Love in the art of dance

Group: Mutumizi Dance Company
Reviewed by: Edwin Nuwagaba

Many songs like Omukwano Gunyuma and plays like Romeo and Juliet have tried exploring love. But dance hasn’t done that much in this field. That is why Mutumizi Dance Company created Love is... a show that was staged at the National Theatre last weekend.

The dances sought to explore this seemingly simple but complex subject, love. How well they explored it, was left to the audience to judge. Besides, the director of the Company Sam Lutaya himself wasn’t sure whether he conclusively did. “I make the production with my own interpretation. But I also leave room for the audience to make their own interpretations. I know there are even some who didn’t see love. They just saw beautiful dances put together,” he said.

The moment of staging that stayed in my head, and perhaps on many others’ was Rachael Amito’s solo. Her body is not that which would strike you as flexible- if you had never seen her dance. But when it comes to body movement, she utilises it fully. Dressed in a pink dress, anger and frustration written all over her face, a shirt in her hands, stretching it, slapping it on the ground, wanting to bite it, (after her boyfriend rejected her) she evoked feelings of sympathy.

While in the beginning she started out as on the piece, a majority in the audience booed her, but as she got into it, they all went silent visibly feeling and sharing her pain- such is the power of a performer. Amito does most of her work with Watoto Church just like many of the dancers that participated in the show. Mutumizi has only four permanent dancers. They call upon dancers only when they have a show. “I can’t sustain many permanent dancers: that’s how dance companies operate in Uganda,” he said. The company was formed in 2007.

The other highlight of the show was Desire of the Utah Convicts. This promising dancer is very good at compelling attention. His dance partner was a black trouser which was lying on the stage; he stood aside, looked at it, came back to it, pulled a few dance moves before he folded it and moved away with it in a mood. On the surface, the trouser was figurative, but on a deeper look showed that it portrayed the many feelings love awakens in us. The track Desire danced to was a composition of a hope-inspiring speech, melancholic sound effects and a ballad.

The show was emceed by the group’s Director- it wasn’t emceeing exactly, but poem recital in connection to the dances he was announcing. There were lines like love never fails, love endures, love never boasts etc. Lutaya deserves a pat at the back for transforming these dancers that were barely equipped with contemporary dance techniques.

I liked the drama in the wedding scene where the couple Shafiki Seggayi and Esther Apolot walked through a row of happy ululating party attendants. But for some reason Shafiki appeared to be struggling, carrying the weight of his partner, and that impacted poorly on the energy and drama with which they had started.

The ending, however, was memorable as Apolot lay on the floor, imploring him to lie with her, which he did. In another dance session, Shafiki’s paring with Cathy Mbabazi seemed as if the two dancers were meant for each other.
While there were a couple of really interesting features in this show, connectivity between the dances was lacking. The costumes were too basic. With the lights, the team in the control room simply did their job of turning on lights on the stage- they didn’t bother themselves with light effects. I also didn’t see the point in decorating the stage with balloons. Are balloons symbolic of love?