building enduring partnerships: a report to the field
DESCRIPTION
Building Enduring Partnerships: A Report to the Field by Joan D. Frosch, Ph.D., published by MAPP International Productions and The Africa Contemporary Arts Consortium in October 2011, is an 87-page, beautifully illustrated report that tells the story of the first 8 years of activity undertaken by the Consortium and makes an argument for sustaining and valuing relationships as the basis for enduring international cultural exchange.TRANSCRIPT
BUILDING ENDURING
PARTNERSHIPS A REPORT TO
THE FIELD THE AFRICA
CONTEMPORARY ARTS
CONSORTIUM
Written by Joan D. Frosch, Ph.D.
Center for World Arts University of Florida
BU
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Building Enduring Partnerships: A Report to the Field is published by
MAPP International Productions and The Africa Contemporary Arts Consortium.
This publication was made possible with generous support from
the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Cover photograph: Nelisiwe Xaba in Correspondances. Photograph by Eric Boudet.
Title page photographs: (Left) Compagnie TchéTché in Dimi. Photograph by Wolfgang Weimer.
(Right) TACAC members and affiliate artists at The GoDown Arts Centre, Nairobi, Kenya,
2010. Photograph by Philip Bither.
©2011 by MAPP International Productions.
140 Second Avenue, Suite 502, New York, NY 10003
646-602-9390; www.mappinternational.org
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form, without written
permission from the publisher
Publication concept, design, and printing: Four32C
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BUILDING ENDURING
PARTNERSHIPS A REPORT TO
THE FIELDTHE AFRICA
CONTEMPORARY ARTS
CONSORTIUM
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Acknowledgments 8
Foreword 10
TACAC U.S. Member Organizations &
Affiliates in Africa 12
Appendices 82
1OVERVIEW OF THE AFRICA CONTEMPORARY ARTS CONSORTIUM 14
A Fresh Landscape 16
A New Response 17
TACAC Activities 22
TACAC’s Message 24
A Reflection on Storytelling 26
CONTENTS
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2TACAC MODEL 28
The Praxis 30
Investing in Curatorial Research 31
Advancing the Creativity of the Artist 32
Connecting Artists, Audiences &
Communities 40
Building & Sharing Knowledge 42
Sustaining the Network & Developing
the Infrastructure 47
3BUILDING ENDURING PARTNERSHIPS 48
Thinking Differently 51
The Power of Listening 51
Meeting in Tunis 52
“The Human Before the Art” 53
Eye Level 54
Immersive Research 55
Maputo 57
Kisangani and Kinshasa 59
Meeting in Nairobi 60
Day One 64
Day Two 68
Reflection 70
4CONCLUSION 72
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The generosity of the many artists and arts
organizations that have inspired the creation
and work of The Africa Contemporary Arts
Consortium is immeasurable. By word and
by deed, they have educated the members of
the consortium about the critical artistic and
social goals to which they have dedicated
their lives’ work. This report acknowledges
with gratitude their eminent endeavors and
openhearted friendship.
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We are indebted to all of the artists,
organizations, and visionaries on both sides
of the Atlantic who have preceded The Africa
Contemporary Arts Consortium in pioneering
a place in the American imagination and on
our stages for African contemporary artists,
particularly 651 ARTS/Africa Exchange, Arts
International, the African Odyssey initiative at
the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing
Arts, and to former member organizations of
the Consortium: New Jersey Performing Arts
Center and August Wilson Center for African
American Culture. Finally, it is with deep
appreciation that we thank the funders of The
Africa Contemporary Arts Consortium: the
National Endowment for the Arts, the Doris
Duke Charitable Foundation, the New England
Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance
Project, and CulturesFrance. Your belief in and
support of our mission has made it possible to
reimagine global partnerships in the arts.
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FOREWORD
During the last decade, vital arts-based
processes have bubbled up in African
cities large and small, including prominent
but economically undermined centers
of contemporary expression such as
Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), or communities
deeply scarred by civil war such as Kisangani
(Democratic Republic of Congo). Creative
agents, in a surfeit of entrepreneurship and
innovation, have tirelessly recycled challenge
into hope. By taking signs of democracy
and shaping them into choreographic and
theatrical work, and using the work to
stimulate new ideas of community, many
African artists have rendered the making of
art into a practice of freedom.
In response, and for the first time in its
history, MAPP International Productions
generated a nationwide synergistic structure
to support and engage the spirit of the
innovative artistic citizenship emerging
from the work of African artists. In 2004,
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in concert with nine prestigious U.S.-based
arts entities (August Wilson Center for
African American Culture, Bates Dance
Festival, Center for World Arts/University of
Florida, the John F. Kennedy Center for the
Performing Arts, New Jersey Performing
Arts Center, Seattle Theatre Group, VSA
Arts New Mexico/North Fourth Art Center,
Walker Art Center, and Yerba Buena Center
for the Arts), MAPP shaped the vital Africa
Contemporary Arts Consortium (TACAC). By
setting into motion a dynamic flow of ideas
among artists and arts leaders in the U.S.
and Africa, TACAC imagined a landscape and
practice of international culture exchange
rooted in partnership and engagement in the
artistic process.
The conceptual process of making art, the
very prototype of thinking against the grain,
may not commonly be attributed to cultural
diplomacy or the practice of democracy. But we
would urge those who doubt to ponder more
deeply how art shapes ways for individuals
and communities to rethink, reconsider, and
even recommit to building civil society within
and across borders. Do join MAPP and our
esteemed partners on both sides of the Atlantic
as we cross borders, take risks, create dialogue,
and open minds. TACAC attests to the
life-changing power of the paradigm shift
where cultural exchange at its most essential
and most profound level is conceived of as
a relationship. Through the pages of this
publication we seek to build a relationship
with you, the reader. We welcome you to seek
resonance in the thoughts that interest you, and
to see your own reflection in ideas that may
signal a shift in your work and dreams.
Ann Rosenthal, Executive Director & Producer
Cathy Zimmerman, Co-Director & Producer
MAPP International Productions
General Manager,
The Africa Contemporary Arts Consortium
September 28, 2011
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TACACU.S. MEMBER ORGANIZATIONS & AFFILIATES IN AFRICA
Bates Dance FestivalLewiston, ME
www.batesdancefestival.org
The John F. Kennedy Center for the
Performing Arts Washington, D.C.
www.kennedy-center.org
National Black Arts Festival
Atlanta, GAwww.nbaf.org
Seattle Theatre Group Seattle, WAwww.stgpresents.org
VSA Arts New Mexico/ North Fourth Art Center Albuquerque, NMwww.vsartsnm.org
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts San Francisco, CAwww.ybca.org
Walker Art Center Minneapolis, MN
www.walkerart.org
Center for World Arts University of Florida
Gainesville, FLwww.arts.ufl.edu/cwa
MAPP International Productions
New York, NYwww.mappinternational.org
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Boyzie Cekwana/ Floating Outfit
Project Durban, South Africa
Opiyo Okach/ Gàara ProjectsNairobi, Kenya www.gaaraprojects.com
Judy Ogana & Joy Mboya/ The GoDown Arts CentreNairobi, Kenyawww.thegodown artscentre.com
Faustin Linyekula & Virginie Dupray/Studios Kabako
Kisangani, Democratic Republic of Congo
www.kabako.org
Panaibra Gabriel Canda/CulturArte Maputo, Mozambique
Maria Helena Pinto Maputo, Mozambiquewww.dansartes.wordpress.com
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A FRESH LANDSCAPEOver the last decade a growing wave of
artists in and of Africa have reimaged
African pasts and presents to configure new
landscapes of contemporary performance.
These artists freshly interpret African life,
often deploying a bricolage of traditional,
popular, and/or contemporary forms. Many
trendsetters are choreographers and theater
makers. While the naming of their emergent
performance forms is not fixed, artists’
messages are urgent, vital, and dimensional.
As the artists interpret their lives for the
stage they do not seek to speak “in the name
of all Africans”—surely an unfathomable
task, given that almost 995 million people
inhabit the continent across 55 independent
nations. Rather, artists harness the power of
creative practices that are as diverse—and
as innovative—as their individual artistry.
Part of a greater movement of contemporary
expression in Africa that includes film,
literature, and visual art, these innovators
face down the “epistemological negation” of
Africa to the notion of the contemporary.1
Indeed, the notion of the contemporary does
not “belong” to the West. That is to say,
the new languages these artists develop
to express their lives are unique forces of
innovation, not mere simulacra of some other
notion of contemporary. Artists’ experimental
practices are windows into 21st-century
thought, often hybridizing artistic practice
and creative entrepreneurship, stimulating
innovative models for sustainable arts
practice. Indeed, many continental artists
have cleared a space for performance to
advance human aspirations for a better global
future—a future in which all global citizens
have a stake.
THE WORK OF ART AND THE WORK
OF CULTURE IS TO PAVE THE WAY
FOR A QUALITATIVE PRACTICE OF THE
IMAGINATION—A PRACTICE WITHOUT
WHICH WE WILL HAVE NO NAME,
NO FACE AND NO VOICE IN HISTORY.
—ACHILLE MBEMBE
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From its origins, U.S. culture is strongly
Afrocentric. However, media influences,
education (or lack of), persistent racism,
and other factors combine to beleaguer
American perceptions of Africa. Such
views often privilege tradition over the
contemporary, disaster over creativity, and
victimhood over the agency of the creative
individual. To many Africans, Americans
may be viewed as a facilely affluent people,
generally uninformed about Africa: people
who, while somewhat mindful of the U.S.
role in slavery, are often oblivious to the
fact that their government has been involved
in operations altering the course of the
postcolonial history of the continent. Thus
the works of African experimentalists offer
Americans an extraordinary opportunity to
newly engage with the continent.
Several TACAC members have reported a
“conversion experience” or paradigm shift
that committed them to build upon their
experiences with contemporary African
performance, and, ultimately, to build the
Consortium. Conversions occurred mid-
dialogue over a drink with an intrepid artist,
in a shared experience with an audience
member that clinched the importance of
the work, or, as in the case of Ken Foster,
TACAC founding member and executive
director of Yerba Buena Center for the Arts,
in a performance that—to this day—never
stopped stirring. Foster recalls his first
encounter with African contemporary
performance:
Béatrice Kombé and Compagnie TchéTché
presented Dimi—Women’s Sorrow and what
followed was without question one of the three
or four greatest art experiences of my lifetime.
With live music and the fierce, uncompromising
dance style of Béatrice [Kombé] and Nadia
[Beugré], I was completely mesmerized by
the performance. At the end, after a stunned
silence, the audience literally leapt to its feet,
applauding madly for the artistic revelation that
had just occurred. I stood there myself, tears
streaming down my face.
TchéTché introduced me to a whole genre of
dance that I was unfamiliar with—and in the
years since I have spent much time and energy
learning more about contemporary dance from
Africa and finding ways to bring that dance to
my communities in the United States. But no
experience can, I think, ever match that first
time that I encountered the artistry and the
power of the work of Compagnie TchéTché.
A NEW RESPONSEInspired by such transformative
experiences, in 2004 MAPP International
Productions (MAPP) invited a group of
leading American presenters, curators, and
academics to consider the development of
a consortium to diminish the risk involved
in bringing the work of African artists to
communities across the United States. A
number of us had previously partnered on
projects featuring contemporary African
performance. We had developed trust and
faith in one another’s passionate interest in
this rapidly transforming landscape. Out of
that meeting The Africa Contemporary Arts
Consortium (TACAC) was born.
Clearly, the stirring work of many of these
artists merited deep and provocative
cultural exchanges with the United States.
It had the potential to open new dialogues
about contemporary performance, educate
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American audiences about the African
imagination in real time, and connect
professionals in the field to invigorating
global trends. But in the absence of viable
structures of support, how could we
equitably advance the work of the artists
to build interest in this critical movement
among our varied U.S. constituencies?
However committed, we were keenly aware
of the multiple issues and risks associated
with sponsoring the work.
In contrast to the promise and energy
of African contemporary performance,
shrinking U.S. support for international
cultural exchange weighed heavily in the
atmosphere. While the groundbreaking
work of 651 ARTS/Africa Exchange
continued, key resources that had been
available for such work receded: The Ford
Foundation had terminated its substantial
multiyear Internationalizing New Works
in the Performing Arts initiative (a key
funder of Africa Exchange, among other
significant programs); Arts International
had halted operations; and the Kennedy
Center’s pioneering four-year African
Odyssey initiative had concluded several
years prior. Reduced funding and the
lack of resources on the continent to
subsidize U.S. presentations of African
work exacerbated the financial stress on
American organizations seeking to work
with African artists. Further, more stringent,
if not capricious, government regulations
made it increasingly difficult for foreigners
to work in the U.S. If solving visa and
funding issues was a distant dream on
the horizon, risk reduction and resource
sharing was the reality-based alternative for
moving forward. Indeed, we would need all
the strength we could muster to succeed in
the culturally myopic, financially challenged
post-9/11 environment.
