“Be intelligent, be open, and be a good person.”
Kennedy Muntanga is an amazing young dancer who is working in Akram Khan Dance Company after graduating from Rambert School.
-You are from Zambia, what do you think is the link between dance and culture? And do you think that the culture influences your current dance movements?
“I didn’t study African dance specifically but it has been a bit a beginning part of my culture. I think 100% yes. It is crazy because I have grown mostly in the UK so my sense of African dance, my own culture, has been very late coming. A big belief that I have right now is that I have almost the responsibility to within my culture with an art form that I have right now and it doesn’t mean specifically that I have to bring African dance but I am aware of how spiritual it is, how it affects the community on a wide scale, and how important it is to free the soul. All the qualities are related to me influencing how I dance, how I work with people, and what I create. For that relationship, it is definitely the root of how I work.”
-What makes you passionate about movement?
“I heard someone talking about paintings the other day. They were talking about the authenticity of work and people, all the painters. I realized that that is very true. I am an authentic move and really enjoy an authentic quality which makes me super passionate about what I inspire to be like, being really truthful or creating out of nothing, your own instinct. And on the top of that instinct, you add intellect, you add your connection to the world, and you add people around you. This energy is magical. And that really makes me passionate to see something so pure than just grow to be. Just grab your heart and squeeze it.”
-How can you be curious and enthusiastic?
“I think I already have a sense of passion in my life. It can be egoistic but every morning, I write down about what I like about myself. One of the things that I have written down is that although I had the life that was crushed, burned, and faced obstacles, I still have been able to find a path that is positive. Even if it is small, even if it is big, whatever it is, I always have been able to access the path. I always think that if you are able to find the light in the darkness, that is already a reason for you to be enthusiastic because you understand that there is something positive coming.Find people who make you feel happy around them. Imagine if you are surrounded by people who are crazy as you, just love what you do, and are just the same as you. Your life will be just an element. Once you are surrounded yourself by amazing people, you can realize there are always positive vibes coming in your life. Moreover, in the dance term, to be enthusiastic, you just have to love moving. You wake up every day, even though recognizing how bad you are today, you just look at your body and yourself, and on top of it, you jump around space and roll, all this is so fantastic. If you really just take back yourself and look around where you are, then you start to find enthusiasm and charisma from everything. I am still discovering this because this quarantine period is challenging to look at your house longer than you expected, but then you can realize that you are happy with these things surrounding you and people staying with you at the house.”
-Now you join Akram Khan Dance Company, one of the famous companies in the world. How do you feel about it?
“ Working in a company is really nice. They are an empire. This is the company that has fingers everywhere and it is also to see the workforce that drives Akram Khan company as it falls beyond what he does. He is just in the studio. That is all he does. He is very intelligent, but he surrounds himself with the most intelligent, energetic, and powerful people ever. He is a great choreographer and movement thinker, but he also has the top quality dramaturges. These people even stay in the studio while you are working. They are involved in everything you do. During our rehearsals, we have a super master. She is fantastic because she really understands Akram Khan and that is why he can let others manage his work. When you are a dancer, you are not the most important person. The team behind creating the show is absolutely phenomenal. And I hope I can be as powerful as him to create my own team one day in my life. That is one of the things that I really appreciate about the company.”
-How is working with Akram Khan? Is there something that you either learn from him or like the most during the working process?
“I learned that it is enough to move the way that I do. It is enough to be myself. They don’t try to change you. How they train is intense and amazing, but they don’t change you as a dancer. They just make you more than you are which is one thing that I value a lot. Even if I am a young dancer, I feel comfortable and have my own voice. I am still learning, but they have already taught me and value me as who I am.”
-You are really young but you already have an outstanding career. What do you think is the key to all your success?
