James Mweu of Kunja Dance Theatre, Kenya

Interviewed by Jeanette Bain-Burnett

James Mweu is Director of Nairobi-based Kunja Dance Theatre. Trained originally as a sculptor, James Mweu is one of the young generation of new Kenyan choreographers and dancers, who work with Kenya’s influential dance artist Opiyo Okach and his company Gàara projects. James Mweu performed in Opiyo Okach’s seminal production Shift: Centre, with which he toured worldwide, inc. South Africa, France, Germany, Italy, and Brazil. In 2004 he started his own company Kunja Dance Theatre, building up a repertoire of his own works. His 2005 duet Urbanite was shortlisted for the prestigious biennial pan-African dance competition Danse l’Afrique Danse in 2008.

Kunja Dance Theatre also leads pioneering outreach and education activities with different communities in Nairobi. It regularly works with street children, young acrobatics of the Kuruka Maisha Arts School and internally displaced people following the political unrests in December 2007. In 2007 Woking Dance Festival invited James Mweu for his first visit to the UK as one of its international Dance Dialogues artists. He performed his solo Kizazi at the Rhoda McGaw Theatre in October 2007. During his 2nd visit in autumn 08 he collaborated with Akram Khan company dancer Saju Hari to perform in a new production of In The Thick of It, a short piece especially created for young children and touring Surrey primary schools.

During his visit in October, I had the opportunity to catch up with him and learn more about his work.

How did you make the connection with Woking Dance Festival and the Dance Dialogues project?

I met Eckhard Thiemann (former Director of Woking Dance Festival) in 2005 at Godown Arts Centre in Nairobi. In 2006, I was presenting work at community centres in Nairobi as part of a boys’ project and Eckhard saw a solo I had choreographed on one of the boys who was 14 years old at the time. That was when he proposed that I could come and be a part of the Dance Dialogues exchange programme.

So in October 2007, I came on my first trip to the UK, along with Kebaya Moturi. I’ve now come for a second trip on my own.

What were your first impressions of the UK Dance scene?

I was impressed by the community centres and arts centres that work with Woking. I was impressed mainly because work at home is self-produced. There is not as much infrastructure. When I do a series of performances at community centres, it’s less structured. I am among the pioneers. Here, there is a structure, funding, support and a network. I felt well supported and to top it all, I was being paid!

So what are the funding structures like in Kenya?

There is a small amount of funding from the City Council of Nairobi and there is one other private funding body running a pilot with my boys’ project. But most of what we do is self-funded.

Which UK artist was involved in the Dance Dialogues exchange?

Saju Hari came to Kenya and worked with the boys’ project with me and performed at a number of arts centres. He came twice. The second time he did creative work with Kebaya at Godown. During that second trip we also spent time with Kofi Koko. He came down to Nairobi. We all had long nights together of discussion and dreaming.

What kinds of discussions and dreams?

We would talk about our work - sharing different perspectives and angles. We would talk about Africa. What is the problem with Africa? Long discussions…

And what motivates you as a dance artist?

What motivates me is the freedom of expression that my art gives me -when we perform with boys and girls in the communities, when I present work to academics and the arts community. I am excited by the possibilities that my art opens.

We make work with visual artists, musicians, storytellers. I love incorporating the different aspects of expression.

So there is a lot of collaboration between artists?

Yes, there’s a lot of that. I used to work for Opiyo Okach’s company. We all work on each other’s projects. A few years ago the Ford Foundation for media, arts and culture funded a 3 day ‘conversation’ between East African dance artists. It included artists from Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya discussing their histories, aspirations, challenges and inspirations and the result was a report called Blueprint to Dance in East Africa. It included artists like Kebaya and Matthew Ondiege (who runs an integrated dance company).

So how did you kick-start your own career and your company?

Well, I was a sculptor. I did welding and carving. I then started dancing with various projects, including Opiyo’s company.

A sculptor? Do you still work in that area?No, not anymore. Now I’m sculpting lives. I’m Artistic Director of the Street Boys project. I find teachers, dancers, do all the organising. I also have 10 boys that I have chosen to do experimental projects. We have a network of performance venues where we show work, which has developed very naturally. The boys propose new places to perform. We started out as Jamo & Co. We have now changed our name to Kunja Dance Theatre.

What does Kunja mean?

It means ‘to coil and uncoil’. When I used to go to dance class the boys would say ‘Are you going to kujikunja?’ (an expression describing how we would move our body). So when we collectively decided to form a group with consistent members we established Kunja. We started in early 2004 and registered with the ministry in 2005.

How do you sustain the company?

We don’t all work full-time for Kunja. The artists have a lot of different skills. Most of them are acrobats part-time.

So what’s next for Kunja Dance Theatre?

We are working on a new duet which we will tour to Lagos, Nigeria in a few months for a festival called Dance meets Dance.