The concept of a consortium proposed
a powerful opportunity to move beyond
what any individual organization could
accomplish. TACAC was entirely self-
financed at first, with each organization
contributing $2,500 cash from its own
budget to get it up and running with MAPP
serving as general manager. Shared
professional history and passion fueled
the collaborative spirit: We were ready
to maximize a varied ecosystem of skills
among members. Not only did we represent
different geographic regions and the
interests of wide-ranging constituencies, but
each of us specialized in distinctive areas of
cultural work and served different functions
within our organizations. The organizations
themselves represented a diverse ecology
of the American arts landscape: from
residency centers, universities, and multi-
arts complexes to small theaters and
producing organizations. Members sought
to create a living structure in which to
combine skill sets, foment ideas, maximize
resources, share methodologies, and layer
creative efforts in pursuit of a common goal:
to develop a new model of interaction with
African artists and U.S. audiences rooted in
respectful and sustainable relationships.
We set out to expand upon, if not reenvision,
prevalent models of global arts presenting
characterized by “fad and fashion or
exoticized one-off performances,” as
TACAC founding member Baraka Sele
(New Jersey Performing Arts Center) has
noted. In contrast to consumerist “import-
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export” models of cultural exchange,
we were motivated to seek an engaged,
contextualized, and equitable model for
the presentation of global artists in the
U.S. From inception, we have prioritized
opportunities intended to nurture dialogue
and exchange between and among artists
and the public. We would soon discover
that by creating an environment of
genuine listening, we could seed quality
opportunities—organically and over time—to
challenge stereotypes and expectations
and grow more meaningful encounters for
constituencies on both sides of the Atlantic.
TACAC began to shape a model of exchange
rooted in a vital intercontinental network
of like-minded artists and cultural workers
nourished by a commitment to the long term.
To date, among the artists, companies,
and organizations with whom TACAC has
worked are: Compagnie Heddy Maalem
(Algeria/France), Compagnie TchéTché (Côte
d’Ivoire), Faustin Linyekula/Studios Kabako
(Democratic Republic of Congo), Germaine
Acogny/Compagnie Jant-Bi/L’Ecole des
Sables (Senegal), Gregory Maqoma/
Vuyani Dance Theatre (South Africa), Salia
Sanou/Compagnie Salia nï Seydou/Centre
de Développement Chorégraphique – la
Termitière (Burkina Faso), Hafiz Dhaou and
Aïcha M’barek/Compagnie Chatha (Tunisia/
France), Compagnie Julie Dossavi (France/
Benin/Mali), Qudus Onikeku/Yk Projects
(Nigeria/France), Boyzie Cekwana/Floating
Outfit Project (South Africa), Lucky Kele
(South Africa), Michel Kouakou/Daara Dance
(Côte d’Ivoire/U.S.), Daudet Grazaï Fabrice
(Côte d’Ivoire/France), Maria Helena Pinto
(Mozambique), Opiyo Okach/Gàara Projects
(Kenya/France), Panaibra Gabriel Canda/
CulturArte (Mozambique), Judy Ogana
TACAC ACTIVITIESBETWEEN 2004 AND 2011, CONSORTIUM MEMBERS HAVE:
HOSTED
25 CREATIVE RESIDENCIES THAT GAVE AFRICAN ARTISTS CREATIVE TIME IN AND EXPOSURE TO THE U.S.
PERFORMING ARTS FIELD.
SPONSORED
27U.S. AND NORTH AMERICAN TOURS INTRODUCING AFRICAN ARTISTS TO
AUDIENCES IN PERFORMANCES, WORKSHOPS, INTERVIEWS, LECTURES, ETC.
CREATED, COMMISSIONED, AND SUPPORTED
SEVEN FILMS AND ESSAYS THAT REENVISION THE FRAMEWORK OF CULTURAL INSCRIPTION TO EFFECTIVELY INTRODUCE ARTISTS’ INNOVATIVE PRACTICES TO AUDIENCES, STUDENTS, AND OTHERS. 22
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PRESENTED
14REPORTS TO THE FIELD, INCLUDING PROFESSIONAL MEETINGS IN NORTH AMERICA, AFRICA, AND EUROPE.
INVESTED
MORE THAN
$3MIN THESE PROJECTS AND EVENTS
TO DATE.
CONDUCTED
28 RESEARCHTRIPS TO 19 COUNTRIES IN AFRICA, EUROPE, AND THE MIDDLE EAST TO SEE FIRSTHAND THE CREATIVITY OF AFRICAN ARTISTS AND TO HEAR ABOUT THEIR NEEDS AND CHALLENGES.
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and Joy Mboya/The GoDown Arts Centre
(Kenya), The Market Theatre (South Africa),
Vincent Sekwati Koko Mantsoe/Association
Noa-Compagnie Vincent Mantsoe (South
Africa/France), Nadia Beugré (Côte d’Ivoire),
Kettly Noël/Donko Seko (Haiti/Mali), Mamela
Nyamza (South Africa), Nelisiwe Xaba
(South Africa), Bouchra Ouizguen (Morocco),
Handspring Puppet Company & William
Kentridge (South Africa), Koffi Koko (Benin),
Familia Productions (Tunisia), Cie2k_far
Contemporary Dance Company (Morocco),
Compagnie La Baraka (Algeria/France),
Karima Mansour/Ma’at for Contemporary
Dance (Egypt), Fathy Salama and Orchestra
(Egypt), and Nawal (Comoros).
Each Consortium member entered into
a unique commitment at institutional,
curatorial, financial, and personal levels
to build and sustain multidimensional
exchanges with African artists and cultural
workers. The layering of skill sets, contacts,
funding, and other resources resulted in a
resilient web of exchange and support. Even
today, we think of ourselves not as an entity
but as a practice characterized by listening
closely, engaging deeply, and sharing
skills, ideas, and influence, ever fueled by
research and commitment. While African
artists and U.S. constituencies would
benefit from the growth of relationships and
artistic interchange, the Consortium was
increasingly energized by the opportunity
to strengthen the U.S. role as an engaged
partner in a global creative community.
We were grateful that CulturesFrance stepped
up to become TACAC’s initial external
funder in 2005. While the Consortium
did not fit into one existing U.S. funding
model, as TACAC developed its process,
it succeeded in attracting the interest of
the National Endowment for the Arts for
support of member meetings, research, and
organizational structure, as well as tour
support from the New England Foundation
for the Arts’ National Dance Project. Each
member institution contributed its own
matching funds. The support of TACAC’s
Building Enduring Partnerships initiative by
the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation’s Fund
for National Projects marked a turning point
in the organization, as will be discussed
in this narrative. In all, the generous
financial support and rich professional
acknowledgment we have received to date
has allowed our practice to flourish, and
has positioned TACAC to contribute to
the work of many other organizations and
policy makers who seek similar goals. We
now share TACAC’s story as an empirical
approach to cultural diplomacy that asserts
its effectiveness on a human scale.
TACAC’S MESSAGEThe interconnected network of the global
present asserts itself unevenly and moves
across the past, present, and future: Thus
TACAC’s work must bear “the weight of the
past and of received ideas.”2 The gravitas
of the shared global moment impels us
to think deeply and creatively to advance
beyond inequitable models and exhausted
categories. TACAC believes that the work
is urgent. In the words of critical theorist
Achille Mbembe: “The work of art and the
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A REFLECTION ON STORYTELLINGAs TACAC reflects upon and assesses the
present in order to mindfully grow into the
future, we believe we have a story worth
sharing. And while it is by no means static,
we are eager to share the model we have
developed to date. We seek to foment
discussion, reflection, experimentation, and
to stimulate enduring partnerships among
artists, cultural workers, arts organizations,
and all segments of the global creative
economy. We hope that professionals and
students engaged in international cultural
exchange from diverse fields—education,
cultural development, government, arts, and
media, among others—will take a moment
to consider, if not respond to, the ideas
presented.
Using an approach that is personal, learning
oriented, open-ended, and organic, the
narrative mirrors how TACAC operates as an
organization. These pages are structured by
TACAC’s five-part praxis, developed during
a two-day meeting of Consortium members
work of culture is to pave the way for a
qualitative practice of the imagination—
a practice without which we will have no
name, no face and no voice in history.”3
We see creativity and connection as
powerful human resources, and these so-
called intangibles truly sustain our force.
The Consortium’s message foregrounds
the power of personhood as honed by the
creative agent. The artist’s dedication to
contemporary arts and culture is a rich
and productive force with the potential to
advance positive change and development
in both perceptions and material realities
across the Atlantic. As such, TACAC seeks
to offer Americans an alternative to the
prevalent perspective on Africa heard
from the media, education, business, and
government, which focus on, if not actually
sensationalize, poverty, ethnic war, poor
healthcare, shortage of quality education,
government impunity, and human rights
abuses, resulting in representing the African
as a victim, rather than as a person of value,
an agent of change…an artist.
AFRICA CONSORTIUM MEMBERS ARE DEDICATED TO NOTHING
LESS THAN CREATING A NEW MODEL FOR INTERCONTINENTAL
CULTURAL EXCHANGE THAT REVERBERATES OUTWARD FROM THE
GRASSROOTS—REPLACING CULTURAL ASSUMPTIONS WITH GENUINE
LISTENING, AND FINANCIAL IMBALANCE WITH FAIR PRACTICES. OUR
VISION OF RESPECTFUL AND SUSTAINABLE INTERCONTINENTAL
RELATIONSHIPS SEEKS TO MOVE INTERNATIONAL CONVERSATIONS IN
THE PERFORMING ARTS PRESENTING FIELD TO A NEW LEVEL, WITH
THE MESSAGE THAT TRUE CULTURAL EXCHANGE WITH ARTISTS IN
LESS PRIVILEGED PARTS OF THE WORLD IS NOT ONLY POSSIBLE, BUT
POTENTIALLY TRANSFORMATIVE FOR ALL PARTIES.
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at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, in
2007, culminating in the Building Enduring
Partnerships initiative, generously funded
by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. We
believe this model represents a shift of the
prevalent paradigm in much international
artistic exchange, and contributes to the
practices of others as exemplified by such
initiatives as the Congo Project of Belgium’s
KVS Theatre (more formally known as the
Koninklijke Vlaamse Schouwburg or Royal
Flemish Theatre), the Sundance East Africa
Institute, and the Kennedy Center’s recent
expansion of arts management seminars on
site in five African cities, to name but a few.
The narrative weaves a tapestry from
extensive primary data, including
interviews, meetings, research reports,
and conversations that have taken place
among TACAC members, artists, and arts
organizers on the African continent, in
Europe, and in North America. Challenges
and obstacles encountered, lessons learned,
personal anecdotes, recommendations,
demonstrations of “best practices,” and
unanswered questions motivating us to seek
ever further are threaded throughout. In all
its operations, the Consortium is committed
to a methodology of information gathering
and sharing as the basis for building
programmatic initiatives: We build our
program of reciprocal international cultural
exchange through a practice of reciprocal
international cultural exchange. The report
mirrors this methodology.
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THE PRAXISThe Africa Contemporary Arts Consortium
carries out its work through a cycle of five
interrelated and interdependent program
areas; each area includes a range of
activities that individual members, or the
Consortium as a whole, develop, host,
present, and support. The five program
areas combine into a reflective praxis,
which calls upon the unique orientations
and strengths of individual members and
the organizations they represent. The areas
intersect to create the resilient strength of
the organization. The five areas are: INVESTING IN CURATORIAL RESEARCH
ADVANCING THE CREATIVITY OF
THE ARTIST
SUSTAINING THE NETWORK &
DEVELOPING THE INFRASTRUCTURE
CONNECTING ARTISTS, AUDIENCES
& COMMUNITIES
BUILDING & SHARING KNOWLEDGE
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INVESTING IN CURATORIAL RESEARCH
ATTEND PERFORMANCES, REHEARSALS,
WORKSHOPS; MEET FACE-TO-FACE WITH
ARTISTS TO DEEPEN KNOWLEDGE OF
CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN PERFORMING
ARTS FROM VARIED PERSPECTIVES.
RESEARCH THE HISTORICAL
BACKGROUNDS, AS WELL AS THE
RELEVANT CONTEMPORARY CONTEXTS,
WITHIN WHICH ARTISTS WORK.
ENGAGE RESPECTED LOCAL EXPERTS
WHO CAN EDUCATE AND PROVIDE
CULTURAL BACKGROUND AND
INTRODUCTIONS AS WE RESEARCH THE
ARTS IN PARTICULAR COUNTRIES.
IDENTIFY AFRICAN-BASED
ORGANIZATIONS THAT SHARE
INTERESTS IN NETWORKING.
Many African artists—including those with
whom we have worked most closely—have
noted with dismay that Americans are rarely
visible on the scene in Africa. They are
conspicuously absent at festivals, let alone
engaged with African artists in their home
bases. Encouraged by our African affiliates,
TACAC members explicitly sought to address
the “American absence.” If members were
to advance the modes of presentation—and
representation—of African artists in the U.S.,
it would be critical to learn firsthand how,
where, in what circumstances, and with whom
the artists worked to create their futures.
TACAC members regularly seek out artistic
work to inform, if not reinvigorate, their global
views, and to expose their constituencies
to fresh renderings of African experiences.
