BALLET EXTRAVAGANZA AT NATIONAL THEATRE

BALLET AND ACROBATICS COMBINE AT NATIONAL THEATRE

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted DN 11.march 2021)

Promising a ‘Dance Extravaganza’, this coming Saturday, March 13^th at noon, dancers from both the Ballet Kenya Studio and the Sarakasi Trust will combine ballet and acrobatics at Kenya National Theatre.

Like all performing artists worldwide, Kenyan dance companies have also been hit hard, says BKS artistic director and founder, Charmaine Smith.

“Before COVID, we were working with 60 young dancers. Now we will have just 18 performing in ballet numbers that I have choreographed,” the former ballerina adds.

Sarakasi’s choreographers, Oscar Mwalo and Aggie the Dance Queen have only been working with nine agile acrobatic dancers since their numbers have also been affected by the pandemic. Nonetheless, the nine have been working hard and look forward to Saturday’s combined performance.

The idea of combining ballet and acrobats is one proposed to Ms. Smith by Sarakasi’s managing director Marion. Smith who has kept a relatively low profile since she came to Kenya from South Africa in 2010 and opened her ballet studio in 2011, saw the suggestion as a good challenge for her young dancers.

All COVID-19 health protocols will be followed, says Ms. Smith whose studio also teaches contemporary jazz as well as classical ballet.

“I teach from the Royal Academy of Dance syllabus in UK, and as soon as COVID restrictions are lifted, the Academy will be sending an Examiner to Kenya to examine our students,” she says. “I trust they will all pass.” 

BROADWAY MUSICAL COMES TO ST. MARIE’S

                                                   Full cast of In the Heights at St Mary's School, March 6, 2021
 

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted March 7, 2021 to BD)

St. Mary’s School has a long history of staging popular musicals, and even opera. And this year’s choice of Lee-Manuel Miranda’s ‘In the Heights’ by the School’s theatre arts teacher and show director, Jackie Kasuku, was in keeping with that ambitious tradition.

Miranda was swept to international renown in 2015 when his hip-hop musical, ‘Hamilton’, about one of America’s Founding Fathers, Alexander Hamilton, became a smash hit on Broadway and beyond. But Miranda had actually made his musical breakthrough a few years earlier with his creation of ‘In the Heights’ in 2008.

                                                                                         Usvani In the Heights

His semi-autobiographical story (co-composed with Quiara Alegria Hudes) about the struggles and hopes of first - and second - generation Latino immigrants won him a Tony award for its dazzling dynamism and stunning musical mix of hip-hop, rap, R&B, soul, salsa and syncopated Latino rhythms.

St. Mary’s production of ‘Heights’ had a lot of that same earthy energy and musical flare that was in the original show. The one big problem of this production was the acoustics in the school’s performance space which made much of the storyline inaudible. And what compounded the audibility issue was Miranda’s hip-hop lyrics which were fast and snappy and highly stylized.

          Nina at the Salon Inthe Heights

The cast weren’t the problem. On the contrary, every one of them, including the youngest (from age 10) up to the eldest (age 18) enhanced a key element of the script, that of the Washington Heights community of working-class Latino immigrants.

Director Kasuku managed to assemble up to 40 students in the cast, all of whom were quick on choreography and clearly keen to be in the multiple street scenes and party dance times.

Ms. Kasuku also created a charming street set design that not only featured the Rosario’s Car and Limo Service, Usnavi’s coffee shop, Daniela’s hair salon, and even the matriarch Abuda Claudia’s front door. There was even a space where we could see the tenement fire escape where lovers met in the moonlight.

Washington Heights is a Latino ‘hood where Spanish-speaking immigrants from Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and even Paraguay reside and share their dreams, hopes and struggles.

One struggle belongs to Nina Rosario (Joy Mungai), the first person from the hood to go to university. But she’s come home having dropped out of Stanford without telling her parents, Kevin (Tula Muumbi) and Camile (Abigail Kibe), who naturally freak out. They’re even more distressed at her choice of Benny (Allan Karundo) as a boyfriend. But all that gets sorted after Camile puts her foot down and agrees to her spouse selling his Car service so Nina can go back to school.

