FIVE PIONEERING EAST AFRICAN ARTISTS AT NAIROBI GALLERY TILL APRIL 2017

FIVE VETERAN EAST AFRICAN ARTISTS SHOWCASE@NAIROBI GALLERY

By Margaretta wa Gacheru 17.12.2016

Most Kenyans don’t seem to have much interest in their history. We’re so busy living in the present, interacting with our cell phones and our social media, we don’t have much time to reflect and research into our past.

Francis Nnaggenda's Mother Goddess Africa at Nairobi Gallery

Yet we have been giving some thought to our heroes these days. Yet most of the heroes we celebrate are defined in terms of politics, which is great and important, especially when we are thinking about freedom fighters.

But how often do we think about cultural freedom fighters, artists who came forth to pave the way for our current crop of visual artists, our sculptors and painters as well as those experimenting with various media which is a common theme and interest among Kenyan artists today.

At Nairobi Gallery (just next door to Nyayo House, in the old PC’s headquarters), the art of five East African artists who the exhibition’s curator calls ‘pioneers’ are on display from last Saturday December 17^th up to April  2017.

Several of the five are Ugandans, which is understandable given they had their own Fine Arts School way back in the 1930’s. The late British artist Margaret Trowel saw the rich artistic potential among her students at Makerere University. Thus, an art school established in her name created an atmosphere conducive to emerging African artists taking hold and developing that creative capacity.

Ironically, three out of the four Ugandan artists in the East African pioneers show didn’t attend Makerere officially. Only John Odoch Ameny did

and Jak Katarikawe was technically tutored by s Tanzanian lecturer in fine art at the university, Sam Ntiru.

Otherwise, Jak didn’t attend much formal schooling at all. But he had talent which got spotted by another University man who set Jak on the road to a creative arts career. Two of his signed prints are available at the gallery

Francis Nnaggenda got his fine arts training elsewhere before he came to be head of the Fine Art Department at Makerere. He spent quite some time in Kenya and his biggest fan was the former Vice President of Kenya, Joseph Murumbi.

One of Kenya’s earliest art collectors, Murumbi tried to interest his fellow government officials to take sufficient interest in the arts to at least buy a few pieces and at most, help him establish a National Gallery of the Arts in Kenya. But then as now, local politicians were not interest in the arts. In general, their chief concern was and is acquiring power and amassing wealth, which is one reason why Murumbi left politics altogether and devoted his life to promoting Pan African arts, including the works of Nnaggenda and OdochAmeny among many others.

Most of Nairobi Gallery (as well as the ground floor of the National Archives) is dedicated to Murumbi’s collections related to culture and the arts. But Richard Onyango, (the one Kenyan artist in the show) and Sanaa Gateja

were too young to be known or collected by the former VP. Yet both are considered as ‘pioneers’ by Murumbi’s former business partner, Alan Donovan, since both men were recognized artists relatively early in the period now commonly known as contemporary East African art.

Richard has two classic paintings in this show, one of old Mombasa, the other portraying a moment in his life with Drosey, the large English lady who sadly died before the two could be wed. The other is of Old Mombasa (below).

Jak also has just two works in this show; both are prints from an earlier time when his creative energies were at their peak.

Nnaggenda technically has just one painting in the exhibition

however, the sculpture that he created back in the Sixties which had once belonged to Murumbi, is just outside the Pioneer Gallery and is one of the most exquisite examples of sculptural work. Another is the ‘Mother and Child’ stone sculpture that stands at the entrance of Nairobi National Museum.

The most prominent artists in this exceptional show are Gateja and Odoch. Both have been experimenting with unconventional art materials long before the current crop of artists recognized the immense freedom they have to explore and experiment with anything and everything, be it smoke (which Evans Kangethe sometimes works with) to soil, sand, newspaper and scrap metal.

Odoch has made his sculptures with everything from type writer bodies to mobile phones, bike chains and other assorted spare parts. The artist’s genius was early recognized in Nairobi by Donovan who gave him exhibitions at the African Heritage Pan-African Gallery since the 1970s. He was subsequently employed for several years at the AH workshops where he advised on production of art and crafts in even more diverse media.