Bringing their points of view as presenters,
curators, producers, and academics into the
Consortium, TACAC members commit to
regularly attend performances, workshops,
and meetings throughout the world to build
and share perspectives on contemporary
African performing arts. Paying particular
attention to the social and political histories
and current contexts of artists’ works
and lives, members write detailed reports
about their research travel. The reports
are disseminated to all members and
their constituencies and are archived for
future use. TACAC maintains an up-to-date
calendar listing Africa-related performance
and festival events as a resource to plan
members’ travel. While TACAC contributes
$1,000 to $2,000 toward travel costs for
each research trip, members must cover the
balance of their expenses.
TACAC has organized 28 research trips to 14
African and 5 European countries for members
and other U.S. arts workers to see African
artists’ works, and to strategize partnerships
with artists, arts and community groups,
and funders. Festival and event travel has
included: FNB Dance Umbrella, Infecting the
City: the Spier Public Arts Festival, and the
National Arts Festival (South Africa); Harare
International Festival of the Arts (Zimbabwe);
Kaay Fecc (Senegal); Centre de Développement
Chorégraphique – La Termitière (Burkina Faso);
Julidans (The Netherlands); Danse l’Afrique
danse!/Choreographic Encounters of Africa and
the Indian Ocean (Madagascar, France, Tunisia,
and Mali); and the Arab Dance Platform at
BIPOD/Beirut International Platform of Dance
(Lebanon). Beyond seeing performances,
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Residencies are an essential part of the work
and sharply distinguish TACAC’s approach
from the traditional import-export model
of international performing arts exchange.
Face-to-face conversations and public
dialogues among peers and others can dispel
misperceptions on both sides, opening hearts
and minds to real connection. To date, TACAC
has hosted 14 African artists in multiweek
creative residencies in the U.S., providing
precious time and space for creative
exploration and for meeting U.S.-based dance
and theater artists, performing arts students,
community members, representatives from
arts organizations, and funders. These have
included, but are not limited to: residencies
for Qudus Onikeku (Nigeria), Opiyo Okach
(Kenya), Nelisiwe Xaba and Lucky Kele
(South Africa), and Nadia Beugré (Côte
d’Ivoire); and visits to the U.S. for Boyzie
Cekwana and Gregory Maqoma from South
Africa and Panaibra Gabriel Canda from
Mozambique to meet with peer artists and
arts professionals, and to present at national
conferences, including the annual Association
of Performing Arts Presenters conference in
New York City and the National Performance
Network annual meeting.
Through coproductions, residencies, and
tours, TACAC seeks to provide opportunities
for artists to create, develop, and perform
new work, and to connect with artists
TACAC members meet individually and as a
group with artists and cultural workers. Such
encounters engage, inform, and, as in the
case of our May 2008 meetings with artists
in Tunis, during the seventh edition of Danse
l’Afrique danse!, provoke critical change.
The rich discussions in Tunisia heralded a
transformation in our thinking and furthered
the development of the Consortium’s Building
Enduring Partnerships initiative (see section 3).
ADVANCING THE CREATIVITY OF THE ARTIST
CONTRIBUTE TO THE SUSTAINABILITY
OF STABLE WORKING ENVIRONMENTS
FOR ARTISTS THROUGH SUPPORT
FOR INFRASTRUCTURE, NETWORKING,
AND PROGRAMS THAT ARE FLUID AND
RESPONSIVE TO CHANGING CONDITIONS.
FACILITATE TRAVEL FOR AFRICAN
ARTISTS TO CONNECT WITH
THEIR PEERS, BOTH INTRA- AND
INTERCONTINENTALLY.
SUPPORT ARTISTS OVER TIME IN THE
CREATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF NEW
IDEAS.
HELP COMBAT THE ISOLATION ARTISTS
REPORT DUE TO CHALLENGES POSED
BY GEOGRAPHY, ECONOMICS, AND/OR
POLITICAL CIRCUMSTANCES.
PROVIDE OPPORTUNITIES AND
SITUATIONS IN WHICH ESTABLISHED
AFRICAN ARTISTS CAN BUILD UPON
THEIR CRAFT AND FUEL THEIR
CREATIVITY.
COMMISSION/COPRODUCE NEW WORK
BY AFRICAN ARTISTS.
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idea for a new ensemble performance
work. In Men-Jaro, Mantsoe sought to join
forces with South African composer and
ethnomusicologist Anthony Caplan to celebrate
as well as redefine the intrinsic relationship
that exists among African contemporary
dance, ritual, and music.
MAPP stepped forward to coproduce the
work, along with South Africa’s FNB Dance
Umbrella and Association Noa-Compagnie
Vincent Mantsoe. Through the combined
efforts of the coproducers and TACAC’s
connections, the creation of Men-Jaro
was awarded support from foundations
and government agencies in France, the
Netherlands, the U.S., and South Africa,
including Association Française d’Action
Artistique/AFAA and DRAC Auvergne Culture
Communication in France; Prince Claus Fund
of the Netherlands; Multi-Arts Production
Fund; and the National Dance Project of
the New England Foundation for the Arts;
Business Arts South Africa, Institut Francais
d’Afrique du Sud, South Africa’s National Arts
Council, and the Royal Netherlands Embassy
via the Arts & Culture Trust of South Africa.
In March 2006, Men-Jaro premiered at FNB
Dance Umbrella, Johannesburg, South
Africa, and toured to Queen Elizabeth Hall,
Southbank Centre, London, England, in
October 2006. The work premiered in North
America at Miami Light Project, Miami,
FL, in January 2007, and subsequently
toured to 11 North American cities: SUNY
Arts at Oswego, State University of New
York, Oswego, NY; National Arts Centre,
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Clarice Smith
Performing Arts Center, College Park, MD;
Lang Performing Arts Center, Swarthmore
and others from across the continent and
abroad. While the emergent African artist
may find himself or herself supported by
various European and African platforms that
seek to stimulate the field of contemporary
performance, the more established artist
may have fewer resources available.
On the continent audiences for
contemporary performances can be small,
and opportunities for philanthropic or
corporate backing few. Even South Africa’s
vibrant scene has encountered serious
financial challenges. For example, the
loss of long-term corporate sponsorship
of Johannesburg’s FNB Dance Umbrella
sent organizers scrambling for support to
continue this historically and artistically
significant festival which, happily, is planning
its twenty-fourth consecutive season. But
such resilience is not a given, and certainly
not uncomplicated. Across the continent,
artists report not only a lack of support,
but also a vulnerability to manipulation,
whereby the art form can feel dominated, in
the words of one artist, by foreign money,
artists, and taste. Indeed, foreign support is,
at times, the only direct source of funding,
but it can come with multiple agendas having
little to do with the artist’s goals.
While TACAC cannot address all of these
challenges, we do introduce artists to
networks and resources that can support
their artistic projects, and contribute to artists’
goals as they envision them, transcending
have/have-not approaches. For example,
in 2003 Vincent Sekwati Koko Mantsoe,
one of postapartheid South Africa’s leading
choreographers, came to TACAC cofounder,
MAPP International Productions, with an
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College, Swarthmore, PA; Kumble Theater
for the Performing Arts (copresented by
651 ARTS/Danspace Project), Brooklyn, NY;
Montréal en Lumière/Montreal High Lights
Festival, Montreal, Canada; Duke University/
Institute of the Arts Performances, Duke
University, Durham, NC; Dance Center
at Columbia College, Chicago, IL; VSA/
North Fourth Art Center, Albuquerque, NM;
Stanford Lively Arts, Stanford, CA; and
Williams Center for the Arts at Lafayette
College, Easton, PA.
In addition to support for the development
and creation of new work, TACAC is
responsive to African artists’ oft-expressed
desire for greater connection with their peers
on the continent. Indeed, intracontinental
travel and collaboration not only combat
isolation and challenges posed by geographic,
social, economic, and political circumstances,
but foment a diversity of ideas, training
opportunities, and artistic collaborations, and
energize the growth and/or sustainability of
formal and informal networks among African
cultural operators.
In addition to their prolific artistic outputs,
artists such as Germaine Acogny (Senegal),
Salia Sanou (Burkina Faso), and others have
independently prioritized intracontinental
cooperation. By regularly redirecting the
dynamic outward focus of performance to
the critical nourishment and networking of
young artists through workshops, long-term
training initiatives, and festivals, these artists
are helping to foster the next wave of the
art form. Boyzie Cekwana (South Africa)
disbanded his permanent company in favor of
a more flexible structure which has freed him
to dedicate his “shoulder of support” to create
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36
WHEN AN INDIVIDUAL FEELS A PROFOUND CONNECTION
WITH SOMEONE—AND IT’S NOT JUST BECAUSE THEY
COME FROM THE SAME CONTINENT OR BECAUSE
SOMEONE IN PARIS PUT UP MONEY SO THAT
AFRICAN DANCE MAKERS AND DANCE ACTIVISTS
CAN COME TOGETHER—BUT BECAUSE THEY
REALLY FEEL THAT THERE IS SOMETHING WE
NEED TO BUILD TOGETHER.… SO IT’S NOT
BETTING ON FINISHED PRODUCTS. BUT IT’S
A BET ON PROCESSES, FIRST OF ALL. AND
YOU CAN ONLY DO THAT IF YOU’VE BEEN
ALLOWED INTO SOMEONE’S PROCESS,
BASICALLY. AND I’D LIKE THAT TO
EXIST MORE ON THE CONTINENT,
WHERE WE’RE ALLOWED INTO
ONE ANOTHER’S PROCESSES.
—FAUSTIN LINYEKULA,
STUDIOS KABAKO
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Ivorian artists Béatrice Kombé and Nadia
Beugré. Kombé had founded the all-female
Compagnie TchéTché in 1997 to show
that woman is not the weaker gender. It is
notable that Côte d’Ivoire was formerly one
of Africa’s wealthiest nations. From 1993 to
2006, its capital of Abidjan was an important
center of arts production and international
marketing as host of MASA, Marché des
arts du spectacle Africain. However, years
of political turmoil and interethnic conflict
unraveled the economy, infrastructure, and
MASA. As the nation teetered on the brink of
chaos, Ivorian artists struggled to survive.
In fall 2006, MAPP engaged the powerful
TchéTché in a nine-city U.S. tour of Dimi.
The tour was launched at the John F.
Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
(Washington, D.C.), where TACAC member
Alicia Adams arranged for company
members to meet with cultural policy
makers to advance discussions on the art
form in the U.S and on the continent. The
tour continued to Wexner Center for the
Arts (Columbus, OH); Walker Art Center
(Minneapolis, MN); Center for the Arts,
Wesleyan University (Middletown, CT); VSA/
North Fourth Art Center (Albuquerque, NM);
World Theater at California State University
Monterey Bay (Monterey, CA); Seattle
Theatre Group (Seattle, WA); Yerba Buena
Center for the Arts (San Francisco, CA);
culminating at White Bird (Portland, OR).
Shockingly, not two months after the
company returned home to Abidjan, Béatrice
Kombé died. It was a profound loss for the
world of dance, but an unimaginable one for
her partner, Nadia Beugré. Many of Beugré’s
Ivorian artist colleagues had been forced to
initiatives such as the Southern African
network with Studios Kabako (Democratic
Republic of Congo), CulturArte (Mozambique),
and Compagnie Rary (Madagascar).
Recognizing the reciprocal value strong
African-based networks can bring to
continental artists and to the Consortium,
TACAC is seeking to marshal resources to
support the development of an emergent
continental initiative led by Studios Kabako
in collaboration with Andréya Ouamba/
Compagnie 1er Temps (Congo-Brazzaville/
Senegal) and CulturArte (Mozambique).
In a multidimensional conception of
artist residency, the initiative frames
the importance of the work of artists
across the spectrum, including the mid-
career artist who is rarely prioritized in
funding strategies. Further, this broad
geo-choreographic initiative seeks to
advance creation at all levels by providing
developmental residency opportunities,
financial, technical, and logistical production
assistance, as well as touring support on
local, regional, and international levels.
In another example of intra- and
intercontinental support, and building on
established and strong relationships, TACAC
has been deeply committed to the work of
40
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d’Ivoire) are among the few but triumphant
female choreographic voices on the African
stage today, thus the title of the program.
In June 2012, TACAC will partner with
KVS (Brussels) to host a developmental
residency in the KVS Theatre to prepare
the Voices of Strength U.S. tour curated and
produced by MAPP. The performers will
convene for a period of seven days. The
residency has four purposes. First, some
artists have had uneven access to design
and technical proficiency in the building of
their works. The KVS residency will provide
equal access to expertise, and each work
will be produced to the highest professional
level for combined touring. Second, while
the artists know each other by reputation
and have crossed paths at festivals, several
have never personally met nor had any
time to be together. Thus the residency will
facilitate personal and creative connections
among the artists. Third, TACAC cofounder
Joan Frosch, director of the Center for
World Arts, University of Florida, will
conduct qualitative research with the artists
to develop resource materials to accompany
the Voices of Strength tour, and to contribute
to the nascent literature on African women
choreographers. Fourth, the residency will
deepen the connection between TACAC and
KVS as TACAC seeks to develop appropriate
linkages among the U.S, Africa, and Europe.
