NTWAZA Experimental Piece
- Mxnzi le poete
- Apr 11, 2022
- 3 min read
Experimenting with different kind of art forms has been my go to option while creating history based pieces. A week prior to the 11th edition of Our Past event, I had a great honour to meet an amazing team of 10 multi-talented artists, by then I really had no clue what we had to work on; there were different options to consider like a piece by a choreographer playwright Wesley RUZIBIZA. Considering the time-frame to the d-day, the piece was really complex and I couldn't risk not doing it as perfect as it can be done; so I dared to compose something else, a minimal yet intricate story that still retained historical accuracy, and that's how the "NTWAZA" experimental piece came to life. The process of crafting this piece has been an experimental journey that took me out of my comfort zone and opened me up to new avenues of creativity which made it all the more interesting and captivating, I would wake up every day excited to see what creation the day holds; from crafting the characters, getting a structure of the piece, introducing the idea to the team, holding a creation workshop, drafting the costume, to the actual performance in the night of 9th April 2022.
Days of workshop were the most interesting and fun time of this whole project. Spending 8 hours every day with 10+ creatives in the same room for a week, only a coup had to come out. Every day was a special one with this set of actors, and also with Jihad NIYONKURU clearing and perfecting the choreography to bring the piece to life, with fluid movements that conveyed the emotions within the piece. The artists we worked with were the most quick learners and flexible, I just had to introduce them to the idea and the rest was history. Also, lunch breaks were my favourites, we'd have some freestyle sessions and exchange some poetry and there I truly realised the super talented group of people I was blessed to work with.
Character development isn't always the easy part since that's what gives a clear vision to the piece and a story to base on. When brainstorming on main characters of a 1994 genocide against the Tutsi based piece, the number that pops the mind first is three; I took that too but in a different form.
NJYE the first character, was the unhealed personality who couldn't take it anymore, craving sanity crying for help.
ZINENYI the second character, was the 'I take no bullshit' type of personality. Wounded, broken, but refused to loose it then he got to pick the courage up.
GANYINYI the 3rd character, was the 'I knew we were destined to peace' type of personality. Knows the story from the peak but believed tough times had no to last.
After getting these characters everything else fell in place, the structure and all the movements were built based on these characters.
NTWAZA is also a multi-lingual piece, experimenting with each one of them has also been amazing but challenging. Starting with music/soundtrack as one of the core languages of the piece, as any single detail in this piece the soundtrack had to tell a story too. I probed with different kinds of African drums, then had the Berlin conference little memo as the intro; since it's where everything started.
Costumes, another exciting part of the project. Sateen fabrics was my obsession since I started thinking of this piece, this fabric comprehends perfectly with the LED lighting so I undoubtedly went for it. In collaboration with the local tailor from KIMIRONKO market Alexander Bell UMUDOZI, we created short sateen vestments and complemented them with white rope belts to make them more appealing.
The day prior the event, rehearsals took place at the venue (Kigali genocide memorial site) and from there I said to myself "It's about time we make an impact with this art piece". After 1 week of rehearsals, the team was ready to showcase what we have been working on for a whole week and I couldn't wait to see it. The performance was scheduled to start by 6:30 PM but it started a little behind the schedule and that didn't stop the team to deliver with full potential on the stage, creating an unforgettable night for the audience and ourselves as well.
NTWAZA is an educative piece of art that I believe made an impact to the audience it was performed for, and I call that a success.
Watch the full performance here
Comments