Nora Chipaumire: Rewriting as Decolonizing Heat

This chapter analyzes the many forms of Nora Chipaumire’s choreographic strategy of rewriting and layering a hierarchical narrative with alterities, revealing the perspectives of History’s “others.” It refers to her manipulation of choreographic vocabulary as she creates cross-referentialities between works deemed “historic” and “masterpieces” and her rewritings of these pieces and her refusal to monumentalize her own works as consolidated choreographies. It also looks at her commitment to sites of colonial wounding, causing friction as she reimagines these stories, and simultaneously decolonizes existing “master” narratives. This chapter argues that such heated engagements in fact generate empowerment and embodied liberation, foregrounding African feminist perspectives in contemporary dance.