CONNECTING ARTISTS, AUDIENCES & COMMUNITIES
PRESENT PERFORMANCES,
CREATIVE RESIDENCIES,
WORKSHOPS, FILM SCREENINGS,
create mostly in exile, including childhood
friends Michel Kouakou, who lived in New
York and Abidjan, and Daudet Grazaï Fabrice,
who lived and worked in Paris. Now Beugré
set off to rebuild her life in temporary exile as
well, living between France and Senegal.
Beugré, Kouakou, and Fabrice sought to
revisit their childhood friendship in an artistic
work. They were determined to stare down
grief, illness, economic duress, and the
painful unraveling of their beloved homeland
and to lay “the first stone” of a project built
on their shared Ivorian past. The artists’ goals
resonated with TACAC. Bates Dance Festival,
VSA/North Fourth Art Center, and the
Consortium decided to help the artists jump-
start this choreography-beyond-boundaries
by hosting them at the Bates Dance Festival
in summer 2008 where they began to
cocreate a piece that “invite[d] them to look
inside themselves and examine their common
past.”4 TACAC subsequently supported
Kouakou to travel to Senegal to continue the
collaboration. By returning them to the solace
of friendship, the work helped the artists to
bridge loss and emerge renewed.
TACAC’s relationship with Beugré
continues through its latest intracontinental
partnership, Voices of Strength. Joining
across the reaches of the continent from
South Africa to Mozambique to Côte
d’Ivoire to Mali and Morocco, five women
choreographers will share a two-part
program of their award-winning works on
a four- to six-week North American tour in
fall 2012. The choreographers Kettly Noël
(Haiti/Mali), Nelisiwe Xaba (South Africa),
Bouchra Ouizguen (Morocco), Maria Helena
Pinto (Mozambique), and Nadia Beugré (Côte
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For example, during a six-week U.S. tour of
Gregory Maqoma/Vuyani Dance Theatre’s
Beautiful Me in the fall of 2009, Maqoma
and his musicians taught dance and music
master classes; participated in moderated
postperformance discussions; visited
ethnomusicology, cultural anthropology,
and ethnicity, nation, and world community
classes; gave informal concerts; met
community members at lunches and dinners;
and participated in panel discussions
including ones at the Performing Diaspora
conference organized by the Alliance
for California Traditional Arts in San
Francisco, and with local Seattle artists as
part of Africa Live Seattle, moderated by
Consortium member Vivian Phillips.
Among the tour locations was Bates College,
in its first-ever integration of a Bates Dance
Festival artist to be presented during the
academic year. The success of Beautiful
Me at Bates College was a culmination
of Maqoma’s creative relationship with
the Bates and Lewiston communities
established through TACAC cofounder Laura
Faure, director of the Bates Dance Festival,
and it was a highlight of the tour. During the
summer of 2005, the festival had hosted
Maqoma and collaborators Faustin Linyekula
and Vincent Sekwati Koko Mantsoe for a
three-week creative residency that laid
the groundwork for the piece. MAPP
International Productions, building on the
investment made by the festival, followed
the development of the work and organized
Maqoma’s debut U.S. tour. Upon his return
in 2009, Bates students and local audiences
who had engaged with the research and
development of the piece proudly welcomed
the work. Faure reflected: “We know that
LECTURES, AND DISCUSSIONS.
OFFER FOCUSED HUMANITIES
PROGRAMS TO ENGAGE COMMUNITIES
IN LEARNING ABOUT ARTISTS’ LIVES
AND WORKS, THE SOCIAL, POLITICAL,
AND/OR HISTORICAL CONTEXTS IN
WHICH THE WORK WAS DEVELOPED OR
THAT THE WORK REFERENCES.
ANIMATE LONG-TERM CONNECTIONS
WITH EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS.
The Consortium fosters experiences that
change Africans’ perceptions of American
life and culture through the presentation of
public performances by African artists in
the context of multifaceted and participatory
community engagement programs.
Moreover, these programs engage American
citizens in a vision of Africa beyond the
stereotype of a perennially troubled
continent. TACAC specifically seeks to
foster humanities perspectives and public
dialogue in encounters with the artist and
the art form.
TACAC has connected thousands of
U.S. citizens in 31 cities from 21 states
to more than 50 African artists from 18
different countries to date. The artists
have performed at venues serving a broad
cross-section of performing arts audiences,
representing citizens across the spectrum
of age, ability, race, cultural background, and
socioeconomic status. The artists have led
workshops for children, youth, adults, and
taught preprofessional and general students
in university master classes and seminars.
They have met with artists and arts workers,
lectured in pre- and postshow discussions,
and engaged in colloquia with scholars.
42
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he emerged, and a Consortium meeting
built around his performances at the World
Performance Project at Yale University
in November 2008, was furthered by the
invitation of Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
in May 2011. There, in addition to presenting
a work-in-progress showing of Body
Evidence, which invited community members
into his creative process, he also participated
in Inside The Africa Contemporary Arts
Consortium, a public reflection on TACAC
projects, partnerships, and research since
the Consortium’s inception in 2004. Okach
shared his nuanced perspective about
the ongoing challenges he and fellow African
contemporary artists face at home and
abroad to create outside of stereotyped
definitions of what makes their work
“African” or “contemporary.”
BUILDING & SHARING KNOWLEDGE
FACILITATE WORKSHOPS AND
DISCUSSIONS FOR THE FIELD.
HOST CONSORTIUM WEBSITE AND
CREATE ONLINE MATERIALS.
COMMISSION ESSAYS AND RELATED
MATERIALS PROVIDING HISTORICAL
BACKGROUND TO SUPPORT ARTIST
RESIDENCIES AND PERFORMANCES.
audiences connect completely differently
with the work when they feel like they know
the person, when they’ve had an opportunity
to understand the process and the story, and
that’s something we will continue to try and
find ways to do more successfully.”
To combat the isolation many African artists
face, TACAC also makes a point of creating
opportunities for artist-to-artist exchanges.
During the 2008 U.S. tour of Compagnie
Heddy Maalem’s Le Sacre du Printemps,
MAPP International Productions arranged a
meeting with New York City choreographers
Reggie Wilson, Blondell Cummings, David
Gordon, Susan Marshall, and Keely Garfield,
among others, for Maalem and the members
of his company, many of whom are dance
makers, educators, and arts organizers
in their home communities. In a circle of
chairs on the Dance Theater Workshop
stage, artists from both sides of the Atlantic
introduced their work, shared it on DVD, and
talked about their successes and challenges.
The artists discovered commonalities and
explored differences as they learned about
artists and works they would not otherwise
have known.
TACAC humanities events and contextual
materials seek not only to situate artists in
relation to their artistic work, but also to their
roles as citizens and leaders in contemporary
society. For example, Kenyan artist Opiyo
Okach’s multifaceted relationship with
TACAC, which has included a residency at
Bates Dance Festival, engagement through
multiple trips to Kenya by Consortium
members to The GoDown Arts Centre to
learn firsthand about the artistic community
that Okach has spurred and from which
44
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CREATE FILM AND VIDEO TO EDUCATE
PROFESSIONAL AND PUBLIC AUDIENCES.
CONVENE MEETINGS AND/OR SYMPOSIA
TO EXPLORE PARTICULAR CHALLENGES
AND CURRENT ISSUES COMMON TO
ARTISTS AND ARTS ORGANIZERS IN THE
U.S. AND ON THE AFRICAN CONTINENT.
Art cannot prosper in isolation from other
forms of knowledge. We not only need to
build the language to think about art, argue
its merits, and relate to it our lives, but also
to allow us to travel beyond the conceptual
boundaries of our own life experiences.
TACAC seeks to position experimental
choreographers and their works as part
of a global flow of ideas, interacting with
worlds of their own—and others’—creation.
Recognizing that “African dance” is itself an
outsider-imposed category of performance,
many contemporary artists in and of
Africa flatly reject confining their work
to someone else’s view of “Africanity.”
These artists, like artists everywhere,
move through mobile, porous dimensions
in time and space, a global space where
worlds regularly collide.5 Such collisions
trouble the “postmodern, global framework
where the producers and consumers of
dance are…deeply entangled in a common
production of internationalism and cultural
exchange.”6 The complexity of the artists’
positioning in its intricate tensions and
transgressions defies flattening their art
form into worn categories, and has much
to teach Americans and others about global
interactions in the 21st century.
Gregory Maqoma explained in an interview:
“I am constantly expected to conform to
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presentations and symposia, serve not only
to inform local audiences, but also to educate
more broadly.
The documentary feature Movement
(R)Evolution Africa: a story of an art
form in four acts (2009), produced and
directed by Joan Frosch, and codirected
by Alla Kovgan, provides a rich entry
point for the work, and has been viewed
worldwide. Through the voices and works
of choreographers, dancers, designers,
musicians, critics, historians, and
others engaged in the growing ecology
of contemporary African performance,
Movement (R)Evolution Africa explores the
emerging and rapidly shifting contemporary
dance movement across Africa and the
meaning artists seek to make. In addition
to numerous international broadcasts, the
critically acclaimed film has been selected
for more than 200 international film festivals
including the preeminent African film
festival, FESPACO. The film is housed in
library collections worldwide, and is
used academically in universities across
North America. TACAC screened
Movement (R)Evolution Africa as an opening
night event at the Association of Performing
Arts Presenters conference in January
2008, and the film is regularly used to
contextualize performances for audiences
throughout North America.
TACAC presents regular reports to the field at
conferences such as the annual meetings of
the National Performance Network (NPN) and
the Association of Performing Arts Presenters
(APAP). We aim to create dialogue, provide
context, and build mutual understanding to
integrate learning at a deep level for both the
stereotypical perceptions of the Western
world and of African traditionalists.”
Maqoma’s framing of aesthetics lays bare
prevailing methodological and theoretical
lacunae in the study of African performance,
where unique and extraordinary subjects
may be (mis)viewed as representatives
of cultural masses, or “herds,” to use
Faustin Linyekula’s term. For example,
undifferentiated terms such as “African
dance” can facilely (mis)categorize or
silence the individual voice of the work, or
back it into a no-exit ontological web where
cultural inscription becomes its primary
value. Like Maqoma, Achille Mbembe posits,
“To be sure, there is no African identity
that could be designated by a single term
or that could be named by a single word or
subsumed under a single category. African
identity does not exist as a substance.”7
Given the thoughtfulness and intellectual
rigor that artists bring to the table, TACAC
member Vivian Phillips from Seattle Theatre
Group has asked, “How do we make a
space for the artist to say more?” It is our
quest. TACAC prioritizes lively discussion
and research to effectively advance and
disseminate the artists’ voices at the
highest professional levels. In each U.S.
community that artists visit, TACAC provides
inquisitive audiences with contextual events
and/or materials in which to situate the
creatively diverse, historically referential,
and emotionally rich work performed by the
artists. TACAC maintains a web presence
on the MAPP website with information on
artists, current tours, links to interviews and
press reviews, and articles. Essays, website
information, interviews, videos, films, and
other contextual materials, along with public
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TACAC was explicitly created as a consortium
of organizations of varying missions and
capacities, skill sets and orientations, regions
and areas of influence, aligning to access
our distinct strengths to advance common
goals. The membership is asked to meet in
person and by teleconference three times
per year, and the steering committee meets
an additional two to three times per year.
These meetings are vital to the success of the
Consortium’s ongoing activities as current
and new projects are discussed, DVDs
shared, policies refined, and future activities
clarified. The Consortium often invites
artists and other cultural workers to join our
meetings in a mutual sharing of knowledge
and experience.
The process is not neat, but it is tolerant and
vital, and responsive to the change inherent
in the lives of member arts organizations
and the field. In addition to being a founding
member, MAPP serves as general manager,
responsible for sending communications,
planning meetings, facilitating trips,
organizing fund-raising, marketing, and
maintaining the website. Since 2004,
MAPP has raised more than $600,000
for the activities of TACAC, and member
organizations have collectively invested
$3 million of their own programming
resources to Consortium activities. To date,
TACAC’s work has been recognized with
five consecutive years of funding from
the National Endowment for the Arts, and
funding from the Doris Duke Charitable
Foundation, National Dance Project of
the New England Foundation for the Arts,
Lambent Foundation, CulturesFrance/Institut
Francais, and Cultural Services of the
French Embassy.
public and arts professionals. For the fall 2007
U.S. tour of Faustin Linyekula’s Festival of Lies,
TACAC commissioned dance scholar Brenda
Dixon Gottschild to write an essay placing this
work in a context for audiences unfamiliar
not only with the artist but with the historical
references central to the performance.
Joan Frosch authored commissioned essays
to accompany the fall 2009 U.S. tour of
Gregory Maqoma’s Beautiful Me, as well as
the Bates summer 2011 residency of Kettly
Noël, Mamela Nyamza, and Nelisiwe Xaba,
among others. These resources combine to
create a critical groundwork for historicizing
participating artists, and, ultimately, to expand
the canon of performance.
SUSTAINING THE NETWORK & DEVELOPING THE INFRASTRUCTURE
CONVENE THREE TO FOUR CONSORTIUM
MEETINGS EACH YEAR, INCLUDING
AFRICAN PARTNERS ANNUALLY.
IDENTIFY PARTNERS, BOTH ON AND OFF
THE CONTINENT, TO BUILD INITIATIVES
THAT RESPOND TO IDENTIFIED NEEDS
AND PRIORITIES.
