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Farai Malianga

Videographer/Composer/Musician School of Dance

MANCC Welcomes Urban Bush Women Partnership Fellow nia love

As the third artist in a three-year partnership with Urban Bush Women’s Choreographic Center Initiative,…

FSU School of Dance’s ‘Evening of Dance’ returns to the stage

Florida State University’s School of Dance presents “An Evening of Dance,” an annual event that…

Farai Malianga

 

Videographer/Composer/Musician

School of Dance

Farai Malianga, born and raised in Zimbabwe, began his career in African Dance in Colorado with Leticia Williams’ Harambee and Musical Director Judy “Fatu” Henderson. Upon arriving in New York he began studying dance and drum with pioneers Yousouf Koumbasa, Mbemba Bangoura and Ronald K. Brown. Performing with the Masters; Chuck Davis in BAMs ‘Dance Africa’, Reginald Yates and Heritage O.P. for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre for their 40th Anniversary. He has worked with Companies including; Harambee , Umoja , The New Jersey Chamber Orchestra, Obediah Wrights Balance, BSRC, Def Dance Jam, Juxtapower and Opus With Musicians; Roy Ayers, Wunmi Olaiya,, Manchild Black, Akua Allrich, Melanie Charles, Scott Patterson, Saycon Sengbloh, Amma Whatt!, Nomsa Mazwai and Nakia Henry.

Producing Amma Whatt’s EP “Maybe” and remixes for Saycon Sengblogh’s album “Hottentot” and Nomsa Mazwai’s “Maybe I”. In Theatre; with the Off Broadway production of “Darker Faces of the Earth” directed by Trezana Beverley and on the Broadway Stage in the musical ‘Fela!’ In Film; International Domestic Violence Series produced by Joe Rodman as well as Kasi Lemmon’s film “Black Nativity”. Also Performing for the Public Theater in 2021 for their Shakespeare in the Park reimagining of “Merry Wives of Windsor” set in Harlem and consequently appearing in the HBO documentary “Reopening Night” cataloguing the return to Central Park. Malianga’s composition credits include commissioned works for Camille Brown, Karen Loves’ Umoja, Christal Browns’ Inspirit Dance Companies and “Jenaguru” An African Creation Myth for the Smithsonian. Recently scoring music for the the Dance Documentarys “Black Stains” and Kehinde Ishangi’s “Not My Enemy” produced and edited by Tiffany Rhynard.

As a videographer he produced and directed; Wunmi Olaiya’s music video “Fit Body”, the documentary piece “Kalakuta Broadway!” (During his time in “Fela,”) Summit Academy Charter School in Red Hook (tracking the affects and recovery of a school impacted by hurricane Sandy) for the Play Hush Hush by Aquaila Barnes based on the book of the same name by DeShannon Bowens and for 651 Arts for their workshop series “Home in a Time of Brooklyn” Most recently Editing the archival documentary for “Kumbuka” the longest active New Orleans nased West African Dance troupes in collaboration with Cultural Ties, Kelly White and Sulé-Joel Adams. Malianga has also worked as both Sound and Multimedia Designer for “The Power of the Unknown” a collaborative project under the direction of Dr Darian Parker and Daaimah Taalib-Din. Farai Malianga is honored to be joining FSU as a tenure track Proffesor with a focus on Music for dance and choreography. This year teaching Rhythmic Analysis, Music for Choreography, Digital Audio Recording while also providing music support for African, Dunham and Contemporary classes.

 

MANCC Welcomes Urban Bush Women Partnership Fellow nia love

As the third artist in a three-year partnership with Urban Bush Women’s Choreographic Center Initiative, Florida State University School of Dance MFA alumna nia love will come to MANCC following a postponement due to the COVID-19 Delta Variant surge in the Summer of 2021. love will come into residence with several of her collaborators to develop UNDERcurrents, a continuation and a fresh departure within love’s long-term project, g1(host):lostatsea. A serial, multi-media, interactive performance and research platform, g1(host):lostatsea marks her continuous engagement with the memory and “afterlives” of transatlantic slavery. The project pivots on this fundamental query: what remains of the Middle Passage as force, gesture, and affect?

Photo by nia love

 

Taking off from these initiatives, “UNDERcurrents,” invites audiences to probe the seam between catastrophic history and quotidian memory and tend to the textures of kinship bonds and generational care. These processes are explored through two primary thematic elements: water and doors. The point of departure for captive Africans into the middle passage is described as “the door of no return.” Conjuring the continual resonance of this world making and breaking threshold, this presentation will be structured as an immersive and participatory audience experience through a performance installation.

While in residence, love and her collaborators will shoot footage along the shorelines and out to sea, with 30-foot free dives off the coast of Cape San Blas, the site where the ashes of her father were ceremonially spread. The second half of the residency will be spent in Tallahassee, where they will edit the film footage and study movement practices shaped by both the free dives and the act of caring for the dead. She will build towards the expansive interactive installation with a newly acquired 360-degree projection dome at MANCC.

The Urban Bush Women Partnership and love’s residency are funded in part by the Mellon Foundation.

Photo by Orion Gordon
Photo by Kojo Roney
nia love