Biography
Opiyo Okach is a performer, choreographer and media designer. He is artistic director of GaaraProjects. He divides his time & develops work between Kenya and France.
His work explores and interrogates the ways we perceive and relate to each other, construct and transgress frontiers across our differences of body, culture, geography, conviction. He is reknown for his work with improvisation and instant composition. In recent times he has been developing multidisciplinary process at the intersections of live performance and digital creation.
His work has toured in Africa, Brazil, Europe & the US and been presented at a wide range of venues and festivals including Dancespace at St Marks New York, Festival Avignon, Rencontres chorégraphiques de Seine-Saint-Denis, Dance Umbrella, Yerba Buena Centre for the Arts in San Francisco, Theater der Welt, Pact Zollverein in Germany…
Through numerous long term initiatives he has acted as a catalyst for the development of dance in East Africa and continues to support the emergence of a new generation of dance artists. He recently initiated ‘Performance Lab Nairobi’ - a collaborative platform for contemporary creation process at the GoDown Arts Centre in Nairobi.
He has received numerous awards including the ‘Rencontres chorégraphiques de l’Afrique et de l’océan Indien’, the ‘prix du Nouveau Talent Chorégraphiques SACD’ as well as a ‘Prince Claus Award for Culture and Development’.
Choreographic works:
Projects in development (2018 - 24):
disPlace - (hybrid online network / onsite intallation performance)
InstanceNow - People Time Place (online network performance)
Shared Difference (dance and digital creation)
What flag would it be if your body was a country (in development) 9 - 12 performers
Body Evidence - solo Opiyo Okach
Past Work:
The house that never walked - 9 performers with Steptext Dance Projects - 2012 - 15
Border Border Express (2008) duo Opiyo Okach/Alejandro Olarte - touring 2008 - 2011
Take it Away (2007) duo Andréya Ouamba/Alejandro Olarte - touring 2007
Shift...Centre (2005) evolutive piece: 9 - 12 performers - touring 2005 - 2009
Accords perdus (2005) duo Opiyo Okach/Emmanuel Grivet - touring 2005 - 2007
Figures libres (2004) duo Opiyo Okach/Thierry Thieu Niang - touring 2004
No Man's gone now (2002) solo with Julien Hamilton - touring 2003 - 2009
Abila (2002) 7 performers - touring 2002 - 2004
Dilo (1999) solo Opiyo Okach - touring 1999 - 2004
Curation of choreographic development projects & activities:
2011 to present: Performance Lab Nairobi - collaborative process for contemporary creation, Godown Arts Centre, Nairobi
2003 to 2007: East African Choreographic Platform - Godown Arts Centre Nairobi
- hosting dance companies from Burkina Faso, South Africa, Mali, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Italy, Canada, Madagascar, Congo, Ethiopia, France