Meanwhile, Gateja was actually an art dealer before he got into doing art himself. Growing up in Uganda, he came to the Kenya Coast where he opened a successful gallery before he shifted to Nairobi and started working closely with Donovan. But it was after he returned to Uganda in the late 1980s that he began working with women groups who he taught to make paper beads that have now become his main medium of creation.

Twins by Gateja

All the artists have luminous works on display at Nairobi Gallery where the PointZero Coffee House has just launched a monthly book series, starting with Yvonne Adhiambo’s readings of Dust.

SANAA THEATRE AWARDS 2016 THRILLED MANY

SANAA THEATRE AWARDS FILLED WITH GOOD NEWS ABOUT HEALTH & CULTURAL WEALTH OF KENYA THEATRE

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted  December 16th, 2016)

The 4^th edition of the Sanaa Theatre Awards came off without a hitch last Wednesday night at Kenya National theatre apart from the Minister of Culture’s late arrival (forgiven after Dr. Wario made a brief speech promising practical means of promoting the Theatre) and George Orido’s exhaustive classification of potential award winners which were more than 40 this year.

 Minister for Culture, the Arts & Sports, Dr Hassan Wario with Sanaa Theatre Awards founder, George Orido. photo by Margaretta

Offering so many trophies was undoubtedly Orido’s effort to be all-inclusive, but for some of us who prefer awards ceremonies that are short and sweet, one may wish to ask Orido to edit his ceremony which went on until almost midnight.

Nonetheless, the selection of awardees this year was a worthy reflection of the local theatre scene. There might have a few gaps, but I would attribute that to the production teams not bothering to contact the local media for promotion of their shows.

The overwhelming winner of awards this year was from Mombasa: nonagenarian Kuldip Sondhai for his production, ‘Don Geronimo’

at The Little Theatre which won six awards: for Best Production; Best Director, Hillary Namanje; Best Playwright, Sondhai; Best Supporting Actress, Stephanie Masike; Best Play in English; and Sondhai being one of the five to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award. (The other four were Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Wasambo Were,

Caroline Odongo and JPR Ochieng Odero.) And if you count the Little Theatre Club of Mombasa’s winning Most Improved Theatre Space (which Sondhai’s production enhanced), then that makes seven awards that the BBC award winning playwright and his cast can claim.

Best actor’s award went to Maina Olwenya

for his role as the Somali ‘terrorist’ in Silvia Cassini’s A Man Like You (which was also staged to appreciative audiences in New York City) which also won for being the ‘Best Tragedy’.

             Maina Olwenya as a Somali 'terrorist' interrogating a British diplomat (Tom Hardy)

Best actress went June Gachui for her role in Three Fold Cord. This looked like a difficult decision for the judges (who included George Orido, Sanaa awards founder, Dr Fred Mbogo, senior lecturer at Moi University and Nicholas Moipei, Chairman of Kenya Cultural Centre’s Board, among others), because June was up against Bernice Nthenya of Heartstrings (below)

and Veronica Waceke (below)

as the  leading lady in Gilb’art Production of Edufa.

In fact, the number of outstanding women actors who surfaced in 2016 was formidable as in the five we saw in “And then she said…” and Nyef Nyef Storytellers performing Sheroes. But at least Nyef Nyef won the award for Best Production on Women’s Rights and Gender-based Violence (the Maya Angelou Award) for A White Wedding which was performed at the newly-devised Storymoja Stage.

Giving two awards for Festival of Creative Arts’ performance of ‘Nuts+’, for Best Production on Child Rights and Protection and Best Production on Reproductive Rights was also an implicit awarding of women actresses since Helena Waithera (below left)

and Marianne Nungo (above, 2nd from left) were also outstanding in that show.

But so was the whole cast of ‘Nuts+’ which is why FCA was smart to bring back the show this weekend at Alliance Francaise.

In the meantime, Eliud Abuto was again awarded best producer this year, not only for his consistency of commitment to Kenyan theatre over the years, but also for his courage to break out of FCA’s comedic mold to successfully stage a seriously challenging script like Nuts+.

Another category that was clearly not easy for the judges to decide was Best Supporting Actor since 2016 was also a great year for guy actors. To my mind Joe Kinyua could have been considered for best actor in the August Wilson classic ‘Fences’ at Phoenix Theatre as well as for best supporting actor in Martin Kigondu’s Who’s Your Daddy?

But the award went to Kenyatta University’s Irshad Abdullaziz for his role in Euthanasia, a man also worthy of the win.

