MDC Live Arts & Miami Light Project present a visceral dance piece in a Boxing Ring
Miami, Sept 20, 2016 – Miami Dade College’s (MDC) MDC Live Arts and Miami Light Project present the South Florida premiere of Nora Chipaumire’s Portrait of Myself as My Father, at 8 p.m., Friday, Oct. 14 and 8 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 15, at Baiamonte’s Boxing Club in Wynwood. The provocative dance performance celebrates and critiques masculinity—the black African male in particular—all within the confines of a boxing ring. And not just any boxing gym, but that of Matt Baiamonte, protégé of Mohammed Ali’s legendary trainer, Angelo Dundee, and torchbearer of his legacy and that of the fifth Street Gym.
Bessie Award-winning dancer/choreographer and former Urban Bush Women star Nora Chipaumire continues her examination of race and gender in this profound and highly-personal work, which considers the African male and the father she never knew through the lens of colonialism, Christianity and liberation struggles. Tethered together in a boxing ring, she and Senegalese dancer Pape Ibrahima Ndiaye (known as Kaolak) dance, struggle, and fight against prejudices, pressures, and the weight of traditions and history. Jamaican-born, Brooklyn-based dancer Shamar Watt, an MDC alum, cheers and coaches from the corner.
“The piece is a portrait of a man, who is nothing but a man of his time. I have given him boxing gloves so that he has a fighting chance. I have put him in a boxing ring to do battle with himself, his shadow, his ancestors, the industrial gods and that merciless tyrant: progress. To be a black male may be challenging in the twenty first century. To be a black, African father may be unattainable,” said Nora Chipaumire.
Portrait of myself as my father is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation Fund Project co-commissioned by MDC Live Arts in partnership with Miami Light Project, 651 Arts, Dance Center of Columbia College, Georgia Institute of Technology and NPN. The Creation Fund is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency). For more information: www.npnweb.org..
The presentation of portrait of myself as my father was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Nora Chipaumire’s portrait of myself as my father performance and residency activities are funded by grants from Ford Foundation; John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners; The State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture; National Endowment for the Arts; The New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts; National Performance Network; and Publix Super Markets Charities.
The performance is part of the MDC Live Arts’ On Site series. Next up: Traffic Jam—a transit-considering, community-engaging, vehicular orchestra in a parking lot in downtown Miami, during Art Basel.
ABOUT NORA CHIPAUMIRE
The Zimbabwe-born, Brooklyn-based Nora Chipaumire has been challenging stereotypes of Africa and the black performing body, art, and aesthetic for over a decade. She studied dance in many parts of the world including several African countries (Senegal, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa). A graduate of the University of Zimbabwe’s School of Law, Chipaumire also holds an M.A. in Dance and M.F.A. in Choreography and Performance from Mills College (CA).
Hailed as “a rock star of downtown dance” (Dance Magazine), Chipaumire is the recipient of countless prestigious awards: the Alpert Award in the Arts (2012); the United States Artist Ford Fellowship (2011); Bessie Award, three times: in 2008 for her dance-theater work, Chimurenga, in 2007 for her body of work with Urban Bush Women, where she was a featured performer for six years (2003-2008) and Associate Artistic Director (2007-2008), and in 2014 for her women’s group version of Dark Swan performed by Urban Bush Women; the 2009 AFROPOP Real Life Award for her choreography in the film, Nora; the 2007 Mariam McGlone Emerging Choreographer Award from Wesleyan University Center for the Arts; and a MANCC Choreographic Fellowship in 2007-2008. Chipaumire is also Hodder Fellow at Princeton University for 2014-2015 and is a recent recipient of a 2015 Doris Duke Artist Award.
Recent works include rite riot (2013); Miriam (2012) produced by MAPP International Productions.
ABOUT MDC LIVE ARTS
MDC Live Arts is Miami’s most eclectic performing arts series. Created in 1990 as Cultura del Lobo, MDC Live Arts has a celebrated history of bringing extraordinary national and international performing artists to Miami. The annual series presents today’s most exciting artists and designs meaningful engagement between these artists, the students of MDC, and the greater community. MDC Live Arts seeks artists from across the globe who push boundaries and honor traditions relevant to Miami’s diverse community, and aims to offer audiences opportunities to discover new ideas, perspectives and forms of expression. For more information, please visit www.mdclivearts.org.
The Programs of MDC Live Arts are made possible with the generous support of: Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council; the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners; the Miami-Dade County Tourism Development Council; the National Endowment for the Arts; the City of Miami Beach Department of Tourism and Cultural Development, Offi ce of Cultural Affairs, the Miami Beach Mayor and City Commissioners; the Southern Exposure: Performing Arts of Latin America program, Citizens Interested in the Arts; Miami Dade County Cultural Passport in partnership with Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Aff airs, Miami Dade County Public Schools, and the Foundation for New Education Initiative; the Miami Downtown Development Authority; and John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. MDC Live Arts is an NPN Partner of the National Performance Network (NPN). Major contributors include the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
ABOUT MIAMI LIGHT PROJECT
Founded in 1989, Miami Light Project is a not-for-profit cultural organization which presents live performances by innovative dance, music and theater artists from around the world; supports the development of new work by South Florida-based artists; and offers educational programs for students of every age. Since its inception, it has reached a diverse cross-section of communities throughout Miami-Dade County with an extensive outreach effort that includes partnerships with other arts organizations, universities and social service agencies. Miami Light Project is a cultural forum to explore some of the issues that define contemporary society.
Miami Light Project receives operating support and funding for our 2016-2017 Season from Ford Foundation; John S. and James L. Knight Foundation; the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, The Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners; the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture; National Endowment for the Arts; The New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts; Miami Salon Group; the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures and the Ford Foundation through a grant from the NALAC Diverse Arts Spaces Grant Program; South Arts in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture; and Publix Super Markets Charities. Miami Light Project is a NPN Partner of the National Performance Network (NPN). Our Contemporary Performance Series is made possible in part by support from the NPN Performance Residency Program. Major contributors of NPN include the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency), the MetLife Foundation and the Nathan Cummings Foundation. .
WHAT: MDC Live Arts and Miami Light Project present Nora Chipaumire’s Portrait of Myself as My Father
WHEN: Friday, Oct.14 and Saturday, Oct. 15, at 8 p.m.
WHERE: Baiamonte’s Boxing Club
222 NW 27th St, Miami, FL 33127
Tickets are $30 plus fees; $10 for MDC students
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To purchase tickets and learn more about the 2016-17 MDC Live Arts Season, please call 305-237-3010, or visit mdclivearts.org; To purchase tickets and learn more about the 2016-17 Miami Light Project Season, call 305-576-4350 or visit miamilightproject.com
MDC Live Arts Contact: Alexa Burneikis, Marketing Manager, 305-237-7733, aburneik@mdc.edu;
Publicity: Lisa Palley, Palley Promotes, 305-642-3132, lpalley@bellsouth.net