Seke Chimutengwende
Seke Chimutengwende, It begins in darkness, 2022. Image Credit: Jemima Yong
Seke Chimutengwende is a choreographer, performer, movement director and teacher. Seke uses choreography to experiment with collectivity and alternative approaches to authorship and governance; playing with form to shift and question hierarchies. His new work It begins in darkness premiered in September 2022, a group choreography looking at ghosts and haunted houses as metaphors for how histories of slavery and colonialism haunt the present. Seke has also recently choreographed a group work for Candoco Dance Company, In Worlds Unknown, which premiered in October 2022.
It begins in darkness
2022- tour ongoing
Seke Chimutengwende (Conception, Choreography and Direction), Isaac Ouro-Gnao (Dancer 2023/24), Adrienne Ming (Dancer 2022-24), Mayowa Ogunnaike (Dancer 2022-24), Kassichana Okene-Jameson (Dancer 2023/24), Natifah White (Dancer 2022-24), Sharol Mackenzie (Dancer 2024), Rhys Dennis (Dancer 2022), Rose Sall Sao (Dancer 2022), Alethia Antonia (Creation Input), Charlie Ashwell (Dramaturgy), Marty Langthorne (Lighting Design), Annie Pender (Costume Designer), Aisha Orazbayeva (Composer), Hugo Abraham (Double-bass on soundscore), Michael Picknett (Sound Technican and Tour Production Manager), Randolph Matthews (Vocal Coaching), Sita Balani (Research consultant for the R&D phase), Soundscribe (Access Booklet and Consultancy), Eve Veglio-Hüner (Producer 2022 and 2023 Tour Planning), Lucia Fortune-Ely, Metal & Water (Production)
In this stark, stripped back performance, five dancers move through a series of mysterious and experimental rites of passage, channelling past, present and future tensions through their bodies and voices. As if to exorcise the haunted house of history, the dancers whisper, jump, wrestle, shiver, wail and laugh, filling the space with horrors, both real and imagined.
Seke has been researching the connections between horror, haunting and the histories of slavery and colonialism since 2019. The research has included the writing of a long piece of text, a rehearsal period on Zoom, and a residency at a stately home, alongside work in the studio. This is Seke’s first independently created group piece since 2015, following recent works Black Holes, an Afrofuturist duet with Alexandrina Hemsley, Plastic Soul, part rock show, part dance solo, and Detective Work, a duet with Stephanie McMann about mystery and figuring things out.
It begins in darkness is a dance full of ghosts.
Harry Clark