Thanks to Orido’s substantive list of theatrical classifications, there were many more award winners. Sammy Mwangi and Heartstrings tied for Best Director and My Fish My Choice.

Jungle Book won for Best Lighting and Sound while Tinga Tinga Tales won for Best Costuming as well as for Best Musical Theatre.

Awards also went to Jim Chuchu’s The Bones Remember for the Best Innovative Short Film on Health, Youth and Behavior Change, Best Art and Culture TV magazine: The Trend, Newspaper/Magazine: Business Daily Life and All-Time Supporting Institution: still Alliance Francaise.

Even Primary and Secondary Schools, Colleges and Universities got awards this year as did one of the counties. But the jewel in the crown or the President Barack Obama Award for most Dinguished Diaspora Award went to all four nominees, namely Lupito Nyong’o, Edi Gategi, Odera Owiso and the amazing Moipei Quartet, three of whom are studying overseas but happily came home for Christmas.

Happy Holidays to them all!

KIOKO MWITIKI IN 2012 & NOW: STILL A GENIUS JUNK ARTIST

THE GENIUS OF CHANGING JUNK INTO FINE ART

By Margaretta wa Gacheru Posted January 13, 2012

Kioko Mwitiki may not be the first scrap metal sculptor in East Africa. He gives that credit to Ugandan artists.

“First was Francis Nnaggenda,” says the first Kenyan scrap metal artist, referring to the retired chairman of Makerere University’s Margaret Trowell School of fine art.

Sculpture by Francis Nnagganda @ Nairobi Gallery

“Then came John Odoch Ameny,” whose larger than life-size scrap metal sculpture inspired Kioko while he was still a fine art student at KU and Odoch was exhibiting at African Heritage, quietly in exile from the Obote and Amin regimes.

    John Odoch Ameny 'mass communication' scrap metal sculpture@Nairobi Gallery

Kioko also had his own political problems during the 1980s. “I was a recipient of the same ‘walking papers’ that many student activists got in the post-1982 (attempted coup) period,” confessed the one-time Pambana protester.

“There were 70 of us that got kicked out in March of 1985,” recalls Kioko who is still rather proud to have been featured on a front page photo of The Standard that time, when anti-Moi sentiments were very high.

Briefly incarcerated with 28 others, Kioko was eventually called back to KU so he completed his university degree in 1986. But not before he’d picked up one of his most valuable technical skills, and one which he has used and even taught to others almost every day since then.

Frankly needing a job once he was out of school, Kioko found his way to the Nakuru Aluminium Works.

“That was where I learned welding,” says the man who has taught that same skill to countless school-leavers, many of whom have gone on to become self-supporting sculptors who, in turn train their own apprentices.

“One is in Mtwapa where he’s trained a small nucleus of scrap metal sculptors who are doing very well,” says Kioko with an undisguised sense of pride.

“There’s another working the same way in Kangemi and another in Dagoretti,” adds the former Consolata art teacher.

These were his first trainees, young men mainly from Western Kenya who had been sent to him by parents worried that their sons weren’t qualified to do anything constructive with the education they’d thus far received.

Initially, Kioko hadn’t planned to teach. Indeed, after a three year stint teaching art at Consolata Primary, he formally quit the profession to devote himself to his art.

But even while he was at Consolata, Kioko was able to find time to work closely with the Nairobi National Museum and achieve a measure of success with his art.

But teaching evolved naturally when, as his art projects grew both in scale and number, he realized he needed to hire skilled welders to help him with his art.

 

But once he saw it might make more sense to mentor young welder apprentices rather than hire old-hands, Kioko also found he had a role to play in uplifting the lives of ‘grassroot’ Kenyans who might otherwise remain trapped in rural poverty and in a peculiar problem that now plagues his mother’s Wakamba community.

Noting that historically, the Wamunyu Cooperative Society used to provide substantial livelihoods for skilled Wakamba carvers, Kioko says that carvers have fallen into hard times.

“The downside of Wangari (Maathai)’s campaign to save African hardwood forests has hit the Kambas especially hard since it’s practically killed the market for hardwood carvings.”

Having found that former carvers are especially keen to adapt and retrain as not only welders but also stone carvers, Kioko isn’t just teaching skills in welding and working with recycled scrap metal. He’s also seen that places like Kitui are rich in shale stone, which can potentially replace hardwood as the main medium that renowned Kamba carvers can now use.

