Hà Mais - Alma Txina
Abstract
Alma Txina
'Txina' means 'movement' or 'dance' in Xangana, one of the languages spoken in Mozambique (on the south-eastern coast of Africa). It is the language of the young dancers who spend their free time dancing in the streets of the capital city Maputo and are members of one of the many dance groups the city boasts. The Mozambican cultural centre Culturarte and the Portugese Danças na Cidade have, together with the European Départs network and the new Belgian festival Africalia, set up an international dance project which will be made up of workshops for the entire dance community of Maputo and the choreography of five short dance pieces with a select group of 15 dancers.
Five choreographers are participating in the Maputo Project, all ex-students of or teachers at P.A.R.T.S.: Thomas Hauert (Switzerland), Isabelle Dekeyser (Belgium), Arco Renz (Germany), Riina Saastamoinen (Finland) and George Khumalo (South Africa).
Each gave a two-week workshop, after which they choreographed a piece with their students. Together, these five dance pieces form the performance
alma txina (a soul for dance).
An encounter between traditional Mozambique and contemporary dance, but especially between different personalities.
Há mais (There's more)
'Here's to all that's still to discover and everything we won't ever get the chance to know.'
Hà Mais - Alma Txina
Presentation
Alma Txina
Maputo Mozambique
'Txina' means 'movement' or 'dance' in Xangana, the native language of the many young dancers that spend their free hours practising dance in the streets or in one of the many abandoned spaces of Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. Difficulties are many, but all of these dancers have one thing in common: they have lost their soul to dance.
Out of this wish to practice and develop dance grew a project that feeds into the work of the many independent dance companies that thrive in the city. In the spring of 2002, the Mozambican arts centre Culturarte and the Portuguese cultural association Danças na Cidade organised the international dance project "Alma Txina", in collaboration with the European network Départs and the Belgian festival Africalia. The project combined training activities for the whole dance community and the creation of five short choreographies with a selected group of 16 dancers.
Five choreographers, all of them ex-students or teachers of the dance school P.A.R.T.S., collaborated in this project and resided for nearly two months in the Mozambican capital: Thomas Hauert (Switzerland), Isabelle Dekeyser (Belgium), Arco Renz (Germany), Riina Saastamoinen (Finland) and George Khumalo (South-Africa). They started out by teaching a two-week workshop for the local dance community and went on to create, each one of them, a short choreography with some of the students of each of these workshops.
The result of this experience in intercultural collaboration is the performance
"alma txina", presenting five choreographies interpreted by 15 Mozambican dancers and live music. For the 2003 tour, every night only three of the five choreographies will be shown, always including 'Há Mais' by Thomas Hauert, and two of the other 4 choreographies, alternating.
"alma txina" premiered in Maputo in the Centro Cultural Franco-Moçambicano on June 14th and 15th 2002 and was afterwards performed in Portugal at the festival Danças na Cidade 2002 in Lisbon (25 and 26 June), in Porto (30 June) and in Viseu (5 and 6 July). It will have performances at the Kampnagel Theatre in Hamburg on 7 and 8 March and at Kaaitheater in Brussels on 14, 15, 18, 19 and 20 March 2003.
The project "alma txina" is an initiative of Danças na Cidade and part of the long-term exchange and training programme 'Dançar o que é Nosso', initiated in 1998 and present in Maputo for the fourth consecutive year. For more information on this project, don't hesitate to contact Danças na Cidade.
