Look Back, Dance Forward: TALES OF HOME | Congo/Mozambique – Panaibra Gabriel Canda

This two-evening program of intimately scaled dance-theatre features extraordinary contemporary artists from the African continent. Faustin Linyekula and Panaibra Gabriel Canda grapple with the complex histories of their countries through the filtered experiences and relationships with their fathers and their own experiences of dislocation, forced emigration and cultural assimilation.

The founder of Mozambique’s first contemporary dance company, Canda is one of the continent’s artistic innovators developing an authentic and autonomous African choreographic voice through his body that is deeply expressive and uniquely articulate. Marrabenta is a musical form born in the 1950s from a mix of local and European influences that carry the complex history of Mozambique, a land of social and political rifts, since earning independence from Portugal in 1975.