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Born in Mutare, Zimbabwe, and based in New York City, Nora Chipaumire has been challenging and embracing stereotypes of Africa and the black performing body, art, and aesthetic for over a decade.  In Afro Promo #1(Kinglady), she explores the influence of comic book heroes on the American immigrant experience.  Chipaumire is the second choreographer selected for Dance for Film on Location at Montclair State University, a three-year short film series that provides an opportunity for choreographers and filmmakers to explore the art of dance when created especially for film. The choreographer and first-time film director will be joined by collaborators Tony Pemberton (Unit Production Manager) and other panelists. 

This advance screening of Afro Promo #1 (Kinglady) will be accompanied by documentary shorts on the making of the film at Montclair State, produced by a team of Montclair State students.  The film will have its world premiere with Chipaumire’s Portrait of Myself As My Father at Peak Performances, April 14-17, at the Alexander Kasser Theater (www.peakperfs.org).

Nora Chipaumire has studied dance in many parts of the world including Africa (Senegal, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa), Cuba, Jamaica, and the U.S.  A graduate of the University of Zimbabwe’s School of Law, Chipaumire holds an M.A. in Dance and an M.F.A. in Choreography and Performance from Mills College (CA).  She is a three-time winner of the New York Dance and Performance (aka “Bessie”) Award and a recipient of the 2009 AFROPOP Real Life Award for her choreography in the film Nora.  Recent dance works include rite riot(2013), a 75 minute solo rendering of The Rite of Spring; The Last Heifer (2012), commissioned by Danspace Project; Visible (2011), commissioned by Harlem Stage and created in collaboration with Jawole Willa Jo Zollar; Kimya (2011), a work for Jokajok!, a female ensemble based in Kenya; I Ka Nye (You Look Good) (2010), created and performed with choreographer Souleymane Badolo and musician Obo Addy; Silence/Dreams (2010), created and performed with Fred Bendongue; and lions will roar, swans will fly, angels will wrestle heaven, rains will break: gukurahundi (2009), created and performed with Thomas Mapfumo and The Blacks Unlimited.  Chipaumire is featured in several films, including Fao (dir. Carolina Alejos & Luis Guardeno, 2010); Dark Swan(dir. Laurie Coyle, 2011); and the award-winning Nora (dir. Alla Kovgan & David Hinton, 2008), as well as the documentaries Movement (R)evolution Africa (dir. Joan Frosch & Alla Kovgan, 2006) and Cassa Cassa (dir. Elodie Lefebvre, 2011).

Dance for Film on Location at Montclair State University is a project developed and produced by the Office of Arts & Cultural Programming, with funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Films and Filmmakers is a program of the The Film Institute at Montclair State, an initiative of the College of the Arts. The program features weekly visits of filmmakers who come to speak about their work and profession. The series, open to both University students and the general public, welcomes audience questions while being a unique forum to hear inside stories from some of the most innovative filmmakers working in the field today.