Seeing himself as a sort of ‘marketing consultant’ as well as mentor, Kioko has also found ways to work artistically with calabash goards which are plentiful in Ukambani too.

Clearly committed to improving the lives of local artisans, it’s almost hard to believe that Kioko finds time to travel abroad and take up ‘guest artist’ residencies for several months at a time. But for the last few years, he’s been spending three-month ‘summers’ in the United States, first at the renowned San Diego Zoo in California, then at the Desert Museum in Arizona.

And even before he attracted the attention of the Foundation for Women which helped organize his recent US sojourns, (and who get 15 percent of the profits he makes from the American sales of his art; it goes toward worthy women causes), Kioko was an invited guest to many parts of the world.

                     Kioko's gigantic orangutan with renowned primate scientist Jane Goodell

Ironically, his first trip overseas was to Montana, USA where he worked with Native American Kootnei Indians teaching skills similar to what he teaches Kamba carvers like Mwema Munyao.

The recipient of a Reader’s Digest/Lila Wallace Foundation fellowship in 1995, Kioko had already been recycling ‘junk’ metal into fine art for several years. So his mentoring among the Kootnei was a kind of continuation of his work reshaping ‘found objects’, such as sundry car parts-shock absorbers, ball bearings, spark plugs and chains, into art.

Subsequently, he’s exhibited in Denmark, Spain, Nigeria, UK and France. Most frequently, he’s been invited by private collectors. However in 2007 he went to London, sponsored by the Kenya Tourism Board, hired to do the décor for the Kenya Stand at the World Tourism Fair.

Kioko appreciates the importance of marketing not only for Kenya generally but specifically for Kenyan artists and artisans who need to know how to market their work to improve their quality of life.

His own quality of life has improved steadily over the years, to the point where his ‘junk art’ is in such demand internationally that he has had to ship whole container-loads of life-size wildlife overseas—everything from gorilla, giraffe and elephant to whole ‘herds’ of water buffalo, warthogs and wildebeest!

Opening Pimbi Gallery in 1996 also makes him one of the few Kenyan artists to feature an art centre in his back yard.

Nonetheless, Kioko remains grounded with his training of guys like Mwewa, who worked for years at Gikomba until the market dried up and he almost lost hope until he met Kioko who has both trained and employed both Mwewa and his son Munyao.

One other indicator of how grounded Kioko remains is to see how he personally continues to scavenge Nairobi’s major junkyards, in Kawangware and Kariobangi North. It’s been a challenge to get good scrap metal, Kioko claims, since the Chinese were exporting it all up until the Government put a halt to that practice.

The problem of Chinese competition for scrap hasn’t died. But even the Chinese can’t keep Kioko from fulfilling his many dreams.

His latest plan is to set up an outdoor Sculpture Park, complete with galleries, an educational centre and rondovals where visiting artists can stay and work for free “as long as they give back by working with the local Maasai community.”

The park will be about 60 kilometers from Nairobi down Magadi Road and he hopes to open it next year in a place called Kona Baridi.

In the meantime, Kioko continues with his training jua kali artisans and recycling scrap metal to make a form of Kenyan art that he doesn’t mind calling “junk art” since he knows the tremendous skill involved in transforming junk into fine art. 

DANCE CENTRE KENYA & COOPER RUST STAGE DELIGHTFUL'NUTCRACKER BALLET' AT KENYA NATIONAL THEATRE'

NUTCRACKER BALLET THRILLS CHILDREN AND ADULTS ALIKE

BY Margaretta wa Gacheru (margaretta.gacheru@gmail.com)

It’s rare to walk out at the end of a production filled with a glow that emanated from/off the radiance of the production.

But that is what I felt after witnessing the opening night performance of the Dance Centre Kenya’s ‘The Nutcracker Ballet’ last Saturday at Kenya National Theatre.

The world over, the ballet’s a holiday classic and has been ever since it was composed by the brilliant Russian Pyotr Ilyich Tschaikovsky in 1892 and staged the same year in St. Petersburg. That first performance wasn’t an overwhelming success due to Maruis Petipa’s clumsy choreography which was described by critics at the time as both “insipid” and “confusing”.

