Kenyans To Dance Here

May 01, 2003

Dance theatre is not exactly a novel idea in Uganda. The Footsteps, a local dance group, have tried to popularise this genre of art, that skillfully blends both dance and acting in Uganda.

Creation: Abila
Group: Gaara Dance Foundation
Choreographer: Opiyo Okach
Music: Contemporary
Showing: National Theatre, May 7
Fee: Sh2,000 for students and Alliance Francaise staff, sh5,000 for all
Preview by: Sebidde Kiryowa

The obsessions have also had similar musicals.
But now it is time Ugandans savoured a different flavour from a different cultural setting.
Abila is a new choreography by Opiyo Okach of the Gàara Dance Foundation in Kenya. The modern creation in physical theatre and dance comprises seven dancers who will perform at the National Theatre at 7:00pm on Wednesday, May 7. Alliance Française de Kampala, the French language and cultural centre in Uganda is sponsoring the dance show.
In Luo dialect, Abila, the house of the patriarch, is a place where different generations meet and exchange cultural ideas.
The creation, by Kenyan writer Opiyo Okach, is entirely based on this idea of an encounter between dancers of various ethnic and artistic backgrounds in Kenya. This includes traditional dancing, cabaret and theatre.
According to a release by Alliance Française de Kampala, Abila, the lead character is at the centre of an ambitious initiative to promote the development of choreography in East Africa. It is an urban choreography as a trusty experience of the clash between tradition and the modern world.
Three European artists: a videast and two musicians bring their own cross breeding experience. They capture and integrate into the choreography, their own sounds and movements.
This way, Opiyo continues his poetic quest for a modern identity among the dispersed elements of East African cultures, a result of constant changes of hundreds of Bantu, Nilotic & Cushitic populations which have gone to Islam, been evangelised, colonised then educated, modernised and urbanised.
Since its creation in 1997, the Gàara Company has regularly organised shows with support from the Embassy of the Netherlands, Maison Française, the French troop ‘ballet Atlantic / Régine Chopinot’, the Association Française d’Action Artistiqu’ and the French Cultural Centre, all based in Nairobi.
Under the leadership of Opiyo Okach, the group has worked with such international guest choreographers as Jerry Tuvey from Britain and John Batman from the Ballet Atlantic.
Their recent involvement with the Ford foundation gave to the Company a regional dimension that gave Opiyo an opportunity to gather dancers from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania and, in so doing, created the Gàara dance Foundation in Nairobi. Ends

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