Dance

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As a kid growing up in his hometown of Maputo, Mozambique, Winnipeg-based multidisciplinary artist/ NAfro Dance artistic director Casimiro Nhussi recalls hearing his maternal grandmother belting joyfully at the top of her lungs, constantly upbeat despite the hardships of crushing poverty. It’s a cherished image the 47-year-old choreographer/dancer/musician has carried with him throughout his life; one that inspires his own body of work to this day.
   

"Even if you’re 100 years old, there will always be room for one more dance because you’re still breathing, you’re still moving, you’re not done yet," he says. "There’s room for that happiness or sadness because dance is everything."
   

Local dance fans can decide for themselves as NAfro celebrates the power of African women with its season opener, Patana III, Nov. 3 to 6 at the Gas Station Arts Centre. The mixed bill featuring new works by Nhussi as well as guest choreographer Charmaine Headley (co-founder of Toronto’s African-Caribbean dance company COBA) will be performed by Nhussi, Paula Blair, Nicole Coppens, Robyn Thomson Kacki, Paige Lewis and Mozambique-based guest dancer Sale Almerante Roberto.
   

The show is the third instalment in the company’s Patana (translated as "union") series, created to forge stronger bonds between African contemporary dancers from around Canada and the world. A third choreographer, Montreal’s Zab Maboungou (founder of Cercle D’expression Artistique Nyata Nyata) was unable to participate this year due to a recent injury.
   

Nhussi, a former artistic director/principal dancer of the Mozambique National Song and Dance Company, trained for two years at New York City’s Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre before coming to Canada in 1997 with his Winnipeg-born wife Esther, a water engineer, whom he met in Maputo. He remains in close contact with his 19 brothers and sisters as well as his beloved mother still living in Africa via Skype, Twitter, text and email.
   

The program includes Nhussi’s solo, Xilongo, which he performed recently at an emotional homecoming show in Maputo in August. The show was attended by 650 people, including Mozambique’s prime minister. The title, which translates to "pot," serves as a metaphor for "woman."
   

"We’re talking about a society that is not a developed society; it’s still in development for most African people," Nhussi explains. "For example, it’s the woman who brings the water home from the river with a pot. So my solo represents ‘woman’ as a pot — a power that gives me life, strength and inspiration."
   

Likewise, Headley’s Portage also deals with pot imagery symbolizing a "journey and abstract representation of a community" that navigates through a given time and space. The ever-lively NAfro band will accompany all three of the program’s works, including a can’t-miss-it audience participation number involving 64 djembe (hand) drums.  
   

The irony of a man presenting an entire show celebrating female power is not lost on Nhussi.
   

"The men in most of the African countries are macho, but the reality is that it’s just a cover," he laughs. "What I used to see growing up is that it’s the woman running things. The men may be feeling good as a macho, but in the traditional economy, the way of living and running society, that is always the woman."

PATANA III
NAfro Dance
Nov. 3 - 6, Gas Station Arts Centre