In 2008 Chipaumire was in residence as a Choreographic Fellow, primarily focusing on movement development and her musical collaboration with Zimbawean musician Thomas Mapfumo and musicians from the Blacks Unlimited ( Lancelot Kashesha, Chakaipa Mhembere, and Gilbert Zvamaida) for her new work lions will roar, swans will fly, angels will wrestle heaven, rains will break: gukurahundi. Now Chipaumire returns to focus on the development of the technological aspects for the work. Joining her in residence are Olivier Clausse (lighting designer) and Joelle Dietrick (projection designer). This work will examine the art-making landscape in Zimbabwe after years of independence, and question the limitations and benefits of what it means to live outside of one’s native culture.
Nora Chipaumire was born in Mutare, Zimbabwe during the chimurenga chechipiri, or second war of liberation. A self-exiled artist now based in New York, she investigates the collaborative process within cultural, political, economic, and technological identities of African contemporary life.
Nora’s choreographic work has been presented throughout New York and San Francisco and she has taught and performed nationally at Arizona State University Department of Dance in Tempe, AZ; SUSHI Performance and Visual Art in San Diego, CA, Idaho State University in Pocatello, ID; Cleveland State University in Cleveland, OH; and Summer Stages Dance in Concord, MA. Nora has toured internationally to the Internationale Tanzmesse NRW in Düsseldorf, Germany; the International Contemporary Dance Festival in Bytom, Poland; and the OPEN LOOK International Dance Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia. Chipaumire has received artistic residences through the Dance Theater Workshop Studio Series, NY (2006-07), Mills College, CA (2006), the Berkeley Art Center, CA (2002), and Berkeley High School, CA (2000).
Nora was selected for the National Dance Project (NDP) Tour Support in 2007-08. She also received a Jerome Travel and Study Grant to participate in the JANT-BI Diaspora Project in Toubab Dialaw, Senegal in May and August 2007. Nora was honored with the Dance Masters Emerging Choreographers Award at Wesleyan University Center for the Arts on March 10, 2007.
Chipaumire is a member of the world renowned dance company, Urban Bush Women. Chipaumire has also worked with various companies locally, nationally, and internationally, including Molissa Fenley and Dancers (NYC), Dimensions Dance Theater (Oakland, CA), and Compania De La Danza Narciso Medina (Havana, Cuba). She has had the privilege of working with esteemed Bay Area choreographers such as Thais Mazur, Anne Bluthenthal, Laura Elaine Ellis, Robert Moses, and Leyya Tawil.
Chipaumire is a graduate of the University of Zimbabwe’s School of Law and holds graduate degrees from Mills College (Oakland, CA) in Dance (MA) and Choreography & Performance (MFA). She has studied dance formally and informally in her native Zimbabwe, USA, Cuba, and Jamaica. Chipaumire has taught students of all ages in community colleges, public schools, and recreational studios in the U.S. and Canada.
