NTN workshop to explore Namibian contemporary dance

SEASONED dance stars and movement practitioners Trixie Munyama, Nikhita Winkler and Stanley Mareka are set to lead an exploration of Namibian dance at the National Theatre of Namibia (NTN) next week.

Inviting participants of 16 years and older with basic dance training to join a workshop titled ‘Exploring Namibian Contemporary Dance and Movement’, the dance series is presented by the NTN in partnership with the National Arts Council of Namibia as a means to motivate Namibian performers to learn indigenous performance vocabularies.

The series, which will take place from 13 to 15 April, is divided into three sections.

“Participants attending Trixie Munyama’s workshop ‘Oudano: Playing with a New Technique’ will be offered a lens on how Aawambo indigenous dance techniques can blend and inform newer movement and performance art forms,” says NTN art director Nelago Shilongoh.

“Those attending Nikhita Winkler’s workshop ‘Exploring Namibian Traditional Contemporary Dance Techniques’ will be offered a glimpse into how various traditional dance techniques can be applied into the Namibian culture and creative sector,” she says.

“The workshop by Stanley Mareka, ‘Increasing Your Repertoire as A Dancer’ offers insights into how dancers with varied contemporary Namibian dance techniques can apply their practices professionally and sustainably in the Namibian cultural, entertainment and tourism sector.”

When considering the term ‘Namibian contemporary dance’ Munyama believes the first point of exploration is definition.

“It is a fairly new term for some of us, and I would like us to interrogate the implications it holds within our context, as well as the changes that inform the need for a new movement expression. These changes have a lot to do with recreating, deconstructing, and reconstructing an existing form that speaks to the individual dance artist’s experiences," says Munyama.

“For example, reinterpreting indigenous movement configurations with contemporary dance configurations, which are often considered Western at their basis, means that the dance artist is allowing individual freedom in their creative processes. There are no restrictions on how this is done,” she says.

“The body, which creates, performs, and observes the dance, essentially identifies as Namibian, and their embodied experiences underpin this new expression through a distinctive characteristic of stomps, soundscape arrangements, and energy.”

Created as a tool through which the NTN can encourage the adoption of local dance and movement techniques that will eventually be incorporated into new works produced by the theatre, the workshop series is, in essence, a celebration and transference of Namibia’s distinct dance character.

“We want performers to take confidence in our practices so that they can adapt and explore these performance formats further,” says Shilongoh, before a final word from Munyama.

“We hope this workshop series challenges the body by calling it to remember that movement/dance is an inherent part of being human, and the body is constantly in motion,” Munyama says.

“We will use that as a guiding principle to give our bodies permission to participate in this remembrance.”

Register for the NTN’s ‘Exploring Namibian Contemporary Dance and Movement’ workshop until 9 April.

Visit www.ntn.org.na, or email pro@ntn.org.na for more information.

– martha@namibian.com.na; Martha Mukaiwa on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter; marthamukaiwa.com

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