Indigenous Performance
Each indigenous performance project aspires to identify and reaffirm indigenous and traditional expressions, worldviews, and performance structures. Rather than adopting western dramaturgical and performance expressions , each project seeks to identify and articulate a place-based performance on a group’s own terms. In many ways the performers are activated as tradition bearers, bridging the two worlds that they inhabit, the contemporary and the traditional. In turn, their unique cultural expression and worldview is given expression, enriching not only personal and cultural identity but also the dialogue of globalization. Each culture holds a unique perspective and each voice of the earth must be heard.
Andegna (the first)
Lul Theatre, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Devised/Directed
Makhanda Mahlanu
Natal Performing Arts Council, South Africa & kwaZulu Natal Tour
Devised/Directed
photos: Shelley Kjonstad
The Eagle's Gift
Tuma Theatre, Alaska
Devised/Directed
Emandulo
Kwasa Group, Durban South Africa
Devised/Directed
Qayaq: The Magical Man
Tuma Theatre
Devised/Directed
KUNA-Korean National University of the Arts
Twelve Moons
Devised/Director
Imipashi
Centre for the Arts, Lusaka, Zambia & National Tour
Devised/Directed
Sardaana
Sakha National Theatre, Siberia
Devised/Directed
Utetmun
Tuma Theatre, Alaska
by Paul Jumbo
Directed
Shadows from the Planet Fire
Metamorphosis Theatre, St. Petersburg, Russia
Devised/Directed
A ritual devised in collaboration with the Metamorphosis Theatre, St. Petersburg, Russia., 1992. The group was devoted to the exploration of pre-Christian, Slavic rituals and was an organ of the White Doves, a five hundred-year-old spiritual cult. The performance was subsequently shown on Russian national television and subsequently toured to the Ural Mountain region. Devised/Directed by Thomas Riccio. Created through improvisation of trance experiences. A selection from the ending of the performance. Presented in the Baltic House Theatre lobby.
Naam/Gen eehu
Tuma Theatre, Alaska
Devised/Directed
CHAPS
Community Health Awareness Puppets, Kenya
Workshops
Puppetry in Kenya has flourished because it is non-threatening and has the uncanny ability to entertain and communicate simply and directly. Curiously, puppetry, or the animation of figures within a narrative context, was never developed into a performance tradition in Africa. Puppetry per se is not indigenous to Africa except for a few West African traditions, most notably the thousand year old “kotébe” from the Niger River area of Mali. The absence of puppetry from the otherwise vibrant and varied African performance traditions is most likely due to Africa’s use of totemic, fetish, and mnemonic figures which have been associated with witchcraft in a number of ethnic groups. Puppetry was originally introduced to Africa during the colonial era and then used sporadically, in combination with Theatre for Development activities, since the 1980s. However, the fact that puppets have no history or tradition in Africa is a part of its success. Because there are no preconceived notions, expectations, taboos or traditional contexts attached to puppet performance in Africa, puppets remain a novelty, neutral and free to define their own place, expression, and function.