Toronto Premiere
Presented in collaboration with The National Ballet of Canada’s CreativAction Programme, with support from DanceWorks.
Citadel Spring Mix Presents
WAMUNZO
Choreographed and Performed by Zab Maboungou
Wamunzo, plays out in sequences with vivid and attentive body language. The performers, musicians and dancer transmit movement to each other like a force of life, enunciating that which is articulated in space with freedom and consciousness.
Approximate run time is 45 minutes.
Meet the Artists
Photo by Kevin Calixte
Zab Maboungou
Choreographer and Performer
Choreographer and performer, philosopher and writer, Zab Maboungou is a pioneering artist whose works of great introspective power spark our spirit: a vibrant sound space and corporal articulations interpenetrate in a sober and brilliant expression of the art of dance, creating “something from nothing at a high level” (Deborah Meyers-Vancouver).
Read more +She has succeeded in translating and instilling, through her work and her involvement in artistic and cultural development, another presence and another space for the imaginary. Her movement approach, emphasizing the loketo principle, is today a model of its genre. Zab Maboungou has received numerous awards, including notably the 30th Grand Prix award for dance given by the Conseil des Arts de Montréal for Mozongi, described as an exceptional work of body and mind, performed with breathtaking skill. In May 2019, she was named a Compagne de l’Ordre des arts et des lettres du Québec and, in 2021, she was honoured with the Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award at the 2021 Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards. In November 2023 Zab Maboungou is inducted to the Hall of Fame by Dance Collection Canada.
Show Credits
Choreographer and Performer: Zab Maboungou
Live Musical Performance by: Lionel Kizaba, Elli Miller Maboungou, Beuno Martinez – MUSICIENS
Music by: Zab Maboungou
Lighting Design: Zab Maboungou
Press
“Montreal’s Maboungou, who in 2021 received a Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement, has spent years of devotion to her craft, developing a vocabulary that moves her body as naturally as breath. That vocabulary is a serious one that in Wamunzo animates the stage with clear precise moves. She was like a puppet at times, sharply hinged at the elbows, hips and ankles, asserting rhythm and shape along with two drummers and a percussionist who filled the small Firehall Theatre with vibrant live music.”
– Kaija Pepper, Dance International Magazine