DEVELOP RESOURCES TO SUPPORT THE
CONSORTIUM’S ACTIVITIES.
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THINKING DIFFERENTLY In 2007, The Africa Contemporary Arts
Consortium set out to build upon the
successes of our experiential approaches to
arts exchange and to fundamentally alter the
predominant import-export model of cultural
exchange to one of equitable partnership
among American and African artists and
organizations. TACAC theorized that by
building long-term, deep associations in a
vital intercontinental network of partners
in the United States and Africa, we could
advance a model that would not only
support the goals and vision of our African
affiliates, but contribute to a more balanced
environment of global arts exchange overall.
Conceived as the “Building Equitable
Partnerships” initiative, TACAC imagined a
major international convening to rigorously
explore building partnerships based in
parity, and to report the findings back to the
field. TACAC’s passion gained momentum
and reverberated deeply among the African
network of associates we had developed.
TACAC honed in on a strategy: We would
advance relationships through the creation
of a broad-based think tank. TACAC would
engage a wide range of artists and arts
professionals across the continent and—
together—plan for the future. However, in a
series of hard but heartfelt conversations
with several longtime African colleagues, we
soon learned that our approach was flawed
and had bypassed key steps to building the
enduring relationships we sought.
THE POWER OF LISTENINGIn winter of 2008 TACAC supported
Boyzie Cekwana to join Panaibra Gabriel
Canda and Faustin Linyekula in Kisangani,
Democratic Republic of Congo, where the
three artists had gathered to work on their
Southern African network project. TACAC
requested that the artists take time during
their meeting to review and respond to the
WE ARE HERE AS A CONSORTIUM…TO IMAGINE WITH YOU A DIFFERENT
WAY OF DOING BUSINESS WHEN IT COMES TO ENGAGING ACROSS
BORDERS. AS YOU TALK ABOUT HOW YOU COME TOGETHER AND HOW
YOU’RE BUILDING YOUR NETWORKS OUT OF ORGANIC RELATIONSHIPS
THAT INVOLVE LONG-TERM CONVERSATIONS, WE SEE A SHARED
VALUE. THERE’S A PARTICULAR RIGOR TO YOUR PROCESS WHICH I
THINK IS INSPIRING AND MOTIVATING.… WE’RE HOPING WE CAN DEVISE
A BETTER MODEL OF COMMUNICATION AND ENGAGEMENT THAT’S
ONGOING AND FROM WHICH WE MUTUALLY DRAW RESOURCES…WHICH
ARE NOT ONLY FINANCIAL, BUT THAT ALSO HELP US TO ADDRESS
THE ISSUES WE’VE BEEN SHARING—THAT ARE ALSO ISSUES OF
CITIZENSHIP. —CATHY ZIMMERMAN, NAIROBI MEETING, 2010
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proposed think tank. Anticipating the artists’
enthusiastic responses, we were ready to
embark full steam ahead on the initiative.
Instead, we were stopped in our tracks.
The artists stated they had little interest in
such a grandiose plan. They explained that
they had participated in enough oversize
meetings convened by non-African entities
with few meaningful results to show. They
advised that relationships between African
organizations and TACAC had the potential
to be something more than purely artistic
exchanges, something more long lasting.
The artists sought depth, not breadth, in
exchanges. If we ultimately wished to work
together as peers, relationships would need
to be crafted based on authentic knowledge
of each other. By engaging in an honest
sharing of needs—not just asking what
the artist seeks but also stating upfront
what Consortium members seek from the
exchanges—we could advance the bilateral
value of arts exchange with potential
to move beyond funding fads or hollow
business propositions. We listened closely.
MEETING IN TUNISTwo months later another watershed
occurred. In May 2008 TACAC held a
membership meeting at the Danse l’Afrique
danse! Festival in Tunis, Tunisia, where,
in addition to seeing a wide array of
performances, 16 African artists from 10
countries agreed to convene with TACAC to
share their individual perspectives on the
values—and pitfalls—of their experiences
with foreign partnerships. These artists
too reported that large European initiatives
imposed on the continent could circumvent
their needs, if not collapse around them.
They were not moved to engage in the same
MEETING IN TUNIS PARTICIPANTS
1. Nadia Beugré, independent
choreographer, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire
2. Hafiz Dhaou, Cie Chatha, Tunis, Tunisia,
www.chatha.org
3. Adetona Gboyega, Dance Meets
Danse Festival, Lagos, Nigeria,
www.dmdfestival.org
4. Thabiso Pule Heccius, Inzalo Dance &
Theatre Company, Johannesburg,
South Africa
5. Michel Kouakou, Daara Dance, Côte
d’Ivoire & Los Angeles
6. Florent Mahoukou, La Compagnie
Florent Mahoukou/Studio Maho,
Brazzaville, Republic of Congo
7. Thami Manekehla, Inzalo Dance & Theatre
Company, Johannesburg, South Africa
8. Lebohang Masimola, Inzalo Dance &
Theatre Company, Johannesburg,
South Africa
9. Aïcha M’Barek, Cie Chatha, Tunis,
Tunisia, www.chatha.org
10. Orchy Nzaba, Cie Li-Sangha,
Brazzaville, Republic of Congo
11. Opiyo Okach, Gàara Projects, Nairobi,
Kenya, www.gaaraprojects.com
12. Qudus Onikeku, Yk Projects, Lagos,
Nigeria, www.ykprojects.com
13. Esther Ouoba, Centre Chorégraphique
de Développement - la Termitière,
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso,
www.cdc-latermitiere.org
14. Maria Helena Pinto, independent
choreographer, Maputo, Mozambique,
www.dansartes.wordpress.com
15. Omar Rajeh, Maqamat Dance Theatre
and Beirut International Platform of Dance,
Lebanon, www.maqamat.org
16. Haja Franco Saranouffi, independent
choreographer, Antananarivo, Madagascar
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way with the United States. The artists were
extraordinarily openhearted, but weary and
wary of foreigners who, at times, appeared
to have invested little in building their
knowledge about Africa in their eagerness
to impose funding-driven structures. Again,
we listened closely.
“THE HUMAN BEFORE THE ART”Indeed, powerful foreign-funded arts
initiatives have long been at play on
the continent. Artists acknowledge that
European-built networks have provided
critical prestige, money, recognition,
and, sometimes, the backing of African
governments in Africa. Yet some of these
initiatives overlooked learning about
the artist and the real circumstances of
creating the work, resulting in working from
assumptions rather than knowledge. Boyzie
Cekwana pointed out the inherent paradox
of such relationships. If foreign-conceived
strategies were antithetical to learning
from the person making the art, they risked
morphing into impositions of ideas injuring
the nascent art form they meant to support,
undermining the foreigners’ understanding
of the African work as well. The message
was clear: By specifically not imposing grand
strategies, prescribed programs, or quick
fixes, but first taking the time to listen, to
engage, to experience, TACAC could learn
how best to move forward.
The artist’s daily life is complex, and even
more so on the African continent. Opiyo
Okach (Kenya) clarified that “Africa is
a place where multiple historical times
and geographical spaces converge in
one moment.” The resulting dimensions
of the artist’s worlds—and works—are
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neither to be ignored, nor “flattened out,”
as dance historian `Funmi Adewole has
cautioned.8 Indeed, Boyzie Cekwana
stated: “Circumstances in Africa, where
basic survival is still in question, call upon
artists to continue to deal with the human
condition.” To sow seeds of mutual trust
by which long-term partnerships, if not
friendships, might unfold, it was clear
that we needed to refresh perceptions on
both sides of the Atlantic. By swapping
out assumptions in favor of learning and
listening, we could more reliably assess
needs and reciprocal interests, and honor,
in the words of Cekwana, “the human before
the art.”
EYE LEVELTACAC needed to be ready to navigate
uneasy issues of race, gender, national
agendas, and hierarchies. Even as we
would dedicate ourselves to equity, our
relationships were already fraught with
layers of inequality. Economic disparity,
political instability, and challenges to
personal freedom on the African side,
among other issues, exerted forces on daily
life that were well outside the experience
of TACAC members. The wisdom of scaling
down goals and expectations to eye level,
that is, to a human connection, resonated.
Artists wanted us to learn firsthand about
their work and organizations. By entering
the personal space and daily circumstances
an artist inhabits, we could link to deeper
concerns, and build potentially more truthful
and ultimately richer relationships. TACAC
stepped back from convening the think tank
and, recognizing the assumptions inherent in
the term “equitable,” renamed the initiative
“Building Enduring Partnerships.”
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pioneer who establishes a multilayered
environment, providing the physical,
artistic, and intellectual underpinnings
upon which to build a field. By creating the
community—training dancers and future
choreographers, developing audiences,
building spaces, developing policies, and
lobbying for legislation—Pinto, like her
African counterparts, is by necessity
developing an ecosystem for the arts to
thrive. What energy remains then for her
to create work, and—oh, yes—how and on
what terms is it to be funded? Navigating
such complex realities is often the price
of operation for pioneering artists like
Pinto across the continent. These are
the truths TACAC members sought to
learn about in immersive research.
We developed a collaborative three-step
method that included intensive preparation,
an educational on-site trip of 10 days
to three weeks with African artists and
organizations, followed by reflection and
reporting back to the rest of the Consortium.
The first step included matching a TACAC
organization with an African artist/
organization, focusing, for the most part, on
artists or organizations with whom TACAC
members had worked over several years. In
exploratory conversations we considered
the reciprocal benefits of further developing
the relationship at this time. Ultimately,
each TACAC member planned his or her
immersion with the selected organization
based on mutually identified interests, to
further explore the potential affinities in arts
exchange. In some cases, the trips were the
logical next steps for relationships built over
time. In other cases, the visit was set into
motion by common interests.
The (now) human scale felt right. It recalled
the beginnings of the consortium in 2004,
and, now once again, we might build the
foundation we sought based on the varied
and diverse strengths of all involved. We got
to work.
IMMERSIVE RESEARCHIn order to more deeply understand the
circumstances for creating art in Africa, the
challenges specific African organizations and
artistic communities face, and to discover
mutually agreeable pathways to further
nurture collaborative relationships, we co-
conceptualized the idea of immersive research
trips. The plan was for individual TACAC
members to spend extended time in specific
communities, hosted by affiliated African
artists, their organizations, and constituencies.
By meeting the artists and experiencing the
circumstances in which they worked we could
refine ideas, dreams, needs, synergies, and
potentials for the future. As responsibility-
laden members of U.S.-based organizations,
our research would necessarily focus on
short-term trips. While limited, these trips
would be rigorous and move well beyond the
typical festival visit. We developed a protocol
to maximize the learning.
How else would we begin to comprehend
choreographer Maria Helena Pinto’s core
dream for the infrastructure she seeks
to build for arts and culture at the edge
of the city of Maputo, Mozambique? Like
other extraordinary cultural leaders
whose work in Africa has inspired TACAC,
Pinto’s dreams are not confined to artistic
creation. In its concordant expectations and
responsibilities, the complex role
of such an artist is the role of the
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does this mirror or deviate from U.S. ways
of working?
RESOURCES What are the resources
available now and those projected for
the future on both sides? How deep and/
or consistent are those resources?
How reliable? What role could the U.S.
organization and TACAC as a whole play in
this arena that would be appropriate and
respectful?
POTENTIALITY Based on the learning
of both the U.S.- and African-based
organizations, what potential projects, ideas,
and collaborations could be developed
and sustained over time? What projected
expectations would there be for the artist?
TACAC?
OTHER CIRCUMSTANCES What
circumstances have arisen during the visit
that might change the TACAC member’s
thinking or perception about the African
organization and the opportunity for
developing a collaborative relationship?
In the third step of the process, the TACAC
member reflected and reported on the
visit, sharing results with the artists
and organizations in Africa, Consortium
members, and their own constituencies.
The documentation of the research formed
the basis for planning the next step of the
project and for our reports to the field,
including this publication. Two notable
examples of TACAC’s immersive research
trips are Marjorie Neset of VSA/North
Fourth Art Center to Maputo, Mozambique,
hosted by Panaibra Gabriel Canda and
CulturArte, and Cathy Zimmerman of MAPP
The second step was one of on-site learning.
Individual TACAC members spent extended
time in specific communities, hosted by
African artists/organizations, to carry
out respectful investigations of need and
interest, and to seed long-term partnerships.
During each of these immersive trips,
members spent time learning how their
hosts and colleagues navigated their
daily lives as creative artists, educators,
community leaders, and family members.
Members were introduced to a wide range of
people in each place—from local government
employees to a broad range of cultural
workers and educators—to gain a fuller
understanding of the complex milieus in
which artists create.
Since different artists with different goals
in different countries hosted the individual
visits, TACAC developed a common
framework for engaging and reflecting with
the host. Each TACAC member attended to
six areas of investigation in consultation
with the host artist/organization:
MISSION AND VISION What is the mission
of the organization? What is its relationship
to its artists and to its community? What
does the organization desire for itself vis-
à-vis an exchange opportunity? Is there a
perceived value for a relationship with a
U.S.-based partner that is more complex
than simply performance opportunity?
ARTISTRY What is the artistic vision and
trajectory of the company/organization?
