PORT ANGELES — The mind bends. And the heart races.
To behold the 15 men and women of Cirque Zuma Zuma is to see worlds come together: This is a Las Vegas-based circus troupe of dancers and acrobats from many corners of Africa, coming to Port Angeles High School tonight (Saturday night).
With their Egyptian limbo dancers, Gabonese tumblers, Zimbabwean percussionists, South African gumboot dancers — plus acrobats and jugglers and hula hoopers — the Zuma Zuma artists have been called an African Cirque du Soleil. That now-giant French Canadian company has become a frame of reference for many acts around the world, after all.
But Zuma Zuma’s story is a distinctly African and American one. Kenya-born John Jacob is the force behind the ensemble, which today has a pool of 120 performers and a blazing array of skills.
The beginning
In an interview with The Georgia Straight of Vancouver, B.C., Jacob explained that limbo and tumbling used to be part of weddings and other celebrations across Africa. In the latter part of the 20th century, standout performers went away to train in China, then returned to teach young men like Jacob.
“I started tumbling in P.E. class,” Jacob told The Georgia Straight — and then one day, when he and his friends were practicing a routine at a hotel, the manager asked them to start performing for tourists.
“Word got out, international agents came calling, and the small crew was booked for shows from Japan to Italy, scoring a contract with Disney World by 1998,” the Straight story continues.
But Jacob, who had saved his money, returned to Kenya to recruit performers. His search took him to Tanzania, Ethiopia and other nations, and Cirque Zuma Zuma began.
Four years ago, the troupe auditioned for “America’s Got Talent” and made it to the semifinals. Since then, Cirque Zuma Zuma has added more musicians, more dancers and more jugglers — and traveled the globe.
In Port Angeles as elsewhere, the group appears in traditional African costumes and, in the case of the contortionists, bodysuits that make them appear as painted kinetic sculptures.
Defiance
Zuma Zuma’s gumboot dancers represent a defiant form of expression. In the South African mines, workers toiled in total darkness, wearing rubber boots in the deep water flooding the shafts. Forbidden to speak to one another, they used their boots to communicate: slapping them, stamping their feet and rattling their ankle chains.
According to World Arts West, a San Francisco nonprofit organization, gumboot dancing evolved into a social activity in South Africa, integrating songs about working-class life.
As the miners’ employers became aware of this, a few allowed the best dancers to form troupes, entertain visitors and spread good public relations for the company.
It wasn’t uncommon for the performers to sing songs mocking their bosses and criticizing their working conditions, in their native languages, so the employers remained ignorant of what was happening.
Today’s gumboot dancers — alongside their fellow African artists in troupes such as Cirque Zuma Zuma — have fully emerged to show the world the power of music and dance.