But this is certainly not the case with the ballet that one will be able to watch tomorrow night at GEMS Cambridge School on Magadi Road and Sunday at 3pm at Braeside School on Mathangari Road.

This production of The Nutcracker has been beautifully choreographed by DCK’s Artistic Director and youthful doyen of Kenyan ballet, Cooper Rust, who also gives an amazing performance in the Arabian dance sequence in Act 2.

  

The colorful set designs and graceful costuming also contribute to the overall elegance of the ballet. But what seriously warmed my heart was seeing children (the oldest having just turned 17) dancing so professionally and with such perfect form that one can easily imagine many of these youthful dancers going on to greater heights dance-wise in days to come.

It’s already happening, thanks to Cooper’s NGO, Arts for Africa which has enabled her to sponsor numerous young Kenyans, many from ‘informal settlements’ like Mathare and Kibera. Most of them go to Dance Centre Kenya but several, such as Joel Kioko, Francis Waweru and Mishael Okumu have gone abroad to attend various dance workshops and residencies in the States. But all three are back here to be in this, the second edition of The Nutcracker.

Joel Kioko just barely got back from South Carolina in time to be in the ballet, but clearly, he had been working all year on his technique while he was away, as the audiences will see in Act 2 when he performs a high-flying dance solo as ‘Spanish Chocolate’ this weekend.

Joel was the boy-wonder who Cooper met while teaching in Kibera some time back. His natural athleticism was extraordinary, so much so that Cooper went out of her way to ensure he got to train with a number of professionals with whom Cooper had danced while she was still living in the States.

But what this year’s Nutcracker makes clear is that Kenyans need not go abroad to get rigorous and wonderful dance training right here in Nairobi. Cooper is a tough but tender-hearted dance teacher who demands discipline and righteous rigor from her students. Her approach has obviously paid off as this year’s performance of The Nutcracker confirms.

But what’s just as remarkable is that DCK is technically not yet two years old. Started by four families early in 2015, the MacSweens, Plumbes, Dolan/Shaws and Vaderas already had known the quality of Cooper’s tutelage and technique so instead of letting her return to the US following a stint she had done with another Kibera-based NGO, the four asked her to stay on as the newly formed DCK’s Artistic Director, which she did. And by so doing, she’s benefitted not only children from the slums; she’s also trained kids coming all over the world, everywhere from Croatia, UK and the States to Poland, Israel, Austria and France.

The one non-dancing lead character, Dr Drosselmeyer, was played last year by Ian Mbugua who did a marvelous job. This year, the doctor, who gives his god-daughter Clara (Anzu Ito) a magical nutcracker shaped like a little toy soldier, is played by Joseph Wairimu who’s best known for his leading role in the award-winning film ‘Nairobi Half-Life’. It’s the nutcracker’s magic that permeates the whole production and explains why the ballet is staged annually to the delight of children all over the world.

Also being staged this weekend is ‘Tis the Season’ at The Elephant in Lavington. Produced by Sheba Hirst and directed by Eric Wainaina, the show features songstress Patricia Kihoro and Elsaphan Njora.

Then from Tuesday, December 14, Heartstrings Kenya will close their busy theatre year by staging an original comedy, ‘Behind my Back’ through Sunday December 18.

 And finally, also on December 18^th for one performance only, King Dodge Kingoroti will be staging his original Kikuyu musical entitled ‘Mbomboi’ at the Ngecha Art Centre from 2pm.

DECEMBER JAM; PACKED WITH ART SHOWS

KENYAN ARTISTS OUT IN FULL FORCE FOR THE HOLIDAYS

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (margaretta.gacheru@gmail.com)

Tis the season for amazing group exhibitions and affordable art shows as well as for several solo exhibitions. Among the soloists, there’s Nuru Bahati’s digital art works entitled ‘People Change’ at the Dust Depo Studio through Dec. 18th, Ugandan artist Enock Mukiibi at Banana Hill Gallery through the New Year, Gor Soudan’s ‘Imprints’ paintings at Red Hill Gallery through January 25th,

Gor Soudan at Red Hill Gallery

Korean ceramist Kim Sung-Jin at Nairobi National Museum through January 18^th, watercolors by Chris Campbell Clause at the Talisman restaurant through December 18^th Elaine Kehew’s ‘Chasing Waterfalls’ at the Lord Erroll restaurant,

Elaine Kehew's Dance of the Red Ibis

and Patrick Kinuthia’s colorful paintings entitled ‘Ni ya Leo’ through January 25th at The Art Space.