One of the most captivating songs of the musical was ‘96,000’ since that is the sum Abuda Claudia wins with her lottery ticket. It gets everybody wondering what would they do if they had 96,000 of their own. The beloved old woman doesn’t stick around to spend it all. But as she leaves it with Usnavi (Tinashe Mpariwa), the orphan who she’s cared for and who in turn has looked after her, he plans to use it to go back home to Dominican Republic.

But in the end, once his sweetheart Vanessa (Michelle Kituku) implores him to stay, he realizes he is already at ‘Home’ (which coincidentally is the last song of the show), and all ends on a high note.

The one big challenge to ‘In the Heights’, apart from problematic acoustics was the pace at which the musical unfolded. One has to admire the way the cast kept up the speed, never faltering, (apart from a few songs sung slightly off key). Nonetheless, the rapid clip at which the whole production moved meant that there was more synchronized movement but less passion or actors’ emotions expressed.

The one exception was the brilliant outburst by Mama Nina, Camile whose style of negotiating came across in both her body language and her animated talk.

In the end, one has to be impressed with a school production as ambitious and well-conceived as Lee-Manuel Miranda’s masterpiece come to Kenya. But there are still issues theatre groups need to professionalize. They including keeping time, preparing programs and allowing the audience to know who is playing what character, who’s produced and directed the whole show.

When the public is told a show starts at 12:30pm, one doesn’t expect musicians, however magnificent their performances will be, to meander in after 1pm. And then the show starts an hour late.

NEW NBO MUSICALS COMING SOON

                                      NEW KENYA MUSICALS COMING SOON

Roberta Levitow with the LAM  sisters, Laura, Aleya, Wanjiku, Roberta, and Anne

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted March 7, 2021 to DNLife)

The Nairobi Musical Theatre Initiative came into being in 2016, promising to be one of the most exciting, innovative, and ambitious performing arts projects in Kenya’s cultural history.

An idea that had been percolating for some time in the fertile mind of one of Kenya’s most acclaimed musician-composer, Eric Wainaina, the Initiative has grown exponentially over the past five years.

Yet just like every other performing arts project, NBO MTI has had to adapt and adjust its master plan in light of the corona virus pandemic. Otherwise, all 11 original musicals were meant to premiere this past year in a festival the likes of which would have dazzled and delighted a whole new generation of theatre-goers.

Eric had roused wide-ranging interest in musical theatre in the past, first when he staged ‘DJ Lwanda’ back at the turn of the millennium , followed by his award-winning ‘Mo Faya’, and finally, his internationally acclaimed ‘Tinga Tinga Tales.’

But what got him thinking more broadly about an NBO musical theatre initiative began in one respect at a Sundance Institute Theatre Lab that he attended with fellow East Africans back in 2005. That is where he met dramaturg Roberta Levitow. Ms. Levitow’s job was to assist all the artists in the Lab to re-strategize their particular text, be it a play, musical, extended poem or embryonic idea.

“It was the process that she used to help the writer deepen his approach and develop his work, that appealed to Eric,” says Karishma Bhagani, the Initiative’s Associate Producing Director.

Eric’s first project that he had with Roberta was re-working his DJ Lwanda. But they stayed in touch, and he even spent some time as an artist-in-residence at the Sundance Institute in Utah, USA.

                                   Eric Wainaina in rehearsal at BRookhouse for the NBO Musical THeatre Initiative

Those days were catalytic, no doubt. They spurred Eric and his wife Sheba Hirst to bring together a range of local musicians, thespians, and writers, to create a diversity of original Kenya musical theatre works.

The whole concept was radical, as the artists were being challenged to come up with not just original storylines but also musical scores and credible characters. What was marvelous was seeing how 11 different ideas began to germinate. But to propel the process forward, Eric and Sheba invited Roberta to come share her dramaturgic process of developing a musical theatre production with them.

Subsequently, two more senior professors from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, Fred Carl and Deborah Brevoort, came to Kenya, in June 2018 to also share their skills in the actual writing of musical theatre.

And since then, the 11 musicals have evolved, each at its own pace, but spurred on by the momentum and inspiration of the group. Just a few months before the pandemic hit, NBO MTI was invited to send four of their best musicals to perform at the Kampala International Theatre Festival.

“They were invited for an ‘In Process’ reading of their musicals,” says Karishma, not the full productions.

