Members of Street Dance Force during a routing at the Moving Murals show in Jinja City. PHOTO/ANDREW KAGGWA
For years, dancer and choreographer Lillian Maximillian Nabaggala has been deliberate about works either celebrating diversity or advocacy. Her latest take as a theatre dance director, Moving Murals, is no exception.
Produced by Batalo East, choreographed by Elvis Elasu, and performed by the Street Dance Force Crew, Moving Murals is a full-hour dance that delves into topics of identity, diversity and colourism, among others.
Moving Murals is the kind of work whose name fits it, but that is something you only appreciate when the show has started. It keeps both the dancers and the audience busy because the choreography handles the space as a canvas; things are happening from everywhere.
There are dancers springing up in the middle of the audience, from the rear side of the space, the back and above. It is easy to guess this is where the moving murals name comes from. It is a moving body of work that defies everything we may know about theatrical shows.
Moving Murals took place at the Hung Out in Jinja, a food court on Nalufenya Road, popular with tourists and local people seeking fine dining.
But outside the catering, they have a spacious children’s play area or garden. On any day, the space is good for children playing, yet this is the exact spot, Batalo East, turned into a theatre for a dance production.
With surrounding trees, swing frames, a fantasy tree house and sandy ground, the team made the show work in some way, covering much of the ground with the performance and utilising much of the space, even when they were only four dancers most of the time.
The show started with the dancers hidden in tree branches, shaking them profusely like they were a storm. It was such a good way to get the audience paying attention without anticipating what was yet to happen. With light shifting, the dancers started taking to the stage, at times doing solo routines and others in pairs.
What was striking about the performance is that they managed to appreciate the fact that the ground at the Hung Out is not the same at National Theatre and used its surroundings, the nature and the playground element to their advantage.
At times, the dancers are dancing with the trees or hiding behind them, but in all ways they make them part of the act, like they were written into the production design from the beginning.
Moving Murals is a coming-of-age production, whose body movements have a Ugandan identity. It combines movements dear to African traditions and fuses them with street, hip hop and breakdancing. This keeps it relatable to two different worlds; it is contemporary and yet as street as it wants to be.
Elvis Elasu, the choreographer, at one point briefly joins the dancers, but unlike the rest of the show, where the routine is mainly contemporary, his was mainly locking and breaking.
According to Elasu, for this production, he envisions the world as an expansive art gallery, where an invisible, multidimensional artist has meticulously crafted each element of our existence. In his imaginative realm, every individual is a moving mural, living art that transcends boundaries. Each person embodies a unique style, inspiration, and a distinct expression of beauty.
Through dance, Elasu and team questioned humanity, colour, and identity, looking at crises that arise because people see each other differently. Of course, this was such a timely topic to discuss through dance, considering a fact that the past few weeks have seen some Ugandans start a conversation about refugees residing in some parts of Kampala.
Besides that, one of the biggest highlights of the production was beauty and the team questioned its meaning. In fact, at the end of production, the last routine included dancers using a mirror as a prop.
They looked into the mirror and later used a canvas to draw what they thought they saw. They later involved the audience, who, as well looked in the mirror and either drew or wrote what they felt.
Moving Murals stars Shafik Bwambale, Derickson Walusansa, Winniefred Kasonga, Bashir Matovu, and Elvis Elasu. Batalo East has been a focal player on Uganda’s dance scene; over the years, they have produced shows such as Tonsindika, The Gathering, Identity, and Nambi, among others.