ORGANIZATION AND STRUCTURE What
is the organizational structure? What is the
decision-making process? To what extent
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International Productions to Kisangani and
Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo,
hosted by Faustin Linyekula/Studios Kabako.
MAPUTONeset first heard about Panaibra Gabriel
Canda through Boyzie Cekwana during
Cekwana’s visit to New York City in
January 2008. The previous summer,
MAPP’s Ann Rosenthal had met with
Cekwana during a research trip to South
Africa and subsequently TACAC invited
him to participate in a conversation about
international cultural exchange at the annual
APAP conference. Cekwana shared the
plans he and Gabriel Canda had developed
to link their countries in long-range creative
projects including connecting with peers
in other countries of the Southern African
Development Community (SADC).9 He
also spoke about the Independence Project,
CulturArte’s ongoing program involving
teaching artists and a group of dancers with
and without disabilities. Neset’s organization,
VSA/North Fourth Art Center, is an affiliate
of the international organization on arts
and disability. She wanted to learn more.
She recognized an opportunity to link her
organization’s work with that of CulturArte
in an exciting and expanded opportunity for
exchange and learning.
In November 2008, Neset, along with Bryn
Naranjo, VSA’s dance program coordinator,
traveled to Maputo for an immersive research
visit hosted by Gabriel Canda and CulturArte.
Her trip was planned to coincide with a return
visit of Cekwana so that she would benefit
from the perspectives and insights of both
artists. While in Maputo, Naranjo, a specialist
in dance and disability, worked daily with both
59
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ME; University of Florida, Gainesville; and
in New York City. Interviews with Studios
Kabako manager Virginie Dupray and the
performers were conducted and filmed,
along with the performances, for the
documentary Movement (R)Evolution Africa:
a story of an art form in four acts and to build
archival records to encourage research
in contemporary African performance.
Throughout the tour, Linyekula engaged
not only with American peers in arts and
culture, but with diverse citizens, including
the University of Florida student dancers on
whom he set work. Linyekula found people
hungry to learn about him, his creative
process, and the context of his art making
in the DRC. Building upon the momentum of
these successes, Studios Kabako returned in
May 2007 for residencies in preparation for
the October 2007 tour of Festival of Lies, a
work dealing with the complex and turbulent
history of the Congo.
In October 2009, Faustin Linyekula/Studios
Kabako hosted MAPP’s co-director Cathy
Zimmerman in Kisangani and Kinshasa,
DRC. While Linyekula was engaged in the
day-to-day processes of building an arts
center, directing and choreographing for
his company, producing film and music,
Zimmerman observed his quotidian struggle
to regenerate hope in a community that had
all but lost it. She was left both awestruck
and sobered by the drive and fortitude of
Linyekula and his company. In a journal entry
during her immersive trip, Zimmerman wrote:
October 22, 2009. Faustin also worries about
artistic freedom, as freedom of expression in
general is very much in danger these days
under Kabila; and there have been times when
choreographers on the Independence Project.
Naranjo conducted extensive training and
Gabriel Canda and his dancers choreographed
the work. Ultimately the Independence Project
was performed in Albuquerque, NM, and
Neset reported the work’s resonance for
her organization, which is dedicated in great
measure to the advancement of creativity of
people of all abilities:
I am pleased to report that Independence
Project was presented at Global DanceFest
2009 and was a major success. It is one of
the most powerful dance pieces I have seen,
and almost the first that included dancers with
disabilities in a way that didn’t make the work
all about disability.
KISANGANI AND KINSHASA TACAC’s relationship with Faustin Linyekula
and Studios Kabako dates to 2003, just
prior to the formation of the Consortium.
In May of 2005, TACAC members traveled
to Paris to meet with Linyekula and to
see the work of a host of young African
choreographers he had curated for a festival
at the Centre National de la Danse, Pantin.
Later that summer, Linyekula and Studios
Kabako arrived in New York for their North
American debut. In a seven-week visit to
the U.S., including a three-week tour of
Linyekula’s Triptyque sans Titre produced
by MAPP in partnership with TACAC,
Linyekula was hosted in creative residencies
at Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center, Long
Island, NY; Bates Dance Festival, Lewiston,
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Faustin was told he was in danger. This is due
mainly because Faustin and Studios Kabako
are gaining in reputation and influence. In
fact, Faustin has been told that if he ran for
Parliament, people here would vote for him.
Two weeks ago, a political prisoner, a
close friend of Faustin, was suspected of
inciting against the government and the
government confiscated his notes, cell phone,
and computer. Since he was in contact with
Faustin, it was feared that Faustin and his
family might be in danger. The affair was
later cleared and Faustin stayed put. Still, I
cannot imagine working as an artist under
such conditions and Faustin, at times, finds it
difficult to continue.
MEETING IN NAIROBIAs a culmination of a three-year process
of immersions, research travel, and
discussion, TACAC organized the November
2010 Building Enduring Partnerships
meeting hosted by the The GoDown
Arts Centre in Nairobi, Kenya. We were
determined not to backtrack to the
grandiosity of the think tank concept.
Instead the meeting would focus on what
we had learned and how, together, we
could best move forward to accomplish
what we could not do alone. In sum, we
sought to craft an enhanced and articulated
relationship between TACAC and our
African colleagues, one that would
acknowledge our different contexts and
agendas, and create a pathway to our work
in the future.
At the urging of the artists who had guided
us thus far, we came together in Nairobi
as a small working group—to enable us,
MEETING IN NAIROBI
PARTICIPATING FROM AFRICA
1. Boyzie Cekwana, Floating Outfit Project,
Durban, South Africa
2. Virginie Dupray, Studios Kabako,
Kisangani, Democratic Republic of Congo
3. Panaibra Gabriel Canda, CulturArte,
Maputo, Mozambique
4. Faustin Linyekula, Studios Kabako,
Kisangani, Democratic Republic of Congo
5. Joy Mboya, The GoDown Arts Centre,
Nairobi, Kenya
6. Judy Ogana, The GoDown Arts Centre,
Nairobi, Kenya
7. Opiyo Okach, Gàara Projects, Nairobi, Kenya
8. Maria Helena Pinto, Dans’Artes, Maputo,
Mozambique
INVITED BUT UNABLE TO ATTEND
1. Gregory Maqoma, Vuyani Dance Theatre,
Johannesburg, South Africa
2. Salia Sanou, Compganie Salia nï Seydou/
Centre de Développement Chorégraphique –
la Termitière, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
PARTICIPATING FROM THE U.S.
1. Philip Bither, Walker Art Center,
Minneapolis, MN
2. Laura Faure, Bates Dance Festival,
Lewiston, ME
3. Ken Foster, Yerba Buena Center for the
Arts, San Francisco, CA
4. Joan Frosch, Center for World Arts,
University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
5. Marjorie Neset, VSA Arts of New Mexico/
North Fourth Art Center, Albuquerque, NM
6. Vivian Phillips, Seattle Theatre Group,
Seattle, WA
7. Ann Rosenthal, MAPP International
Productions, New York, NY
8. Cathy Zimmerman, MAPP International
Productions, New York, NY
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in Faustin Linyekula’s words, to “feel our
way around the conversation in a safe
environment.” Maintaining the human scale
of the Nairobi event had meaning for each of
us since the benefits of working at this scale
had proven indisputable.
We set four goals for our two-plus days
together in Nairobi: Engage in deep dialogue
that reflects concerns, interests, and artistic
and social endeavors for all involved; move
toward a networking model that allows for
consistent activity and ongoing planned
exchanges on both continents, virtually
and in person, to include an identified and
formalized consortium of African artists
and organizations; lay foundation for new
connections and opportunities among artists
on the continent; and formulate strategies
for moving forward.
TACAC members hoped our process in
Nairobi would bring full circle the emergent
methodology developed over the past
several years. We knew we had experienced
a profound shift in ourselves that had
impacted not only how we interacted with
African artists and organizations but also, to
a surprising degree, our own organizations.
Invested in the idea that TACAC would
“fundamentally alter the predominant
‘import-export’ model of cultural
exchange to one of equitable partnership
between American and African artists
and organizations,” we wanted to clearly
demonstrate our successes to our funders,
to the field, and to ourselves. Yet the
profound shifts we had experienced to date
were not easily quantifiable. We trusted that
by further shaping our processes together in
Nairobi, we could surely arrive at concrete
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outcomes. We wanted the meeting to result
in solid decisions for strategizing clear next
steps. The pressure was on.
DAY ONEIt became immediately apparent that
Americans had much to learn from Africans
about inventing models of support for
contemporary performance in communities
where there are few financial resources,
little popular support, and few venues for
presentation. The African members of
the working group exhibited an inspiring
entrepreneurial spirit that used art as a
means to activate a community—to open
dialogue, reengage the imagination, and
create educational and job opportunities for
young people. Notably, their goals reached
beyond engaging the public as audiences
for their work to creating environments that
empower their communities to creatively
shape their own futures. Faustin Linyekula
summarized the imperative: “Let’s create an
art center, create and show work…and what
it means to be a citizen in the place.”
Amid the excitement of the first day of
meetings at The GoDown Arts Centre, we hit
a nerve. We had hired an outstanding Nairobi-
based facilitator, Yvonne Owuor, whom
Ken Foster had met during his immersive
research in Nairobi the previous year. While
MAPP had carefully prepared her for the
meetings, Owuor was still at a disadvantage.
The working group participants were familiar
with one another, but not with her. She also
had to get through a tightly packed two-
day schedule while maintaining a sense of
inclusion and open dialogue in the spirit of this
group’s “organic” dynamic. Further, since we
were conversing across English, Portuguese,
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the artist at varied stages of a career; the
recognition of the person inside the art;
the rethinking of issues of infrastructure
and art making, ranging from the rehearsal
studio and performance space to creative
entrepreneurship with imagined impacts at
scales of the community and city; and the
cultivation of responsibility and citizenry
through artistic practice.
Participants pondered the foibles of foreign-
imposed competitive festival formats that
propelled young, often minimally prepared
African artists onto the scene, while mature
artists without structures or means to
continue their journeys were left to hold
the weight of training the next generation
on their shoulders: “It’s an Africa-wide
question,” Opiyo Okach stated. The complex
interplay of developing young artists, fueling
creative advancement for established artists,
and building infrastructure, if not a field,
dominated a good portion of the discussion.
Joy Mboya, artistic director, The GoDown
Arts Centre, relayed her overview:
I see 12 vanguard choreographer/dancers on
the continent at this stage; I see them bearing
a full load; I see they cannot afford to stop
because they will create their own void. I see
that they need to create their own work. I see
that they also need to help build the rest of the
field. How do you support that vanguard of the
creators of…contemporary arts.… Their backs
will have to break, but we have to make sure
they don’t completely collapse…we have to
support them so their backs don’t break.
If the future of the enterprise rests on so
few, and the few are unsupported, how
and French, translation was going to make
time more challenging to manage. Owuor set
ground rules. To kick off the meetings she
gave participants a time allotment to introduce
their statement of purpose to the group. But
the 16-person group proved too large to be
able to follow up presentations with urgent
questions. In stark contrast to the investment
in dialogue that had brought us to this point,
the group began to feel not only rushed but
silenced. Frustration mounted.
A fearless truth teller, Linyekula insisted
we honor the journeys each of us had made
to authentically interact. Indeed, we had to
trust the creative trail we had embarked
upon several years earlier. With trust
comes tolerance—and the freedom to make
mistakes. TACAC had corrected course
before and, in real time, we did so again.
Facilitator Yvonne Owuor recalled:
The provocations of the morning conversation
forced the space to allow a deeper and more
organic engagement, the evolution of which
stretched time but focused on the deep issues,
the open questioning and web of response and
responsiveness. In this, are there signals for the
kind of network and relationship sought among
us? In the space that emerged…away from the
structure first proposed, are there clues to what
we all want? And if that is the case, what is its
character, what is it proposing, and how can it
be sustained?
As we relaxed the structure, the meeting
unfolded into a creative interaction of
stirring questions, real conversations, and
frank reflections. Day One brought forth
a weave of concerns: the development of
66
German architect Bärbel Müller, broke
ground in 2010, a full nine years after he
had first framed its foundation in thought.
Would building a mental infrastructure
prepare one to build and sustain a physical
infrastructure?
The American participants absorbed the
relevance of a mental infrastructure to support
building audiences for African contemporary
work in the United States. Deep dialogues and
attention to what the artist has to say could
shift stubborn paradigms. As artists build
physical structures to protect and grow the
work on the continent, mental structures to
engage with the work could simultaneously be
built in the U.S.
Ken Foster of Yerba Buena Center for the
Arts explained further:
The Consortium’s development is a recognition
that simply putting the African artist on the
stage is not enough, and that our role in the
accountability piece is to serve as the translator,
to serve as the advocate. The role is not only
important, but it is much larger than we ever
imagined. We just saw ourselves as performing
arts presenters; we didn’t think of ourselves as
citizens’ arts advocates.