“The four readings were from ‘Pani Puri’, ‘Kabaseke’, ‘The Gospel of Apostle Dennis’, and ‘Weaver Bird’,” she adds.

Explaining that the feedback the Kenyans received in Kampala was most beneficial, especially as no one had imagined a pandemic, only the production premiering late in 2020.

Needless to say, this past year has been rough on the Initiative, given the difficulty with conducting rehearsals, what with the lockdowns, social distancing, and early curfews.

But the current short-term solution has been the evolution of radio plays and a brand new NBO MTI podcast entitled ‘Backstage’ which is being curated by Wanjiku Mwawuganga, the team’s Associate Artistic Director. It was just launched on February 19^th.

“The first episode is by Eric and it’s entitled ‘Product vs. Process,” says Karishma. “And the second is by [poet and storyteller] Aleya Kassam who’s developing both Pani Puri and Weaverbird.”

Details about how to find the podcasts, and how to learn more about NBO MTI’s radio plays are on their new website, www.NBO MTI.org, Karishma explains.

Having been a student at NYU at the Tisch School at the time as Eric was in New York with ‘Tinga Tinga Tales’, she met Eric after attending his concert and workshop on his latest version of ‘DJ Lwanda’.

“He was performing for graduate students in a musical theatre program, and after his concert, I went up and introduced myself in Kiswahili,” says Karishma who is originally from Mombasa. They became fast friends and has been working with NBOMTI ever since.

NO CUT NO TOUCH’ LASER EYE SURGERY COMES TO KENYA

Dr. Joshi performing C-TEN laser eye surgery at his ambulatory clinic at Sarit Centre, Nairobi

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 3.3.2021)

Anyone can make a case for spiffy eyeglasses or colored contact lenses. But most people who wear specs know they look better without them than with. And those who wear contacts are sure of it, but find that dust and pollution make it difficult to wear their contacts full-time.

Corrective eye surgery is what many specs-wearers yearn for, but they either feel laser surgery is too costly or suspect it can endanger their eye sight.

We hear few stories of dismay these days from laser surgery recipients who previously complained about night driving or dry eyes. Their problems usually sorted themselves out after a few days, but some people still believe eye surgery generally can be risky business.

Laser itself stands for ‘Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation’ and was invented by Theodore Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories in California in 1960.

The principle of laser can be traced back to Albert Einstein who in 1917 described the theory of stimulated emissions.

But it wasn’t until 1962 that the first laser eye surgery capable of destroying a retinal eye tumor was being done in the West.

Today, lasers can be found everywhere from bar codes and supermarket scanners to CDs, and diamond cutting drills.

They are best known in Kenya as LASIK corrective eye surgery which seems to be available widely in Nairobi. But LASIK (short for Laser-Assisted in-Situ Keratomileusis) only arrived in Kenya in 2004 with the Uganda-born, India-trained opthalmologist Dr Mukesh Joshi.

Dr. Joshi had come to Kenya after receiving his ophthalmological degrees and went straight to work for the Kenya government for several years before opening his eye correction practice in 1984 in Nairobi.

“It was while attending a conference in Switzerland that I first heard about LASIK and decided to bring it back to Kenya,” says Dr. Joshi who sights Swiss and Norwegian colleagues as those who gave him the most current LAKIK information.

Since laser research and development has been ongoing since the 1950s, Dr. Joshi kept track of new developments in LASIK and so brought EPI-LASIK technology to his practice in 2006.

But what he is most proud of today is the C-TEN laser that he brought home in 2010.

“I was the first to bring this non-invasive ‘no touch – no cut’ laser surgery to Kenya, and we are still the only ones in East Africa to have it,” Dr. Joshi says.

He goes farther and contends that as far as he knows, he is the only ophthalmologist in all of Africa to practice C-TEN. The main reason, he says, is economic.

“Most laser clinics in South Africa are owned by businessmen who have invested heavily in LASIK, so they are not keen to move on,” he says. “The costs are high and the profit margins are low for C-TEN, so it doesn’t make good business sense to invest in the newest technology when clients are still satisfied with LASIK,” he adds.

