Doors at 8:30 pm; Show at 9:00 pm

Tickets are $15

Chinyakare uses its colorful performances for “creating community through music and dance.” The ensemble boasts a collection of diverse and experienced musicians from both Africa and the U.S. under the direction of Zimbabwean dancer and musician Julia Tsitsi Chigamba, who started the group when she moved to Oakland in 2001. True to its name, “deep traditional,” Chinyakare represents traditional music and dance from Shona, Ndebele, and other tribal groups from around Zimbabwe. Some of the main instruments the ensemble plays are mbira (thumb piano), hosho (shakers), ngoma (drums), marimbas, and chipendani (mouth bow). Chinyakare’s performances feature the complex weaving of all of these instruments into beautiful melodies and polyrhythms that are still performed regularly at spiritual ceremonies throughout Zimbabwe.

In addition to her Oakland classes and workshops, Chigamba has recently started a nonprofit organization, the Kumusha Foundation, to preserve and promote traditional Zimbabwean performing arts in the U.S. She also founded the Chinyakare Cultural Center in Harare, Zimbabwe, a recreated village that is used to teach, present, and preserve Zimbabwean traditional music, dance, and traditional arts, and also develop educational projects for adults and children. Chigamba is the 2016 recipient of the Bay Area Dance Week Dancer's Choice Award.