Patrick Kinuthia at The Art Space

For some reason, only a fraction of The Art Space was filled with Patrick’s paintings, so it was no surprise to see the remainder of his work at Dusit D2’s once-a-month showcase last Saturday in The Den, where he shared that space with several outstanding East African painters, such as Patrick Mukabi, Adrian Nduma, Leonard Kateete

Leonard Kateete's glass mosaic of Mzee Jomo (below)

Taskin Butt and Sam Madoka, a former TV personality and advertising executive who’s now revealed himself to be a talented visual artist.

But Dusit is just one of several group shows going on prior to the Christmas, Hannekah and New Year’s holiday season. There’s an exceptional one at One Off Gallery featuring the third edition of ‘Recent [and wonderful] Works’ by Peter Ngugi (whose 30 feet tall scrap metal and spoon Tree was just installed at The Hub in Karen),

Peter Ngugi's metal tree at The Hub in Karen

Timothy Brooke,

Timothy Brooke at One Off

Richard Kimathi,

Richard Kimathi with his 2 young boys at One Off Gallery

Richard Kimathi's Never Kissed a Girl at One Off Gallery

Peterson Kamwathi, Beatrice Wanjiku (below)

Peter Elungat, James Mbuthia (below,

Ehoodi Kichapi, Florence Wangui (below),

Harrison Mburu (his Chameleon, above),
Jackson Wanjau (Labourer, below)

and Fitsum Berhe.

Fitsum's Contemporary Chic

There’s also an ‘Affordable Art’ Exhibition at the Polka Dot Gallery in Karen where Lara Ray is catering specially for holiday shoppers with lovely paintings and prints by local artists as well as holiday cards which may also serve as miniature works of art. Among the artists exhibiting at Polka Dot are several Ugandan artists including Ronnie Ogwang, Anwar Sadat and Tindi, April Zhu and Elaine Kehew, Patti Endo, Caroline Mbirua and Sophie Walbeoffe among others.

Circle Art Gallery also has an outstanding group exhibition entitled ‘The Third Dimension’ which embraces everything 3D including sculptures, installations, functional art and even books. The artists whose amazing works are on display include Joseph ‘Bertiers’ Mbatia, Cyrus Kabiru, Peter Walala, Dennis Muraguri, Meshack Oiro, Gor Soudan, Kioko Mwitiki, Mwini Mutuku, Onyis Martin and Anthony Wanjau. It’s an exceptional collection of assorted 3D works that shouldn’t be missed by anyone keen to discover the dynamism and diversity of Kenyan contemporary art.

Meanwhile, the British Institute of East Africa has of late paid greater attention to contemporary African art. Up until yesterday, it had an important collection of 100 sculptures by 20 Zimbabwean artists entitled ‘Faces of Zimbabwe’. The show was curated by Carola Rasmussen, and despite the fact that the show technically closed December 8, it’s possible that one might still be able to see a bit of it if you get to BIEA today.

Otherwise, you can get yourself to Village Market where you’ll find lots of the latest paintings and sculptures by nearly all the resident artists based at Kuona Trust. The fate of the Trust is still in limbo, so as many friends of Kuona who’d feel good about showing their support for the artists and faith in Kuona’s future would do well to visit Village Market’s exhibition hall through this weekend

Meanwhile, at Kuona’s own gallery, ‘Wrong Number’s an exhibition of works by resident artists Lemek Tompoika and Paul Njihia. Both artists use their art to challenge the increasing power that numbering, ranking and digitalizing of people that Western culture has brought to Kenya, especially in education. Lemek’s sentiments are expressed through the combination of painting and collage while Njihia’s paintings include ensemblies of school children whose anonymity is reinforced with identical school uniforms which also cloaks their individuality. Both artists also have works on display in the Village Market show which opened last Wednesday and runs through this weekend.

Finally, refugee artists were visible at two separate venues this past weekend, first at the Nairobi National Museum where UNHCR had sponsored artists from both Kakuma and Dadab Camps through the weekend and then, simultaneously, during the Kenya Fashion Market, we found one amazing Rwandese artist named Bahimba Thaddee Macumi at the Ngong Racecourse displaying his Mahogany chairs, tables and 3D relief ‘paintings’ all carved in wood but given a life of their own by this refugee artist who learned to carve after he arrived in Kenya some years ago.

