McIntosh Jerahuni

Fellow 2020
Musician, dancer and choreographer from Zimbabwe
Cooperating partner: Jawole Willa Zollar, Urban Bush Women (New York City, USA)

McIntosh Jerahuni (preferred pronouns: he) is a musician, dancer and choreographer from Zimbabwe. He has established the Jerahuni Movement Factory with free dance classes to those interested in moving. He believes that the physical expressions give outlet to spiritual and emotional undercurrents that are entirely ignored in other dance forms.
For his fellowship, McIntosh Jerahuni is cooperating with Jawole Willa Zollar, founder of Urban Bush Women (New York City, USA). The performance ensemble, founded in 1984, is dedicated to researching the use of cultural expressions as a catalyst for social change. For a period of five months, McIntosh will accompany the company and gain experiences in the creation and realisation of large-scale productions. During his fellowship, McIntosh will be involved in choreographing and directing two operas and will write, choreograph and stage a new work for UBW Scat!. Furthermore, he will have the opportunity to experience Zollar‘s pedagogical approach during her teaching time at Florida State University (USA). These experiences will support him in his future project plans in Zimbabwe and his desire to bring about social change through art. His aim is to develop a Zimbabwean identity through art and to provide communities with a model of how to successfully do this as well as providing audiences with an experience that will unify them in the fight for upholding and defending human dignity and identity.

„McIntosh Jerahuni‘s choreographic work is multi-layered: he combines traditional and historical with contemporary and futuristic elements in a fearless, sophisticated and witty way, reaching out to a wider range of audiences. His choice to go from Zimbabwe to the US to spend the Fellowship with Urban Bush Women not only illustrates his interest in topics as racism, sexism as well as social change, but also shows his ambition to experience and learn from the process of creating a large-scale production.“
- Jury-Statement