Marjorie Neset of VSA/North Fourth Art
Center concurred:
The things I feel the most pride in are the
connections we’ve established with artists from
can they create, tour, build infrastructure,
produce, manage, and thrive? Boyzie
Cekwana drew a powerful parallel for the
participants to consider:
I am a big, big fan of wildlife television. I like
to watch lions, I like to watch zebras, and
giraffes. I don’t have them in my backyard,
so I watch them on television.… A female
zebra under duress—if she’s pregnant—will
automatically abort. There’s a survival
mechanism that puts the mother’s life ahead
of the fetus…because her life is much more
valuable to the continuation of the species than
the unborn fetus…. She will…go into heat again
and produce others.
There’s a need to support young people for
sure, for many different reasons. But there is a
greater need to support the center so the center
is sustainable, and it works and it functions.
The 12 artists that Joy was talking about…
are the female zebras. These are the people…
that need to hold the reins so we can start to
develop the grains of sand.
If not addressed, what would the dilemma of
“female zebras” portend for the development
of the art form into the future? Would
constructing bricks-and-mortar creative
centers such as the ones Maria Helena
Pinto, Panaibra Gabriel Canda, and Faustin
Linyekula were busy planning ease or
exacerbate the burden of these innovators?
Linyekula proposed the value of building
a sturdy “intellectual infrastructure” first.
The name of his company, Studios Kabako,
was itself a play on imagining “studios” in
which to create even if they did not (yet)
exist. His emergent Kisangani-based arts
center, designed in collaboration with CH
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the day, Foster asked if we could move to
a vision taking us beyond “us and them”
language to a “we.” The topic would carry us
into our remaining goals for Day Two of the
meeting.
DAY TWOOn Day Two, we still had three goals to
accomplish: Move toward a networking
model that allows for consistent activity
and ongoing planned exchanges on both
continents, virtually and in person, to
include an identified and formalized
consortium of African artists and
organizations; lay foundation for new
connections and opportunities among
artists on the continent; and formulate
strategies for moving forward. To guide our
vision for the future, Owuor asked us to
consider ways we could intersect to aid one
another in accomplishing goals; to assess
what we were collectively willing and able
to do; and consider possible resources.
In sum: “What do we want from each
other moving forward?” If building mental
infrastructure foregrounded the support for
the physical infrastructure, what could we
imagine together?
The GoDown’s Judy Ogana cut to the
chase. What would membership in The
Africa Consortium mean for the African
organizations? She asked the group to
consider how an “African side” would fit
into the whole picture for the Consortium.
The artists’ responses led away from
fixing a formal structure and notions of
“membership.” None of the artists saw
value in setting up as the “representative
of other [African] artists out there.” Okach
softly stated that since “we were only
this continent. In our rather isolated community
of Albuquerque our population of Africans
and African Americans is two percent.... It’s
bringing work…to a population with literally no
personal connections of heritage.
Vivian Phillips of the Seattle Theatre Group
also spoke about how TACAC reframes the
presenter’s role to nurture and challenge
audiences: “I think it is our responsibility
as citizens to hold our communities
accountable for the kind of work that we
are attempting to create and to bring into
relationship.” Linyekula reminded the group:
“Werner Herzog said only poets could have
brought East and West Germany together.
Politicians could not do it.” In this view, art
making (and presenting) becomes a practice
of freedom.
Yet if we were to bring new minds to
the stage, we would also have to bring
new thought into how to do it and hold
ourselves accountable. MAPP’s Ann
Rosenthal brought up the critical need for
finding balance between the intangible
benefits of artistic exploration and market
concerns. How can we make African
contemporary work more viable in the
American market? Could TACAC by
example open new doors and impact the
prevailing presenting attitudes? Mboya
asked the artists to ponder the question:
“Why do you want to be on that [American]
stage?” Clearly, resolve had to be strong
on all sides.
Day One had succeeded in reaching our first
goal: “Engage in deep dialogue that reflects
concerns, interests, and artistic and social
endeavors for all involved.” At the end of
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getting to know each other” the notion of
membership seemed premature, and that
it felt “more like the ‘America Consortium
for Africa.’” Ouch. That smarted, but it gave
all of “us” clarity. The weight of formalizing
African membership in TACAC began to
dissipate, not unlike the earlier think tank
concept. Creative engagement bubbled up in
response.
“The idea of…friendship first…put people
at ease,” Ogana later observed. For
artists seeking economic and artistic
survival, wasn’t a flexible, friends-based
sharing responsive to resonant goals
and opportunities more sustainable than
(yet another) burden of a formal, weighty
structure? By continuing to move forward
in an informal network with projects
initiated by individuals or a group we would
engage a more essential dynamic rooted in
action. Further, the passionate networking
efforts among the artists intracontinentally,
such as the Southern African network that
Panaibra Gabriel Canda, Boyzie Cekwana,
Faustin Linyekula, and others had explored
could also integrate with TACAC’s activities.
To embrace the metaphor of acupuncture
offered by Linyekula, a stimulation of one
point could serve to stimulate the system
as a whole. We were on to something.
The space of encounter, thus decentralized,
energized the collective imagination.
Cekwana pointed out that friendship was,
in fact, the best foundation for the future
because it implied choice and an equitable
relationship, to be sharply distinguished
from the perceptions of European models,
approaches, and influences as hierarchical.
Okach looked to deepening relationships
70
can live off work. We can afford to keep going.
Ninety percent of our money comes from
touring. We can also support others’ works.
While TACAC was focused on developing
deep and long-term engagement that moves
beyond “just performance opportunities,”
the artists reminded us that touring is not
only key to survival but also to the greater
enterprise of creativity. TACAC could
respond by building a deeper knowledge
base and greater infrastructure to advocate
more broadly for this work in the U.S.
presenting market, in addition to producing
and curating. Thus, while enhancing
performing opportunities would not be
the beginning and end of the relationship,
it was a critical piece of a more complex
connection. This thinking portended not
only a shift in cultural exchange practices
from import-export, but an emergent
vision of the currency of art and human
relationships rooted in common cause.
REFLECTIONWe entered the meeting seeking to
emerge with confirmed African partners
and immediate next steps, but found a
complexity and richness of human purpose
beyond metrics. To recap: Did TACAC
“move toward a networking model that
allows for consistent activity and ongoing
planned exchanges on both continents,
virtually and in person, to include an
identified and formalized consortium of
African artists and organizations”? Yes,
we moved toward our goal, but, no, we
did not formalize membership. Did TACAC
“lay foundation for new connections
and opportunities among artists on the
continent”? Yes. Did TACAC “formulate
in a creative and flexible infrastructure
facilitating connection and exchange. If we
were adaptable to current and ever-shifting
realities, we could prioritize responsiveness,
rather than fixity. Gabriel Canda offered the
importance of connecting across issues—not
just because of African location or identity.
Maria Helena Pinto spoke of her continuing
affinity with the organic interactions of
TACAC, which was part of what attracted her
to the organization in the first place.
The sum of these comments suggested
a structure that is nonhierarchical,
heterogeneous, and alive in movement,
with axes and connections forming and
reforming. Indeed, given the growing
number of organizations working and
developing relationships on both continents,
such decentralization could stimulate
creative clusters of activities, if not a critical
mass to quicken the change we all sought.
More concretely, however, if these artists
sought economic, artistic, and intellectual
survival to pursue their dreams in Africa,
support was critical. Not the sort of
“support” which would indicate to artists
what, how, or with whom to do their
work, but rather support that is based on
real needs and goals as identified by the
artists. Linyekula stated that international
touring was the lifeblood for his emergent
enterprise in Kisangani, which includes
music production, film production, the
choreographic and training work of Studios
Kabako, and more. Linyekula was clear that
international exposure works:
Studios Kabako is a privileged company in the
dance world—not just the African world—that
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strategies for moving forward”? Yes,
but not in a formulaic way. Rather, we
sustained the analogy of acupuncture,
where each of our actions would impact
the whole. It was a healing concept, one of
connection, which would allow each of us
to contribute to “a network of long-term
collaborations of like-minded artists to
move their works forward with an elevated
sense of consciousness.”
Creativity is resurgent, eminently renewable,
and never finite; it is the ultimate human
reserve to be valued, if not explicitly
nurtured. We as artists and cultural workers
must awaken to the opportunities and new
responsibilities of our unique resources in
the global moment. For example, it is not
improbable that the artists’ innovations
cultivate human capacities, which may not
only advance artistic expression but also
stimulate creative economies, fostering
broader goals of sustainability, development,
and self-determination. Indeed, as the
artists contribute to intra- and international
trade, they also seed the imagination, a
key resource in a new economy where the
importance of the elastic, the unlimited,
the intangible has been assessed. Lala
Deheinzelin, senior advisor, Creative
Economy Programme, Special Unit on
South–South Cooperation, writes that we
are at the brink of seismic shift, “a transition
from a time when life was organized around
material, tangible matters to an era when the
intangible plays an increasingly central role…
and can open the way to more inclusive
models based in cooperation.”10 In the words
of Laura Faure, TACAC seeks cooperation
that is not “about product, but a notion of
humanity.”
74
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Upon his return to the ruins of the postwar
city of Kisangani, Faustin Linyekula asked,
“How can we…imagine things for ourselves?”
From the hope-filled days of the 1960s and
1970s when newly formed nations across
the continent supported national ballets as
embodiments of self-determination, to the
despotic manipulation of those symbols
to propagandize at the level of the body
(think Mobutu), to the French intervention
of the early 1990s with such arts initiatives
as MASA, or the competition known today
as Danse l’Afrique danse!, a new era has
emerged in African performance. It is led by
the citizen-artist. French-Togolese cultural
journalist Ayoko Mensah has noted that
artists, unlike most politicians, “represent an
Africa that works.”12 Their potential impact
on civil society should not be undervalued.
The structures artists create—both mentally
and physically—make space for experiments
in democracy to unfold.
When we founded The Africa Contemporary
Arts Consortium in 2004, our question
was not dissimilar to Linyekula’s: “How
can we…imagine things for ourselves?” We
recognized that the established paradigm of
global arts exchange had to change. While
we also knew many of the reasons why it
did not work, we did not know how best
to revise it. The successes of our early
activities in this stirring African era of
artistic practice propelled us to dig deeper.
The practices honed in the Building Enduring
Partnerships initiative irrevocably upended
our thinking. Not only did the project help us
to redefine a praxis for working creatively
and effectively with artists from other parts
of the world, but it contributed to deepening
the practices of each member institution.
Leaping beyond the standard presenting
paradigm for working with African artists,
we encountered a role larger and more
compelling than any of us had anticipated.
In a reversal of the standard consumerist
approach to global art exchange, touring
OVER THE LONG TERM, INTERNATIONAL ARTISTIC INTERACTIONS
ENHANCE KNOWLEDGE AND CORRECT STEREOTYPES. THEY
BUILD TRUST BETWEEN ARTISTS, ARTS PROFESSIONALS AND
AUDIENCES IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES, AND AS A RESULT FOSTER
A MORE OPEN ENVIRONMENT FOR DIPLOMATIC AND POLITICAL
RELATIONS. MUCH IS MADE THESE DAYS ABOUT THE VALUE OF
GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP IN AN INTERCONNECTED WORLD. FAMILIARITY
WITH OTHER CULTURES IS NOT JUST A HALLMARK OF A ROUNDED
HUMAN EXISTENCE. IT TRANSLATES INTO TANGIBLE SKILLS AND
ADVANTAGES INSIDE AN INCREASINGLY DIVERSE GLOBAL ECONOMY.11
—ANDRÁS SZÁNTÓ, THE CENTER FOR ARTS & CULTURE, 2003
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Americans alike, perceived the 2010 meeting
in Nairobi as an exclusive gathering. It
was. In order to maintain the deep level of
exchange we sought, we risked exclusion.
We trust the value of that decision has been
made apparent by this narrative, since we
have emerged with a methodology that
TACAC—and others—may practice (and
improve upon) with artists and organizations
everywhere.
We have committed to sharing our processes
more vigorously through documentation
and public forums. Truth be told, we have
criticized ourselves over time for failing
to apply our rigorous internal standards
for communication to the greater public.
Thus not only will we continue our cyclical
reports back to the field in conjunction
with the annual APAP conference in New
York, other professional gatherings, and at
individual institutions, we will also seek to
engage more broadly with cultural workers,
policy makers, practitioners, educators, and
public communities.
We will, of course, continue to prioritize
dialogue with, and presentations by,
artists. We will all seek coherence with the
concerns of the citizen-artist in collaborative
ventures such as the October 2011 TACAC
symposium in New York City, Dialogues
Across Culture: A Model for Building
Enduring Partnerships. This symposium
was organized by MAPP in partnership
with Columbia University’s Institute for
African Studies and the Museum for African
Art; Faustin Linyekula and Maria Helena
Pinto participated. Fully aware that the
problems of the creative sector—including
getting laboratory time, creating physical
has become the flower of TACAC’s
engagement with artists, not the seed. The
genesis of the seed and its nourishment—
human connection—cannot be overlooked.
It roots the entire ecology and sets it into
motion. From an economic standpoint,
touring is a critical end point of the
ecological chain of creativity, stimulating
each link down to its source. The arts
ecology that is nourished by connections
across the continent and by connections
on issues that matter to artists and other
citizens around the world is another
framework for global exchange. It is
decidedly not an import-export model,
where hierarchies are so “naturalized” that
fairness is perceived as largesse, rather
than best practice. However, to reroute the
standard dynamic of how “(over)developed
nations” interact with less financially
privileged nations is to take on the tidal
wave of globalization—an impossible task.
But by prioritizing conversations among
equals that take place on a human scale,
avoiding grand, hierarchical, or prescriptive
approaches to “problem-solve” or “fix,” a
process of change may be contemplated for
everyone involved.
Building this narrative has provided
TACAC a rich opportunity to reflect on
the intersection of our goals, activities,
foibles, and future. Further, it provides
artists, arts organizations, funders, and the
greater field an inside view of our efforts.
Such transparency is timely. For example,
some members of our field, Africans and
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involved. The points of intersection will not
only stimulate and strengthen the whole,
but extend like roots to strengthen others’
efforts. As such, we are already engaged in
opening the network to other organizations,
including artist-driven intracontinental
networks. To coherently support our reach
we will be mindful of capacity and continue
to foster our commitment to depth and
relationship. We are reminded of our initial
conversations leading to immersive research
and we trust the results.
Acknowledging the power of one and the
power generated when those ones join
together exemplifies the best work of The
Africa Contemporary Arts Consortium.
The passion, purpose, and distinctive
professional acumen of individual members
is the heartbeat of TACAC, giving life to
hallmark practices of deep and engaged
listening, learning, and sharing, coupled with
real-time assessments of goals and needs
to move our praxis forward. Our model has
set into motion internal changes—at the
personal and organizational level, as well
as in the relationships we continue to build.
We may fumble, but the trust we have built
and the bonds of experiences we share hold
us in mutual good stead. So while TACAC’s
praxis is intuitive and organic, there is really
nothing “natural” about it. It is learned,
practiced over and over in a wide range of
contexts, and learned again.
Now our practices more frequently
approximate our language. In our early
days, we assumed we could do great and
lofty things. Today we assume less but do
more, or at least more deeply. Because our
model asks for depth, breadth may falter.
infrastructure, building communities
and markets, engaging different sectors
of community, stabilizing finances, and
planning for the future, just to mention
a few—are faced by creative agents
worldwide, we need to continue to ask
what’s working where and what relevance it
may hold across disciplines and the world.
African artists’ lessons learned, successes,
and best practices can contribute deep
regional thinking to stimulate new global
thinking. Given the yawning gap of
resources, the creativity index it takes to
achieve what artists on the continent have
achieved to date is an extraordinary story.
It should compel and inspire artists—and
citizens—everywhere.
TACAC has also put mechanisms in place
to foster a multidirectional exchange of
information that will more effectively
connect our activities to those of other
similarly impassioned organizations and
funders. Making good on our commitment
to enhancing African artists’ platforms in
the United States, TACAC is committed to
inviting African artists to speak, discuss, and
share their experiences with U.S. audiences
and to historicizing and disseminating
their stories. Our deepening engagement,
documentation, Internet presence, and
presentations will build a bridge to new
opportunities. As we encounter parallel
commitments in other organizations, they
will not only add value and meaning to our
praxis, but provide the potential for greater
returns on investment for us and for artists
in Africa and in the United States. In this
process, we want to continue to capitalize on
the founding strength of the Consortium: the
diversity of the individuals and organizations
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an entity but as a practice. For all of these
reasons, and more, the TACAC model may
not take off as the next quickly adopted
trend. But if one stops to ponder the soft
power of the model, it can be understood as
nothing less than a revision of the modern
global encounter, and that is a practice the
world urgently needs.
The model also moves slowly. Yet TACAC
has taken to advancing at a human pace, and
its processes are strengthened by the space
allowed for research, discussion, change, or
creative diversion. Further, the relationships
we have formed have taken years to build
and—like any friendship—will never be
static. Thus we do not think of ourselves as
ENDNOTES
1 Okwui Enwezor and Chika Okeke-Agulu, Contemporary African Art Since 1980. (Bologna: Damiani, 2009), 11.
2 Souleymane Koly, “A Hard Nut to Crack.” Crossroads 1: On Interculturalism, edited by Mark Deputter, 1.7-1.11. (IETM: Brussels. www.alkantara.pt/pdfs/crossroads1eng.pdf., 2003), 9.
3 Achille Mbembe, “African Contemporary Art: Negotiating the Terms of Recognition,” Interview by Vivian Paulissen (Johannesburg Workshop in Theory and Criticism: JWTC 2009). http://jhbwtc.blogspot.com/2009/09/african-contemporary-art-negotiating.html (Accessed October 1, 2009).
4 120 M/h press materials, October 12, 2008, MAPP International Productions, NY.
5 Documents emerging from “Danse: Langage Propre et Métissage Culturel” (hosted by the Festival International de Nouvelle Danse, Montreal, Canada, 1999), “Crossroads I” (IETM, Brussels, Belgium, March 2003—concurrent with Africalia) and “Crossroads II” (IETM, Birmingham, UK, October 2003), “African Contemporary Dance? Questioning Issues of a Performance Aesthetic for a Developing and Independent Continent” (Johannesburg, South Africa, 2004), “Africa Moves” (New York, USA, 1995), “Movement (R)Evolution Dialogues: Contemporary Performance in and of Africa” (Gainesville, Florida, USA, 2004), Africultures (1999–2010), “Diary of a Schizophrenic Dancer,” the blog of Nigerian choreographer Qudus Onikeku (2008–2010), to name a few, have advanced early theoretical discussions of the field of contemporary performance.
6 Susan Kart, Review of Castaldi, Francesca, Choreographies of African Identities: Négritude, Dance, and the National Ballet of Senegal. H-AfrArts, H-Net Reviews, July 2006, 3. URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=12061 (Accessed December 20, 2006).
7 Achille Mbembe, “African Modes of Self-Writing,” Public Culture 14 (1): 239-273. (2002): 272.
8 `Funmi Adewole in Movement (R)Evolution Africa: a story of an art form in four acts, produced and directed by Joan Frosch, codirected by Alla Kovgan. (Watertown, MA: Documentary Educational Resources, 2009).
9 The Southern African Development Community (SADC) currently has a membership of 15 member states: Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. http://www.sadc.int/ (Accessed September 21, 2011).
10 Lala Deheinzelin, quoted in “Creative Economy: A Feasible Development Option,” Creative Economy Report 2010 (Geneva/New York: UNCTAD-UNDP, 2011): 248 box 9.5. http://www.beta.undp.org/undp/en/home/presscenter/pressreleases/2011/03/30/les-industries-en-rapport-avec-la-crativit-et-la-culture-rsistent-mieux--la-crise-conomique.html (Accessed April 15, 2011).
11 András Szántó, “A New Mandate for Philanthrophy? U.S. Foundation Support for International Arts Exchanges,” (The Center for Arts & Culture, 2003).
12 Ayoko Mensah, “An ‘Ambassador’ of Cultural Diversity,” Interview by Eyoum Nganguè and Anne Perrin, in West African Perspectives: Resources for Development. (Sahel and West Africa Club/OECD and ECOWAS, 2009), 86.
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TACAC ORGANIZATIONSADVANCING A DYNAMIC EXCHANGE OF ARTS AND IDEAS AMONG
ARTISTS, ARTS ORGANIZATIONS, AND PUBLIC COMMUNITIES OF THE
UNITED STATES AND AFRICA
BATES DANCE FESTIVAL
LEWISTON, ME
WWW.BATESDANCEFESTIVAL.ORG
CENTER FOR WORLD ARTS
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
GAINESVILLE, FL
WWW.ARTS.UFL.EDU/CWA
THE JOHN F. KENNEDY CENTER FOR
THE PERFORMING ARTS
WASHINGTON, D.C.
WWW.KENNEDY-CENTER.ORG
MAPP INTERNATIONAL PRODUCTIONS
NEW YORK, NY
WWW.MAPPINTERNATIONAL.ORG
NATIONAL BLACK ARTS FESTIVAL
ATLANTA, GA
WWW.NBAF.ORG
SEATTLE THEATRE GROUP
SEATTLE, WA
WWW.STGPRESENTS.ORG
VSA ARTS OF NEW MEXICO/
NORTH FOURTH ART CENTER
ALBUQUERQUE, NM
WWW.VSARTSNM.ORG
WALKER ART CENTER
MINNEAPOLIS, MN
WWW.WALKERART.ORG
YERBA BUENA CENTER FOR THE ARTS
SAN FRANCISCO, CA
WWW.YBCA.ORG
U.S. MEMBER ORGANIZATIONS
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BOYZIE CEKWANA/
FLOATING OUTFIT PROJECT
DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA
PANAIBRA GABRIEL CANDA/
CULTURARTE
MAPUTO, MOZAMBIQUE
FAUSTIN LINYEKULA & VIRGINIE
DUPRAY/STUDIOS KABAKO
KISANGANI, DEMOCRATIC
REPUBLIC OF CONGO
WWW.KABAKO.ORG
GREGORY MAQOMA/
VUYANI DANCE THEATRE
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
WWW.VUYANI.CO.ZA
JUDY OGANA & JOY MBOYA/
THE GODOWN ARTS CENTRE
NAIROBI, KENYA
WWW.THEGODOWNARTSCENTRE.COM
OPIYO OKACH/GÀARA PROJECTS
NAIROBI, KENYA
WWW.GAARAPROJECTS.COM
MARIA HELENA PINTO
MAPUTO, MOZAMBIQUE
WWW.DANSARTES.WORDPRESS.COM
AFFILIATES IN AFRICA
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ANDRÉYA OUAMBA/
COMPAGNIE 1ER TEMPS
SENEGAL
BOUCHRA OUIZGUEN/
COMPAGNIE ANANIA
MOROCCO
BOYZIE CEKWANA/
FLOATING OUTFIT PROJECT
SOUTH AFRICA
CIE 2K_FAR DANCE COMPANY
MOROCCO
COMPAGNIE LA BARAKA
ALGERIA/FRANCE
WWW.ABOULAGRAA.COM
COMPAGNIE TCHÉTCHÉ
CÔTE D’IVOIRE
DAUDET GRAZAÏ FABRICE
CÔTE D’IVOIRE/FRANCE
FAMILIA PRODUCTIONS
TUNISIA
WWW.FAMILIAPROD.COM
FATHY SALAMA AND ORCHESTRA
EGYPT
FAUSTIN LINYEKULA & VIRGINIE
DUPRAY/
STUDIOS KABAKO
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
WWW.KABAKO.ORG
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AFRICAN ARTISTS/ COMPANIES WHO HAVE PARTICIPATED IN TACAC TOURS AND CREATIVE RESIDENCIES
WE HAVE ENCOUNTERED AND BEEN INSPIRED BY DOZENS OF ARTISTS
ACROSS THE AFRICAN CONTINENT AND AROUND THE GLOBE AT FESTIVALS,
PERFORMANCES, AND ARTISTIC GATHERINGS. THESE ARTISTS HAVE SHARED
WITH US THEIR LIVES AND HOPES AND, MOST IMPORTANTLY, THEIR ART.
WE HAVE STAYED IN TOUCH WITH SOME, HAVE PLANS TO CONNECT AGAIN
WITH OTHERS, AND THERE ARE ARTISTS WITH WHOM WE HAVE YET TO
CONTINUE A DIALOGUE. TO ALL THESE ARTISTS—TOO MANY TO MENTION
HERE—WE WISH TO EXTEND OUR THANKS. YOU HAVE FED OUR PRACTICE
AND INFORMED OUR LIVES.
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GERMAINE ACOGNY/
COMPAGNIE JANT-BI/
ECOLE DES SABLES
SENEGAL
WWW.ANTBI.ORG
GREGORY MAQOMA/
VUYANI DANCE THEATRE
SOUTH AFRICA
WWW.VUYANI.CO.ZA
HAFIZ DHAOU & AÏCHA M’BAREK/
COMPAGNIE CHATHA
TUNISIA
WWW.CHATHA.ORG
HEDDY MAALEM/
COMPAGNIE HEDDY MAALEM
FRANCE/ALGERIA
WWW.HEDDYMAALEM.COM
KARIMA MANSOUR/
MA’AT FOR CONTEMPORARY DANCE
EGYPT
WWW.KARIMAMANSOUR.COM
JUDY OGANA & JOY MBOYA/
THE GODOWN ARTS CENTRE
KENYA
WWW.THEGODOWNARTSCENTRE.COM
JULIE DOSSAVI/
COMPAGNIE JULIE DOSSAVI
BENIN/FRANCE
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Building Enduring Partnerships: A Report to the Field is published by
MAPP International Productions and The Africa Contemporary Arts Consortium.
This publication was made possible with generous support from
the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Cover photograph: Nelisiwe Xaba in Correspondances. Photograph by Eric Boudet.
Title page photographs: (Left) Compagnie TchéTché in Dimi. Photograph by Wolfgang Weimer.
(Right) TACAC members and affiliate artists at The GoDown Arts Centre, Nairobi, Kenya,
2010. Photograph by Philip Bither.
©2011 by MAPP International Productions.
140 Second Avenue, Suite 502, New York, NY 10003
646-602-9390; www.mappinternational.org
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form, without written
permission from the publisher
Publication concept, design, and printing: Four32C