Contemporary Performance
As a performance artist inspired by iconic black performers, Chanje has developed her creativity and presented her work nationally and internationally, including at the Southbank, London 2016, The National Arts Festival of South Africa 2016, and the Harare International Festival of Arts, Zimbabwe 2017. Solo theatre productions to date are ‘Blue Black Sister’ 2009 (Royal Exchange Theatre), ‘Amsterdam’ 2014 (Contact Theatre Commission), Superposition 2017 (The Lowry commission) and Plant Fetish (Home Mcr commission) 2019 ‘Celestial Bisexual’ (Superbia Queer Arts) 2023 .
Creating a Climate for Healing
2024
The damage that is done to our earth and the environment through exploitation of it’s resources and a lack of care for the impact we have on it, runs in parallel to the damage done to women and children that are more venerable to exploitation. How can we heal the world and heal ourselves?
Chanje Kunda is a Zambian born renowned professional artist living with Trauma in the UK. She worked in Collaboration With Serah Chule, who, based in Zambia and is also living with a trauma disability. Together they created this Art as Activism Project in Zambia with Support from Tipping Point: an organisation fighting for climate justice, gender justice, racial justice> More info here: https://www.chanjekunda.com/creating-a-climate-for-healing/
Aerial Arts
Chanje was a spoken word artist for 10 years. However as a person with Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, one of her major symptoms is disassociation, whereby her body feels disconnected from her current surroundings. She knew she needed to connect with her body more as an artist, and she could not do this as a spoken word artist.
To forge this connection she has done extensive private training, both one to one and group training in ballet technique and contemporary dance. Chanje also trained in pole and aerial arts at Airborne Studios and GFF Dance as well as having been trained in Benji Reids ‘Breaking Cycles’ Hip hop theatre courses. She has done a creative fellowship with Manchester International Festival learning physical theatre with Frantic Assembly. When making work she questions: ‘What do I need to heal? what do I need to transform?’ She now wants to use aerial arts because she can defy gravity and be out of this world.
Multi Media Performance
In 2023 Chanje produced ‘Bisexual Baddies’, which was a triple bill of Queer women solo artists. Her own solo performance work was ‘Celestial Bisexual’ a multi-media performance combining large cosmic imagery taken by Nasa projected into the space and on my body, combined with dance, movement and out of this world poetic descriptions of bisexual identity.
Audience Feedback:
‘Exhilarating, voluptuous, astonishing, lascivious, titillating, applauding, Incapacitating,
ostentatious, notorious. 10/10’
‘Congratulations, juicy, acrobatic, cosmic, deep.’
