Kimaté

A mentorship programme for artists who want to develop their creative practice through the body.

Kimaté is Massinda Zinga's signature mentorship programme, created from the tools, practices and knowledge developed through her work as a choreographer, embodied researcher, educator and cultural practitioner.

Through movement, somatic practice, Black dance and performance, storytelling, ancestral knowledge and collective practice, Kimaté supports artists in developing their own creative tools, artistic voice and relationship to the body.

This is not about learning one particular technique or reproducing Massinda's way of moving.

It is about discovering what becomes possible when you have more tools to listen, investigate, create and express through your own body.

What Is Kimaté?

Kimaté is a space for artistic development through embodied practice.

The mentorship draws from Massinda's experience across African and Afro-Caribbean dance, Carnival, choreography, cultural research, embodied practice and community work.

She shares tools from her own creative process, ways of working with movement, sensation, rhythm, memory, cultural knowledge, storytelling and collective experience and guides participants in applying, questioning and adapting these tools within their own practice.

The work can support you to:

• develop or reconnect with your creative practice
• deepen your relationship with your body
• develop movement and performance material
• find new ways of approaching creation
• work with personal and cultural memory
• Work with knowledge of afrocaribbean cultures
• bring storytelling into your artistic process
• strengthen your artistic voice
• connect movement with cultural knowledge
• develop tools for research, experimentation and creation.

The Kimaté Method

Energy

Reconnect with the body as a source of movement, sensation, expression and creative energy.

Working with grounding, rhythm, breath, presence, physical awareness and embodied listening.

Balance

Create space between doing and listening, individual practice and collective experience, movement and reflection.

Working with care, connection, cultural grounding and the relationship between the personal and the collective.

Elevation

Transform embodied research into artistic possibility.

Experimenting with movement, storytelling, performance, cultural knowledge and creative tools to develop your own artistic language.

Energy gives you movement.

Balance gives you grounding.

Elevation gives you possibility.

What I Bring

I share tools drawn from my practice in:

• Black Dance & Performance
  Approaching Black dance practices as living forms of knowledge, history, expression and creative possibility.
• Somatic Practice
  Using embodied awareness to develop presence, listening and creative choice.
• Embodied Storytelling
  Exploring how stories can emerge through movement, gesture, rhythm, sensation and physical experience.
• Ancestral & Cultural Knowledge
  Connecting artistic practice with African and Afro-Caribbean histories, practices and ways of knowing.
• Creative Research
  Using observation, questioning, cultural research, lived experience and the body as material for creation.
• Collective Practice
  Learning through exchange, witnessing, feedback, experimentation and shared experience.

Who Is Kimaté For?

For artists who are ready to develop their practice, not just their technique.

Kimaté can be relevant to:

• Dancers & performers
  who want to deepen their afrocaribbean embodied and performance practice
• Choreographers & movement artists
  who want new tools for research and creation.
• Interdisciplinary artists
  working between movement, performance, storytelling, visual art, music or other forms.
• Artists in transition
  who are questioning their direction and looking for ways to reconnect with their creative practice.
• Artists developing a project
  who want an embodied approach to research, experimentation and creation.

Kimaté requires openness to move, investigate, listen, question and create.

How the Mentorship Works

Kimaté can take place over different periods and formats depending on the artist, project and context.

The mentorship may involve:

• Guided sessions
  Movement, somatic and creative practices introduced by Massinda.
• Individual inquiry
  Space to investigate your own body, questions and creative interests.
• Creative experimentation
  Turning embodied research into movement, stories, ideas or artistic material.
• Reflection & feedback
  Conversations and feedback to help you understand and develop what is emerging.
• Cultural research
  Connecting your creative questions with relevant histories, practices and knowledge.
• Collective practice
  Where appropriate, working alongside other artists and learning through shared experience.

Hosted Kimaté

Bring Kimaté to Your Organisation

Kimaté can be hosted by cultural organisations, dance institutions, festivals, universities, artist development programmes and other creative spaces.

A host organisation can invite Massinda to deliver the mentorship within a residency or another dedicated programme, with the duration, number of artists and structure adapted to the context.

For organisations looking to support artists beyond technical training, Kimaté offers a space for embodied research, artistic development and culturally rooted creative practice.

Interested in hosting Kimaté?