proficiency lend well to the “exceptional quality of production” that has become synonymous with his name. He is as comfortable in the recording studio as he is setting up a large sound system. Moyo can manage “the mix” in all venues, from theaters to stadiums, making him the first choice for the major festivals in Zimbabwe and Zambia (notably HIFA, Miombo Magic, Alliance Française, and other European cultural departments in Zimbabwe and the region). Innately talented, he is also expanding his experience in the film industry and has worked on recording and mixing for several documentaries, and short and feature films.
Peter Sellars, Julie Taymor, John Cameron Mitchell, and Tony Taccone. Recent premieres include 600 HIGHWAYMEN’s A Thousand Ways, Bryce Dessner’s Triptych (Eyes of One on Another), John Cameron Mitchell’s The Origin of Love, Kaneza Schaal and Christopher Myers’s Cartography, Sam Green and Kronos Quartet’s A Thousand Thoughts, Big Dance Theater/Mikhail Baryshnikov’s Man in a Case, and Nalaga’at Deaf-Blind Theater’s Not By Bread Alone. Ongoing collaborations include 600 HIGHWAYMEN, Big Dance Theater, Rude Mechs, Adrien M. & Clair B., Toshi Reagon, and Compagnia T.P.O. Upcoming premieres include Scott Shepherd’s This Ignorant Present w/Malthouse, and Justin Peck and Sufjan Stevens’s Illinois. He is a founding member of CIPA (The Creative & Independent Producer Alliance). More information at arktype.org.