“I’m living in a sad and terrifying nightmare,” says Winnipeg choreographer and musician Casimiro Nhussi.
“The land is red and dry, the river, too. The trees are naked, and the animals are skinny and sad. There isn’t enough green land for all of us.”
These sentiments of despair are the impetus behind the latest production from Nhussi’s NAfro Dance collective, Serengeti. The project explores the environmental challenges and existential threats of the climate crisis that all living creatures share.
The process of creating Serengeti has stretched back over two months. It starts with dancers like Hélène Le Moullec practicing dance techniques that allow them to capture the movements that Nhussi has envisioned to embody the creatures of the Serengeti that are being portrayed.
“I created a vocabulary that when you see and watch this show, everything makes sense,” Nhussi explains. “We dive into the animal kingdom at the beginning. Everything’s happy, but then everything changes.”
“Casimiro always has a message, and he often approaches it in a playful way,” says Le Moullec, a dancer who has been working with Nhussi and NAfro Dance for two decades. “You’ll see that we have these moments that we’re actually quite joyful. We are a family, we are a herd, we are travelling together. A lot of it just has to do with humanity and how humanity evolves.”
Despite that joy that exists at the outset of Serengeti, the piece turns darker than most other shows that the organization puts on. A normal feature of NAfro Dance productions – a dance party on the stage at the end of the show – is not a part of this show, in order to drive home the urgency of the catastrophe unfolding all over the world. “The message is very clear,” says Le Moullec. “It’s not a party at the end.”
“This is the reality of what we are living.”
While Serengeti is not meant to be an uplifting production, percussionist Todd Martin knows that the audience experience will be a valuable one that sparks engagement on the issue.
“I hope that they would enjoy the experience,” he muses when asked what he hopes the audience will take away from the production. It’s not like we’re setting out to make people feel uncomfortable. We want them to take away something that they can think about, recognizing that not everything is going to be laughter and parties.”
The role of sharing messages of import is one that Nhussi believes is imperative for the audience. “We need to sing it, we need to dance it, we need to think it,” he implores. “We need to all speak loudly about climate change, because artists come from the community... and go back to the community.”
NAfro Dance’s production of Serengeti takes the stage on November 1 and 2 at 8 p.m., and on November 3 at 2 p.m. For tickets and more information, you can visit their website.