PROFESSIONAL BALLET CAME TO KENYA IN OCTOBER 2016

BALLET COMES TO KENYA BIG-TIME

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (marrgaretta.gacheru@gmail.com) October 2016

Ballet has been big in the past fortnight. First came members of the popular German dance company, the ‘Semperoper Ballett’ to Nairobi last weekend and gave two performances at Kenya National Theatre.

It was the first time the troupe had come to sub-Saharan Africa (otherwise, spending most of their time performing either in their home town of Dresden or around Europe and the US).

So I guess they assumed Kenyans knew nothing about ballet since their program included an act one in which they ‘introduced’ two audiences (one last Friday, another on Saturday) to a beginner’s ballet class.

Nairobi audiences didn’t seem to mind, especially when the last act was interactive and all were invited up onto the KNT stage. Then they were advised to get a partner (preferably a stranger), focus their gaze on the other’s eyes and then (without touching one’s partner) move together to the music.

It seemed that however crowded the stage was, few people wanted to leave as they were having too much fun.

Personally, I loved the brief excerpts from the company’s ballet repertoire which were dazzling. They made me want to go straight to Dresden to see them perform with live musicians and complete ballet programs.

The other big ballet event takes place tomorrow night, October 8 from 7pm at Braeburn Gitanga Theatre when the Dance Company Kenya (DCK) will also introduce Kenyans to excerpts of world renowned ballets in a show entitled “Giselle and Other Bits of Ballet.”

But the ‘bits’ will include complete dances or entire acts from such acclaimed ballets as Giselle, Sleeping Beauty, Spring Waters and Les Corsaire.

For instance, in the case of Giselle, we’ll see the whole of Act 2. The title role will be played by Oona Nary, 13, who will partner with DCK dance instructor Mishael Okumu and whose Queen of the Wilies will be played by Lucile Plumbe (who played the Sugar Plum Fairy in last year’s DCK’s production of The Nutcracker which returns to Kenya National Theatre on December 2^nd and 3^rd).

The ‘Garland Waltz’ set to Tchikovsky’s ‘Sleeping Beauty’ has been choreographed by DCK’s Creative Director Cooper Rust for the DCK’s Junior Company, little boys and girls from the ages of 7 through 12.

The ‘Odelesque Pas de Trois’ from ‘Le Corsaire’ will be performed by three young dancers, Tara Brmbota, 14, Lulu Heinel, 16, and Mai Sher, 16, all of whom spent their ‘summer months’ (July and August) in rigorous rehearsals, in either Croatia, Israel or the US.

And the ‘Pas de Deux’ from ‘Spring Waters’ (which is set to the music of Serge Rachmaninov) will feature DCK’s founder and Creative Director Cooper Rust who will perform with DCK instructor Mishael Okumu.

Ms Rust is also the founder of the US-based NGO, Artists for Africa, which is currently sponsoring four young dancers from Kibera who not only have full DCK dance scholarships but also full academic sponsorship to attend the Mainflow Preparatory School.

George, 12, Alvin and Shamick, both 13 and Pamela, 14, were specially selected to not only study ballet tecnique but also jazz, contemporary dance, musical theatre and company classes. So far, only Pamela has begun to learn to dance on Point (shoes), but under Ms Rust’s disciplined dance instruction, they are all learning fast.

Artists for Africa also sponsored Okumu to study dance this past ‘summer’ in the US, and last year, the NGO also sponsored several more youth to study dance abroad, including Joel Kioko who will come back before Christmas to perform in what’s become an annual performance of The Nutcracker.

What’s fascinating about Ballet is that before the French Revolution (1789), it was only performed for the aristocracy. But after the Revolution, ballet became the dance beloved by ordinary people.

It’s no surprise then that ‘Giselle’, first staged in Paris in 1841, is a romantic ballet about a beautiful peasant girl who’s betrayed by her aristocratic boyfriend whom she believed was a humble peasant like herself until she learned he was betrothed to another woman of his upper class. The news literally breaks her heart by the end of  Act one.

