Mozambique’s first contemporary dance company, CulturArte, marks their 20th year anniversary with a powerful tour of South Africa, Madagascar and Mozambique in June and July 2018. As a leading institution for dance in Mozambique and founded by internationally renowned choreographer and dancer Panaibra Gabriel Canda.

CulturArte provides support for new creations and performances, artistic development and training programmes for dance projects and Southern African artists.

Named as one of the world’s 30 New Promises for the Future of Dance, Canda will show his work, Time and Space: The Marrabenta Solos, at the Grahamstown National Arts Festival, East London’s The Guild Theatre and Johannesburg’s UJ Theatre. The tour forms part of The Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia’s Winter Programme celebrating 20 years in South Africa, and includes a collaborative double bill by acclaimed Swiss choreographer Thomas Hauert, whose company ZOO, also joins hands in celebrating their own 20th year milestone in 2018.

The Marrabenta Solos journeys through Mozambique’s complex history, a feature carried in the Marrabenta, a musical form born in the 1950s from a mix of Mozambican and European influences. The enduring 60 minute dance solo explores a crisis of identity, and deconstructs cultural representations of a “pure” African body, in particular, the Mozambican body. Accompanied by guitarist, Jorge Domingos, Canda dances and speaks about today’s African body: a post-colonial, plural body that has absorbed the ideals of nationalism, modernity, socialism and freedom of expression.

Credits

Choreography: Panaibra Gabriel Canda

Dancer: Panaibra Gabriel Canda

Musician: Jorge Domingos

Light: Caldino Alberto