Kungu Fu ballet at National Theatre
Jun 23, 2010
THE Uganda National Contemporary Ballet’s forte is putting different experiences and styles in a single dance piece. But when the team joined Dominique Saatenang, the first African Shaolin master, expectations were raised on how martial arts was going to be made danceable.
By Emmanuel Ssejjengo
THE Uganda National Contemporary Ballet’s forte is putting different experiences and styles in a single dance piece. But when the team joined Dominique Saatenang, the first African Shaolin master, expectations were raised on how martial arts was going to be made danceable.
Saatenang first had a four minute introduction that was mainly about Wushu (the art of war). Whether it was spiritualism or physical preparation, his strength left the audience awed.
To see an iron bar broken on a man’s forehead, or clubs hit on his hands and legs shatter, was marvellous but scary. The show was staged over the weekend at National Theatre and Theatre La Bonita. The result was staged over the weekend at National Theatre and Theatre La Bonita. The Middle Way was a 46- minute dance piece whose against-violence theme was conspicuously not abstract, a fact that could have ruined the aesthetics of the contemporary dance piece.
Valerie Miquel’s choreography is centered on story telling this time round. The piece was reminiscent of one of her first pieces choreographed in Uganda, Black/White. When a woman disregards all village suitors and falls in love with an outsider, the village gangs up against her.
When the mob threatens violence, a Good Samaritan comes to his rescue, fights off the other men, teaching lessons on how to solve conflict. Jeffrey Harrison, in his first musical score for dance, had movements which were in sync with various dance moods.
THE Uganda National Contemporary Ballet’s forte is putting different experiences and styles in a single dance piece. But when the team joined Dominique Saatenang, the first African Shaolin master, expectations were raised on how martial arts was going to be made danceable.
Saatenang first had a four minute introduction that was mainly about Wushu (the art of war). Whether it was spiritualism or physical preparation, his strength left the audience awed.
To see an iron bar broken on a man’s forehead, or clubs hit on his hands and legs shatter, was marvellous but scary. The show was staged over the weekend at National Theatre and Theatre La Bonita. The result was staged over the weekend at National Theatre and Theatre La Bonita. The Middle Way was a 46- minute dance piece whose against-violence theme was conspicuously not abstract, a fact that could have ruined the aesthetics of the contemporary dance piece.
Valerie Miquel’s choreography is centered on story telling this time round. The piece was reminiscent of one of her first pieces choreographed in Uganda, Black/White. When a woman disregards all village suitors and falls in love with an outsider, the village gangs up against her.
When the mob threatens violence, a Good Samaritan comes to his rescue, fights off the other men, teaching lessons on how to solve conflict. Jeffrey Harrison, in his first musical score for dance, had movements which were in sync with various dance moods.