Miriam
Choreographer and dancer Nora Chipaumire returned to EMPAC after working in residence in 2011 to present Miriam, a deeply personal dance-theater performance that looks closely at the tensions women face between public expectations and private desires; between selflessness and ambition; and between the perfection and sacrifice of the feminine ideal. The inspiration for the work springs from the cultural and political milieu of Chipaumire’s southern African girlhood, her self-exile to the US, and her self-discovery as an artist. Performed by Chipaumire and Okwui Okpokwasili, Miriam renders the intensity of women who fight to create themselves despite the dual legacies of strict cultural traditions and imperialist racial views that define female beauty and power.
Born in Zimbabwe and based in New York City, Chipaumire has studied dance in many parts of the world including Africa (Senegal, Burkina Faso, Kenya, and South Africa), Cuba, Jamaica, and the US. She was a 2012 Alpert Award in the Arts recipient, a 2011 United States Artist Ford Fellow, and a two-time New York Dance and Performance (Bessie) award winner.
Main Image: Production still from Miriam (2012). Courtesy the artist.
Dates + Tickets
Season
Created and Written by Nora Chipaumire
Directed by Eric Ting
Composed by Omar Sosa
Performed by Nora Chipaumire and Okwui Okpokwasili
Miriam is a production of MAPP International Productions. This presentation and tour of Nora Chipaumire’s Miriam is made possible by a grant from the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation with support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and additional funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Miriam has received generous support from The MAP Fund, a program of Creative Capital supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; The New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and additional funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; the New England Foundation for the Arts’ Production Residency for Dance Program, with funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; the National Endowment for the Arts; the NPN Forth Fund; and New Music USA’s Live Music for Dance Program.