“I just really enjoy learning. Since when I was in Rambert school, I was a musical theater and Hip-pop kid, and I was the only black kid in the school for one year, and it was already the first challenge. It was the place where anyone does not look like me so I was thinking about how to use this. Do classes, Take workshops, stay in the studio until night, and it makes me feel more hungry and hungry. And you can feel your body change. And this is how I have been in my life. You keep elevating yourself. Go again and go again. Try to access your creativity. Play and discover through constant practice. It can't get boring because every time it's a new challenge. Even if I don’t get it, I already have the ideas of the knowledge and continue learning.”
-In your dance video, you always try different possibilities in your body. How important do you think improvising and researching with the body are as a dancer?
“To research is the most prominent as an artist. What I see or what I feel within myself is that it is so easy to get lost in your head. If you really look at the best dancers in the world, look, they stay present. Be present and be in control of your mind first. You should control the mind, understand what you are doing, start small, get the foundation, and then build and build and build. When you improvise, you want to work for your brain and then your body, not just working for seeing what comes out of your brain to your body. That is why some dancers move in a way then they struggle with the other ways because they don’t have the mentality to break down the movements. If you can say about what sensation in your body changes when you improvise like weight, the place where you put your feet, where your hip is, that is when you understand from your brain and then your body will support you. You need to find the many logical pathways to transform the knowledge of what you created or what you try to give others. Be present and be in control of your mind first. Be alone and exercise your creativity. It benefits the body to understand in out minds first then allow the body to do. Research for yourself. Find the discipline within yourself to do that!”
-You are also teaching right after you graduated at Rambert School. How do you feel about this change, from a student to a teacher in a short period of time?
“I always have the mind: you never stop being a student. What I want to do as a person is sharing as many ideas with people as also my age or lower. I am trying to make them ten times more intelligent physically and mentally. Schools teach you one thing: physicality. But in terms of mentality, the actual essence of who you are as a dancer doesn’t really teach you. You have to discover that by yourself. But what is actually crazy is that those two elements are the most important things when you leave the dance world. Because when people want to work with you, they actually look for your essence rather than your physicality because that can come later. We see some choreographers who choreograph so many crazy ways, it is actually difficult to train them in schools so that comes when you leave schools. What I do is that I really say, “Look at the body that you have and really feel everything.” We need to understand where everything comes from and connect yourself. You need to open your mind to the possibilities of describing the way of your dancing in 500 ways. I am trying to describe a sense of feeling during classes with specific explanations. If you don’t see the dance world in a big frame, you can easily get lost. Work for yourself; find out who you are. The way you move, your possibilities and limitations. In doing so the world has no choice but to support you! Someone said "everyone's a millionaire, but not everyone has the time to collect it." Wow! Give yourself time, keep working.”
-You also created the “Kennedy Muntanga Dance Theatre”. Why did you decide to create your own company?
“It always has been my dream to have an institution. I wanted to do what I want and I found some friends who I have really trusted and have been for a long time so we have started working together.”
-How is your choreography process with the dancers in your company?
“We like to overload a lot with choreographies. We choreograph a really big choreography bank. Once it gets to a certain point, we start to bring the concept of the piece. My company has the name, dance theater, at the end of its name so the pieces are usually not narrative, but it is able to follow it. When you try to bring these things on stage with dancers who haven’t been trained that way, it can be a very difficult thing. So we are still figuring out that part. So it is time for us to learn how to contextualize it. We are realizing that it is not about the movements, we learn the move from writers to learn what we need to feel in these movements which are amazing”
-Describe yourself as an artist in three words!
“Fearless, Honest, Hungry”
-Can you give some advice to young dancers?
“The first thing will be intelligent. It is accessible to everyone, we all have it. It is just in the back of our minds. We just get tired of exercising. Be intelligent in your choices in life. In terms of who you are as a person, really stand for who you are as a person. On that, be open. And Be a good person. Michale Keegan-Dolan taught me and my friends that. We want to show others that dancing is beautiful , and the world will be saved by it through your kindness!”
Thank you so much to Kennedy for this great chance, we are honored to interview him and share his amazing thoughts!
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