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nora chipaumire: Dambudzo

October 2, 2025 - October 4, 2025
The Fruit

Presented by Duke Arts Presents

Audience watching performers on stage
Photo Credit: Guto Muniz

“a rock star of dance”

The New Yorker

“Dambudzo, more than a dance performance, is a sensorial and political experience, a celebration of resilience and freedom. nora chipaumire reminds us that art can be a powerful vector of collective memory.”

Fatshimetrie

“Ms. Chipaumire is an artist of ferocious intensity”

The New York Times

“Chipaumire has become a rock star of downtown dance, with a majestic quality that blows everything else out of the water.”

Dance Magazine

Dambudzo is a live anti-genre work by nora chipaumire that fuses sound, painting, sculpture, and performance to confront colonial legacies and explore the revolutionary power of art. Set inside a Zimbabwean shabini—an informal home bar and site of private political gathering—this immersive installation evokes resistance and insurrection as performers move along large-scale plastic paintings that let bodies, light, and sound transgress freely. Inspired by the Shona word dambudzo (“trouble”) and radical African thinkers like Dambudzo Marechera, chipaumire examines how movement can communicate beyond language. Performers and audience move together through a space shaped by the physical memory of dodging, running, and resisting.

During this performance, the audience moves alongside the performers. Seating is available upon request.

Please note: wet red clay is used in the performance, and some clay dust or splatter may occur in a specific area

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Production Credits

Concept & Creative Direction: nora chipaumire
Performers: nora chipaumire Tatenda Chabarwa Joyce Delores Edwards SoKo Jena Fatima Katiji Jonathan Kudakwashe Daniel tyroneisaacstuart Shamar Watt

Music Recordings: Bhundu Boys
Production Assistants: Kwadwo Owusu Ansah, Abigail Hutchinson, Johanna Rau, Catalina Wortmann
Film Production: Mieke Ulfig
Sound Engineers: Vusumuzi Moyo, Kwamina Biney
Technical Director: Heidi Eckwall, assistant Soren Kodak
Company Management: Amélie Gaulier, Jay Beardsley
Booking & Distribution: ArKtype / Thomas O. Kriegsmann, Astrid Rostaing

DAMBUDZO is a commission of Wiener Festwochen and Festival d’Automne à Paris, produced by nora chipaumire, and developed in residency with Callie’s Berlin

Funded by the Visual Arts Project Fund of the Goethe-Institut

nora chipaumire inc. is supported by the Mellon Foundation.

Concept, design, and creative direction by nora chipaumire. With nora chipaumire, Tatenda Chabarwa, Joyce Delores Edwards, Fatima Katiji, Jonathan Kudakwashe Daniel, tyroneisaacstuart, SoKo Jena, and Shamar Watt. Sound management by Kwamina Biney and Vusumuzi Moyo. Technical direction by Heidi Eckwall, assistant: Soren Kodak. Company Management by jay beardsley, Amélie Gaulier & Laetitia Tshombe. Distribution by ArKtype / Thomas O. Kriegsmann, Astrid Rostaing.

About nora chipaumire

A black and white photo of a women smiling who is wearing a loose tank top
Photo Credit: Albin Chavignon

nora chipaumire was born in 1965 in what was then known as Umtali, Rhodesia (now Mutare, Zimbabwe). She is a product of colonial education for black native Africans — known as group B schooling — and is invested in knowledge acquisition and sharing outside of prescribed parameters.

nora chipaumire’s Website | Instagram

© Photography from Festival d’Automne

When
  • Thu, Oct 2, 2025 at 7:30pm
  • Fri, Oct 3, 2025 at 7:30pm
  • Sat, Oct 4, 2025 at 7:30pm
Estimated Run Time
105 minutes
Where

The Fruit
305 South Dillard Street
Durham, NC 27701

Venue Details
Ticket prices
  • $25General Admission In Advance
  • $30General Admission Day-Of
  • $10Students*
Notes

Content Warning:
Age Rating: 12+

Audience Experience:

During this performance, the audience moves alongside the performers. Seating is available upon request.

Please note: wet red clay is used in the performance, and some clay dust or splatter may occur in a specific area.

Pick-4 & Save! Save up to 20% when you book four or more shows at once! 

Duke employees save 25% on single tickets. 

*All high school and college students are eligible for student tickets with valid ID shown at event. 

Duke students and employees, Log in through Shibboleth to access Duke-exclusive discounts. 

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