BIOGRAPHY
Ssenyonga Oscar is a
25-year-old Ugandan dancer, raised in Kasubi, suburb of Kampala, Uganda, East
Africa. Already at the age of six, began to participate in cultural dances as a
hobby.
If not for the dance,
Ssenyonga says the hostile neighborhood of Kasubi would have led him to crime.
According to his words: Most of the people I grew up with in Kasubi are in
prison, dead or crazy. I am therefore grateful to my mother who encouraged me
to dance because it kept me productively engaged.
Ssenyonga holds a
bachelor's degree in Fashion and Design from YMCA University and has
participated in several short courses in art and cultural management.
In 2013 and 2014, he
attended the invitation of École Des Sables, from Senegal, directed by Germaine
Acogny, where he studied contemporary and African dances and met his mentor
Patrick Acogny, who introduced him to deconstruction and other choreography
tools.
He is a social worker
in the performing arts and works with vulnerable communities in Uganda, using
dance as an instrument.
He founded the Mambya
Performing Arts Foundation and the Mambya Dance Company - MDC, where he is a
choreographer and artistic director. These institutions work to train young
entrepreneurs in the fields of performing arts and visual arts, providing them
with a platform for expression by creating presentations that approach social
and political issues. MDC has produced over 200 independent professionals and
artists and is currently comprised of 35 professional-level dancers and 10
musicians. It is increasingly evolving in its commitment to host and promote
exchanges and dialogues with dancers and choreographers from around the world.
He is professor at the
Uganda National Theater and Kyabongo University.
In 2017 he
participated, as art director and master of props, in the production of the
movie Mercy of the Jungle, directed by Rwanda's film director Joël Karekezi.
This work was presented at the Fabrique des Cinemas du Monde at the 2013 Cannes
Film Festival. That same year he performed as a guest artist on the Dance Able
Netherlands, a platform of the Holland Dance Festival, where he collaborated
with artists from Kenya, India, Cambodia and the United Kingdom. That year he
received the British Council's NaNa grant, which allowed him, along with his
partners from the dance company Pamoja and StopGap, to create a new initiative,
entitled "The Road", which debuted in London.
In 2018, Ssenyonga acted
as one of the choreographers for MTN's 20th anniversary celebrations, where he
worked with his first mentor, playwright Alex Mukulu.
Organizes the Tuzinne
International Festival - Where Human Rights Dance, realized annually in
Kampala. This festival aims to give vulnerable groups a voice regarding their
experiences with human rights.By bridging the gap between artists, companies
and dance audiences,
Tuzinne challenge
audiences to step out of passive vision by encouraging them to open up to dance
as a critical art form.
He also participates
in the Nhaka Contemporary Dance Project, which began in 2010 with
investigations and instigations by Nora Chipaumire from Zimbabwe. It is a long
term research, focused on the black bodies and the products of your
imagination.
The project has a
collaborative platform where literary and critical texts are produced for the
construction of Bhuku's digital book.
Ssenyonga specializes
in the integration of traditional East African dances. His work aims to promote
the understanding of black bodies, using elements of dance as a way of living
and giving back to society, preventing and preserving ancestral inheritances.
