Dance performance: MBIRA

Ironic, provocative and political. With *Mbira*, he continues his exploration of social issues and civil struggles,willingly highlighting what is going wrong.
Mbira is a performance for two dancers, two musicians and a director which – using music, dance and speech – analyses the complex relationship between our culture and African culture. Mbira is the name of a musical instrument from Zimbabwe, but also the name of the traditional music produced with this instrument. Mbira is also the name of an important traditional festival of the Shona people,
Zimbabwe’s main ethnic group, during which people sing and dance. Mbira is, however, also the title of a musical composition from 1981 around which a controversy arose that clearly illustrates the extreme complexity and problematic nature of the cultural and moral tangle that characterises relations between Africa and Europe.
A word around which a surprising wealth of stories, music, dance, festivals and reflections on art and culture are woven, forming the fabric of a performance which, by combining styles and forms, meticulous scores and improvisations, written text and oral tradition, contemplation and play, inevitably culminates in a celebration.
Choreography and direction by Roberto Castello.
Music by Marco Zanotti, Zam Moustapha Dembélé.
Dembélé, Roberto Castello.
Production ALDES - Teatro della Cooperativa.