The Dance Party is ON: Fairfield University’s Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts to Host ‘The Rock Star of Dance’ Nora Chipaumire on November 2
In her latest work that feels distinctly punk, the Zimbabwean-born choreographer channels three musical heroes: Patti Smith, Grace Jones, and Rit Nzele into a live performance album.
FAIRFIELD, Conn. (October 22, 2018) – Iconoclastic choreographer Nora Chipaumire will stage a raw concert inspired by 1970s independent music, Americana, and her own formative years in Zimbabwe, at 7 p.m. at the Quick Center on November 2. This latest work is a live performance album that confronts and celebrates three sonic ideologies: punk, pop, and rumba, explored through the music of radical artists Patti Smith, Grace Jones, and Rit Nzele.
Straight from her World Premiere sold out run of #PUNK 100% POP*N!&GAat the Kitchen in New York City, each section of Chipaumire’s work exists as a complete statement and is performed together as an epic song cycle (like an album), making Chipaumire one of the few African American artists to perform large scale durational works.
To bring this event to life, the Quick is going all out party, and will be hosting cocktails and treats throughout the night. Bring your dancing shoes as audiences are encouraged to participate, dance, and cheer along. Thisepic work will be presented on Friday, November 2, 2018 at 7:00 p.m. Nora Chipaumire and her company will also lead educational workshops and programs with local Bridgeport schools and local audiences the week leading up to the performance.
Chipaumire is a graduate of the University of Zimbabwe’s School of Law and holds an MA in dance and MFA in choreography and performance from Mills College. She has studied dance in Africa, Cuba, Jamaica and the U.S., and has performed internationally in France, Italy, Japan, Senegal, Zimbabwe, including her time as a featured dancer in Urban Bush Women. Among her many achievements, she was a Hodder Fellow at Princeton University in 2014-2015, a United States Artist Ford Fellow in 2011, a MANCC Choreographic Fellow in 2007-2008, 2009, and 2015, and is a three-time New York Dance and Performance (aka “Bessie”) Awardee. In addition, she received the 2018 Guggenheim Fellowship and the 2015 Doris Duke Artist award. As Dance Magazinehas noted, “Chipaumire has become a rock star of downtown dance, with a majestic quality that blows everything else out of the water.”
This new work is commissioned by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts with the support of BAM, Miami Light Project, ICA Live Art Festival (Cape Town), University of Richmond, Quick Center for the Arts, Crossing the Line Festival/French Institute Alliance Française and Nora Chipaumire.
Nora Chipaumire will be at the Quick on Friday, November 2 at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are $40 and Quick Members are $30. Nora Chipaumire’s educational residency is sponsored by Fairfield County’s Community Foundation. For more information or to reserve your seat, visit www.quickcenter.com or call the box office at 203-254-4010 or toll free at 1-877-ARTS-396.
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Fairfield University is a modern Jesuit Catholic university rooted in one of the world’s oldest intellectual and spiritual traditions. More than 5,000 undergraduate and graduate students from the U.S. and across the globe are pursuing degrees in the University’s five schools. Fairfield embraces a liberal humanistic approach to education, encouraging critical thinking, cultivating free and open inquiry, and fostering ethical and religious values. The University is located on a stunning 200-acre campus on the scenic Connecticut coast just an hour from New York City.
