Step inside the shabini when nora chipaumire's ‘Dambudzo' comes to BAM

Remember when dance moved out of the conventional theatre spaces and onto the sides of buildings, rooftops, parking lots, and street corners?

- By ZITA ALLEN Special to the AmNews

"Dambudzo" (Nurith Wagner-Strauss photo)

(Nurith Wagner-Strauss)

Well, look out because here comes nora chipaumire's "Dambudzo," bringing a touch of deja vu with an African diasporic twist and more to BAM's Next Wave. The piece is set to be performed on October 8 and 9 at 7pm at Roulette, followed by a conversation with chipaumire and the "Dambudzo" cast moderated by Charmaine Warren on Friday, October 10 at 6pm at BAM Fisher.

"Dambudzo" is an extraordinary immersive experience that dissolves the boundary between audience and performer just as in traditional African cultures. Blending sound, sculpture, video, and live performance, chipaumire constructs a vibrant, confrontational environment that challenges your idea of what dance performances should look like, those old colonial structures, while reclaiming space for African narratives and futures.

"Dambudzo" takes its name from the Zimbabwean writer and rebel Dambudzo Marechera (1952-1987), whose work belongs to a powerful lineage of African radical thinkers like Steve Biko and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, creating a space where resistance and ritual meet. Born in Zimbabwe, what was then Southern Rhodesia, Dambudzo Marechera was an acclaimed novelist, short story writer, playwright, and poet who attended the University of Rhodesia (now University of Zimbabwe), the University of Oxford, received the coveted Guardian Fiction Prize for his autobiographical first book, "The House of Hunger," and died at aged 35 of AIDS-related pneumonia, after living homeless for years. His life of rebellion is chipaumire's inspiration as she explains during an interview with the Amsterdam News:

ZDA: Tell us about "Dambudzo." What should the audience expect?