Act 2 is set deep in the dense forest where a troop of 24 supernatural spirits called the Wilies revive Giselle so she can get back at her cheating Duke. But her love for him compels her to save the guy from the avenging female spirits.

It should be a beautiful evening with lovely costuming and sets. What’s more, Ms Rust has performed in professional ballet companies all over the US and engrains her own professionalism in her students.

MUMBI KAIGWA’S  BACK ON THE PERFORMANCE TRACK

BY margaretta wa Gacheru (margaretta.gacheru@gmail.com)

It wasn’t so long ago that Mumbi Kaigwa gave a retrospective showcase of her 40 year career in theatre and film. Having launched that career at age ten starring in a KBC-TV production of Wole Soyinka’s The Strong Breed,  Mumbi’s been in movies like ‘The Constant Gardener’ and ‘Something Necessary’ as well on stage, first as an actress, then as a director-producer, and finally as a playwright whose plays have been staged all over Kenya and Tanzania as well as in Europe and the States.

But then, by the time she’d decided to celebrate her 40 years in the performing arts, Mumbi was getting set to pack up that career and head for retirement.

Fortunately, she’s no longer entertaining that notion. It’s no longer even an option since several things have intervened and caused her to fundamentally change her perspective not only on her [artistic] career but also on her life in general and her sense of self-worth specifically.

She may have been getting set to pack things up and sift gears into a slower, more sedentary life. But then came a call in 2014 for her to come to Cairo, attend the 23^rd International Festival of Contemporary and Experimental Theatre (with all expenses paid) and receive a lifetime achievement award for her work creating theatrical campaigns around social themes related to everything from human rights, conflict resolution and peace to torture, post-election violence and violence against women.

She’d already received one ‘lifetime achievement’ award in 2013 from the CEO magazine from South Africa. But the recognition she was to receive in Egypt was different. It was more global in that her fellow awardees were coming from all over the world, from Shanghai and the States as well as from West Africa and the Middle East.

As it happened, the Cairo Festival didn’t come off until September this year, just shortly before she’s been called to participate in another global theatre festival in the UK.

‘This was a festival that linked science and the arts,” said Mumbi who’d been selected to create one of the seven original plays to be staged in Manchester related to the theme of ‘Birth’. The other six playwrights were from China (Xu Nuo), India (Swati Simha), Syria (Liwaa Yazji), UK (Stacey Gregg), USA (Kirsten Greenidge) and Brazil (Marcia Zaelatto).

Each playwright was given a specific sub-theme. In Mumbi’s case it was fistula, a physical condition that’s rare in the West, but which afflicts women especially in war-torn countries who’ve been gang raped.  

Straight away, she took on this huge challenge which compelled her to interview both medical specialists and women who’d suffered from fistula. It was a painful process, but it also resulted in revitalized Mumbi’s whole perspective on life and on a creative career which she now realized was by no means over. Instead, she had so much more to do.

“I thought I was going into retirement in 2014; I didn’t realize then that it would be a two year sabbatical that’s now ended. Now I’m back to work,” she said.

Egypt was amazing not only because that 10 day festival enabled her to see as many as four theatre shows a day, plus attend workshops and panel discussions.

It was also because she felt fully validated for her work as a Kenyan creative. “I was treated like a visiting dignitary,” she said, having been given her own chauffeur-driven car who took her anywhere that she and her fellow Kenyan poet-playwright Sitawa Namwale wanted to go.

But as validating and invigorating as the Cairo festival was, it was the performances in Manchester at the ‘Birth’ Global Festival of Theatre and Debate that ultimately convinced Mumbi she has so much more to do both theatrically and cinematically.

“Currently, I’m working on two short documentary films,” said the former chairperson of the Board of Mediva (Media Development in Africa) as well as its Managing Director.

Admitting she had always wanted to make films (and not just star in them), Mumbi even did an internship at K24 just so she could get behind a film camera.

‘While conducting interviews with women who’d suffered from fistula, I was also the one filming the women,” said Mumbi who used those interviews as the basis for her creating ‘Orchid’, the work of ‘verbatim theatre’ that she wrote and also co-starred in during the Birth Festival.

So whether she continues making films, scripting plays or producing shows that she takes on tour around the world (as she did with her second play in her trilogy, Kigezi Ndoto), only time will tell. The good news is that Mumbi’s back on track to be Kenya’s leading doyen in our performing arts.