nora chipaumire
Nhaka: Art Making, the Animist Body, and Radical Black African Presences

© Elise Fitte Duval

‘Nhaka’ (‘inheritance’, ‘legacy’ in the Shona language) is an animist decolonial practice and theory that nora, renowned dancer and choreographer, has been cultivating for more than a decade. The work and philosophy owe its genealogy to Shona culture and Shona spiritual practices. nora has been decoding, recoding and coding strategies on how to discipline and build the physical body, in hopes of developing an organism that can reflect and produce gestures that expand our understanding of the human and the relationship of the human organism with the natural and spiritual world.

By referring to Nhaka and applying it, participants will be introduced to physical practice, sound, gesture, space, spirit-text, language — but largely, exploring the question why it matters to make art in spite of it all: race, history, empire. In this  workshop, participants will be part of a creative and critical ‘thinking lab’, designed to investigate the nature of black bodies and challenge the legacies of colonialism that inequitably distribute the right to life. Working together, how can an exchange of knowledge that exceeds the colonial values of our grandparents be provoked? 

In addition to thinking about race and colonial history, this workshop will ask fundamental questions about art and its purpose. What is art? Why do we make art? Participants can expect to explore such questions in a vibrant exchange that engages with their individual ideas, intellectual experiences and their artistic projects.