Nora Chipaumire

#PUNK is the first part of an ongoing triptych (#PUNK, 100% POP, * NIGGA), a project for a visual and choreographic album-concert. In homage to three radical artists who marked her youth in Zimbabwe (Patti Smith, Grace Jones and Rit Nzele), this piece which is performed as a duet mingles voices, music and dance in a total performance, in a staging that avoids any form of artifice. This section is focused on the icon of the punk movement, with the piece making her voice ring out, while reviving its dissenting energy. Animated by a strong spirit of revolt, Nora Chipaumire here draws up the vivid portrait of a female body which is vibrant with power, a recurring figure in her work, which exploits with a delicate violence counter- culture’s subversive potential. The singular energy of the choreography and the intensity of Patti Smith’s texts are channeled into a raw poetry delivered plainly, without any illusions about the modern world, nor about the future we are heading for.

Born in Mutare (Zimbabwe), Nora Chipaumire moved to New York after studying dance in Africa, Cuba and Jamaica. Ever since her first piece in 2003, Chimurenga, her work has deconstructed stereotypes of the black body and examined its emancipation on the stage. Often drawing on her private life, her pieces (Dark Swan, Portrait of Myself as my Father, Rite Riot...) have won her a number of prizes in the USA, including three Bessie Awards. She has also carried out research at University, in partnership with prestigious American institutions.

Nora Chipaumire will be performing this autumn 100%POP, at the Théâtre de la Cité internationale with the Fondation d’Entreprise Hermès, as part of the New Settings programme.