For him, the advantages of C-TEN far outweigh the costs. This is because it is not only a safer mode of eye surgery, since it is non-invasive. No blade touches the eye, unlike LASIK which physically removes the outer flap of the cornea before applying the laser, after which the flap has to be carefully put back.

In contrast, with C-TEN, all that is done by the laser itself.

And while both LASIK and C-TEN (which stands for Customized Transepithelial no-touch no-cut) apply a topical anesthetic so one is awake during the entire procedure, the high-definition C-TEN procedure takes only 35 seconds at most. What’s more, recovery is much faster and there are rarely problems of dry eyes or night driving.

It is a wonder that more local eye surgeons haven’t moved over to C-TEN, but Dr. Joshi isn’t concerned.

Since 2010 when he first got the latest LASIK technology (for C-TEN is still an advanced form of laser surgery), his satisfied patients number in the thousands. Asked why his advanced technique is not more widely known, Dr Joshi simply says he’s too busy with his practice for self-promotion.

“My patients have learned they didn’t need to fly out of Kenya to get the most advanced laser surgery in the world.”

 

MANJANO 2021 GOES ONLINE

                                                                          Kibera by Adam Masava at Manjano 2020

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 3.3.2021) 

Today, March 5^th, is the big day when the judges have their say over whose artwork we the public will have the opportunity to see at Manjano 2021.

The official launch of this year’s online exhibition will be Saturday, March 20^th. But today, behind closed doors at The GoDown[ms1]  Art Centre’s new digs in Kilimani, is the day of reckoning. The three judges, whose identities remain anonymous until the opening, will get to see the artworks of all 142 artists who submitted a maximum of two paintings or sculptures, installations or videos for consideration by the judges.

It’s been the way the logistics have worked for as long as The GoDown has been involved with Manjano, meaning since 2010. Prior to that time, the annual art exhibition was the work of the Nairobi Provincial government. But ever since the event was spun off to the Art Centre, some significant changes have been made.

                                                       One wall of Kenyan art at Manjano 2020 at Village Market

For instance, since The GoDown took charge, the winning artworks have received substantial cash prizes.

“Unfortunately, due to COVID we have had to cut back on the awards by half this year,” says Priscah Wairimu, Manjano’s program manager. “We thought that news might dampen artists’ desire to get involved with Manjano this year, but it didn’t happen.”

What is different this year from years past is that more established artists submitted works than students. This is the reverse of what normally transpires.

                       Leevans Linyerera's Uhuru Series was tied to win First Prize with Onyis Martin's State of the State.

“We thought this might be due to so many schools being closed so the word didn’t go around as widely among the youth as in years past,” Priscah suggests. In any case, this could mean the judges will have a tougher time narrowing down the winners.

“We never know how many artworks will be in the judges’ final selection. It could be seven or 170,” the manager says.

                                                  Enda Taabu's Oblivion at Manjano 2020 at Village Market

But finally, there will only be six winners who receive cash prizes: three in the established artists’ category and three in the students’. But rather than the elders receiving Sh300,00, Sh150,000 and Sh75,000 respectively, they will get half those amounts, meaning first prize will get Sh150,000, first runner up will get Sh75,000, and the second runner up will get Sh37,500.

And the prizes being awarded in the students’ category will also be reduced. The first prize winner will receive Sh25,000, first runner up will get Sh15,000 and the second runner up will get Sh7,500.

There is little doubt that most artists will be grateful to be rewarded with cash funds, no matter the amount. Those who grumble are those few who haven’t suffered enough during these dreary COVID times when the art market has been slim and visitors who usually prove to be happy art shoppers are home alone, locked-down in their respective lands of origin.

In any case, those artists who participate in this year’s Manjano 21 are likely to receive a wider, even global exposure than those who have been involved in the past. That’s because the whole event will be streamed online via the GoDown’s Facebook page.

‘There will be live streaming on the 20^th when the winners will be announced,” says Priscah. “There will also be advanced filming of all the artworks in the exhibition,” she adds. “These will be available for viewing from the 20^th as well.”

That means that even if your artwork doesn’t win a cash prize, it will still be available for viewing on Facebook, if the judges liked what they saw and included your work in the show as a semi-finalist.

