Look Back, Dance Forward: TALES OF HOME | Congo/Mozambique

This two-evening program of intimately scaled dance-theatre features extraordinary contemporary artists from the African continent. Faustin Linyekula and Panaibra Gabriel Canda grapple with the complex histories of their countries through the filtered experiences and relationships with their fathers and their own experiences of dislocation, forced emigration and cultural assimilation. In very different ways these artists share the rigor and passion of contemporary art in Africa.

Tales of Home beckons us to move forward towards our shared future, hastened by the heart, and inspired by the imagination. “But that’s not my world,” audiences may initially think, ironically oblivious to the west’s complicity in African realities, past and present. However, in unexpected moments of performance, we will come to know the human experience anew and take our place beside these artists in the reflection of history.

— Joan Frosch, PhD, Center for World Arts, University of Florida, in her essay Tales of Home, Life, and Death: Panaibra Gabriel Canda and Faustin Linyekula

Join the artists for a conversation with the audience following each performance.

The North American tour of Tales of Home: Congo/Mozambique is produced by MAPP International Productions in partnership with The Africa Contemporary Arts Consortium. This presentation of TALES OF HOME: Congo/Mozambique was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts.