Zimbabwean Choreographer/Dancer to Preview Work with ASU Gammage 9/18 At ASU Galvin Playhouse

Zimbabwean choreographer and dancer Nora Chipaumire invites Valley residents to see her new work in progress "lions will roar, swans will fly, angels will wrestle heaven, rains will break: gukurahundi" on Saturday, September 18 at 7 p.m. at the ASU Galvin Playhouse in Tempe free of charge. Chipaumire will be participating in a week-long artist residency with ASU Gammage and the ASU Dance Department starting September 14.

Chipaumire's piece is a collaboration with world-renowned musician and the "Father of Zimbabwean Music" Thomas Mapfumo. The piece explores these exiled artists honest and courageous vision of a modern day Zimbabwe. Prior to the performances, guests are invited to a pre-show event at Galvin Playhouse where there will be hands-on activities, information booths and free and refreshments.

Nora Chipaumire was born in Mutare, Zimbabwe during the second war of liberation. A self-exiled artist now based in New York, Chipaumire investigates the collaborative process within cultural, political, economic and technological identities of African contemporary life. She creates provocative and politically relevant multimedia dance work, illuminating the struggles of human identity in an increasingly borderless world. Her work is inspired by art from her native country such as shona sculpture and chimurenga music - art that results from the often violent convergence of rural, urban, African, non-African, cultural, economic, colonial and technological ideas.

Chipaumire is a Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography (MANCC) 2007-08 Choreographic Fellow. She is a recipient of 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 Mariam McGlone Emerging Choreographer Award from Wesleyan University Center for the Arts on March 10, 2007. She is featured in the documentary Movement (R)evolution and is the subject of the documentary-in-progress, Nora Chipaumire: A Physical Biography, directed by Alla Kovgan and David Hinton, supported by a 2007 EMPAC DANCE MOViES Commission.

Nora Chipaumire is presented as part of the Beyond series at ASU Gammage sponsored by US Airways, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona and the Margaret T. Morris Foundation.

About ASU Gammage
Located on the Tempe campus of Arizona State University, ASU Gammage is among the largest university-based presenters of performing arts in the world. ASU Gammage is the home theater of the Broadway Across America - Arizona and the ASU Gammage Beyond series. Its mission is to connect communities through artistic excellence and educational outreach. ASU Gammage is an historic hall designed by internationally renowned architect, Frank Lloyd Wright.