Last year’s Manjano was fortunately up and running at the top floor of Village Market shortly before the coronavirus hit the international news. The show had to shut down before it was officially meant to. Nonetheless, everyone was able to see Onyis Martin’s ‘Car’ that won first prize in the established artist’s category. The public had time to quibble over who they thought should have won, who got overlooked, and who deserved to win hands down.

But since Manjano 2020 had to shut down early on March 24^th, life hasn’t been easy for most Kenyan artists. Many have devoted their COVID times to creating new art. Others have endured financial hardship and some have been challenged mentally and emotionally.

Either way, Manjano 2021, with its usual theme of ‘Nairobi’ should provide the chance to see new creations by a slew of ambitious Kenyan artists who we wish could all be award winners.

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CELEBRATING ‘AFRICA ADORNED’ AT 37

 

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted March 2, 2021 to DN Life & Style))

 In Nairobi to celebrate the 37^th anniversary of the publication of her seminal book, ‘Africa Adorned’ on February 14th, the Australian photographer, Angela Fisher also met up with the man, Alan Donovan, who introduced her to the fellow photographer who would become her best friend and co-author of 17 more books on African ceremonies and culture, Carol Beckwith.

The all-color coffee table-top book, ‘Africa Adorned’ set off fireworks internationally when it came out in 1984. No one before Fisher had entered so deeply into African cultures to capture the exceptional beauty and decorative elegance of the Dinka, Rendille, Gabra, Kuba, Fulani and Ashanti peoples. No one before her had revealed the extent to which Africans decorated themselves in everything from gold, Venetian glass and hand-beaded corsets to cowrie shells, peacock feathers, and elegant hand-woven textiles.

But having studied cultural anthropology at University and worked closely for several years with the Aborigines before coming to Kenya in the early 1970s, Angela was prepared initially to travel up north with fellow Aussies collecting artifacts which would form the basis of her first craft exhibition in Nairobi at the African Heritage Pan-African Gallery in the mid-70s.

                                                       Dinka Girls of Sudan by Angela Fisher in Africa Adorned“I was already in Nairobi when my brother called and asked if I wanted to travel across the continent with him,” recalls Angela who was just beginning her build up her photographic skills at the time.

Having acquired a ‘wander lust’ from her step-father who used to take her camping under the stars as a child, Angela has always been keen on traveling. But to obtain enough material for her book, she would ultimately crisscross the region three times, and then head off to London, first to write a story for National Geographic and then to find the right publisher who would treat her images and texts with special care.

‘Africa Adorned’ has been out of print for the last few years. But hopefully, it is being reprinted soon. In the meantime, Angela and Carol met up at African Heritage and soon agreed to start working together. Both had a passion for exploring and documenting all they could find related to African rituals and ceremonies. Both had an awareness of how rapidly lives are changing all across the region, even to the extent that whole ceremonies, traditions, and skills could disappear as Western notions of modernity overtook and quashed age-old norms and values, just as we are seeing today in Kenya.

                                                           Ashante Royal Dancer drenched in Gold from GhanaAmazingly, the two women might never have met but for a serendipitous set of circumstances on either side. Angela might have remained in Australia except that she had grown disillusioned with the way her government was treating the Aboriginese.

“I found myself watching a documentary on the Maasai, and it took me no time to quit my job, board a plane and fly to Kenya to meet the Maasai in person,” says Angela.

Meanwhile, Carol had been a masters student at the prestigious Boston Museum of Fine Art where she had won a two-year fellowship to study and travel.

“I went to Japan to study Zen calligraphy for a year, then to Burma and Cambodia, and almost as an afterthought, I stopped off in Kenya,” she says.

Then if Carol hadn’t taken that hot-air balloon ride with Angela’s brother, Simon, she might not have been advised to meet the sister, who he said would get on beautifully with Carol. And he was correct.

Carol and Angela

The two met up at African Heritage Garden where Carol had already been painting and beautifying Mr. Donovan’s wall with African designs. She already had produced one book of her own on the Maasai even as Angela was still in the process of getting Africa Adorned published.

But now 45 years later, the two have traveled over 300,000 miles together crisscrossing the continent. “We have been to 45 countries, and worked with 150 different cultural groups across the region,” says Carol whose last joint effort with Angela, their ‘African Twilight’ double-volume was formally launched a year and a half ago at African Heritage House during a big gala night attended by the Minister of Sports, Culture and Heritage, Amb. Dr. Amina Mohamed.

Currently, the two photographers share a three story house in London, which is close to their publisher. “Carol has the ground floor and I have the top, and with our studio in between, it’s a perfect fit,” says Angela who’s still in Kenya, making a film with Carol on life in the bush.

 

 

Rosemary Karuga, Mother of East African Art

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted March 2, 2021)

If great artists in Kenya were recognized and lauded like Picasso is in Paris, Vincent Van Gogh is in Amsterdam, and Andy Warhol is in USA, then Rosemary Karuga would have received an abundance of accolades in her lifetime and now in her death on February 9^th of this new year.

Alas, Kenyans do not yet appreciate the role of the artist in society. So Rosemary’s passing on in her 93 year was a quiet affair. She had moved to Ireland to live with her daughter Beni back in 2006, so her death might not have generated even a ripple of news in the local press.

Yet to those who had the privilege of knowing her or knowing her incredible collage art or her enchanting terracotta sculptures know we had an artistic genius in our midst.

Karuga has been called an icon, a female exemplar and a pioneer in East African art, all of which apply then and now.

The first Kenyan female to attend and graduate from Makerere University’s prestigious Margaret Trowel School of Fine Art from 1950 to 1952, Karuga’s genius was early valued among her peers, including men like Elimo Njau, cofounder of Paa ya Paa, the first indigenous African art gallery in Kenya.

Born in 1928 in Meru to a Ugandan father and Sudanese mother, Rosemary’s artistic bent was visible from an early age when she’d take charcoal sticks and draw on walls all over her family home.

Sent off to boarding school where the nuns encouraged her to pursue her art, Rosemary was quick to spot a call from Makerere for young women to apply for university entry.

In an interview with the BBC on her 60^th birthday, Rosemary described how much she learned at Makerere. She already excelled in drawing, but at university she first learned about sculpture and wood carving, modeling with clay and even molding in bronze. Graduating with a double major in painting and sculpture, her later years as a collage artist grew out of necessity since paper and glue were the only ‘art materials’ affordable at that time in her life.

Then soon after graduating, she met and married a railway man named Karuga. They moved to Kenya, and subsequently, Rosemary found herself in a wasteland where she had “no kiln, no fire, no plaster of paris,” and so, her sculpting days were done. She sadly “gave up” as she told her BBC interviewer. For 13 years thereafter, Rosemary the artist disappeared as she taught art in Kenyan primary schools. No doubt the children were immensely benefited by her creativity.

Ironically, one skill she taught her young students was the art of mosaic-making using old shredded newspapers combined with a gooey mix of ‘unga’ flour and glue. The children loved the challenge, and as it turned out, so did their teacher.

Rosemary said she retired soon thereafter, and wanted to return to doing her art. But her husband had no funds for her ambition and neither did she. What she did have was her imagination and desire to get back to work.

“All I had to work with were the paper jackets of Rexona soap and Unga flour,” Rosemary told BD back in the 1990s after her career had revived.

Those humble art materials are what enabled Rosemary to reignite her artistic work ethic. Nonetheless, her first collages were experimental, except that her daughter quietly took them to Nairobi, to Gallery Watatu where they were quickly bought by the late Ruth Schaffner who demanded Rosemary make her more. And the rest is ‘history’ as they say.

In 1988, the acclaimed Nigerian novelist Amos Tutuola asked her to illustrate his book ‘The Palm-Wine Drinkard’ which set her onto an international career, first to Paris where the book had been translated along with her illustrations, then to the Studio Museum of Harlem, New York, where she co-exhibited with fellow luminaries like El Anatsui and Bruce Onobrakpeya in a show entitled ‘Contemporary African Artists—Changing Traditions.’

Yet whenever Rosemary came home, she continued to find the lack of appreciation among her fellow Kenyans.

“Some people might like my art, but they only felt it was worth pennies, so we artists have remained poor as a consequence,” Rosemary had told BBC as they toured her humble abode in Gatundu.

Yet today, Rosemary’s collage art is sold for high stakes at international art auctions. Her sculptures are priceless, and her name won’t be forgotten. She’s the Mother of East African art.

Nairobi Gallery will exhibit Rosemary’s art from March 25^th.