Dance and Global Health

“How can dance be a tool for healing?” Join us at 6:30pm on Wed. Nov 13th at the KIgali Cultural Village (Camp Kigali) for a free evening showcasing dance as a tool to resolve challenges to physical and mental health. Featuring two pioneers of socially-engaged art, the event will host award-winning researcher and professional dancer from the University of Hong Kong, Dr. Rainbow Ho, alongside Wesley Ruzibiza, acclaimed founder of Rwandan-based, Amizero Dance Company, and one of Rwanda’s leading dancers and choreographers. Through dance and performance, the evening will explore expressive arts therapy as a solution to an increasingly wide range of health problems, and the role of creative communities in advancing health access globally. 

Champion of global health in Rwanda and beyond, UGHE Vice Chancellor Dr. Agnes Binagwaho will close this unique evening, inspiring further thought in the value of art and dance as tools for change. For more information, email hamwe@157.245.250.106.

FEATURING:

Dr. Rainbow Tin Hung Ho, Professional Ballerina, Director, Centre on Behavioral Health at Hong Kong University and Program Director, Master of Expressive Arts Therapy. Rainbow Ho has been working as a researcher, therapist, teacher, and performing artist for many years. She has been the principal investigator of many research projects related to creative and expressive arts therapy in education and clinical settings, psychophysiology, psychoendocrinology, mind-body practices, complementary and alternative medicine, spirituality, and physical activity for healthy and clinical populations for all ages.

Prof. Rainbow Tin Hung Ho is the Director of the Centre on Behavioral Health, Professor of the Department of Social Work and Social Administration, and Director of the Master of Social Sciences (Behavioral Health) and Master in Expressive Arts Therapy programs in the University of Hong Kong. She has more than 200 publications in refereed journals, scholarly books and encyclopedia. In the past, she has been awarded the title of “Fun Fearless Female” by Cosmopolitan H.K. and “Brave new Girl’ by Cosmo Girl H.K. in 2006.

Wesley Ruzibiza, Dancer and Choreographer. Rwandan artist Wesley Ruzibiza, dancer, actor, choreographer and founding director of Amizero Dance Kompagnie, the first contemporary dance copmpany in Rwanda. Trained in dance and choreography at Ecole des Sables , the University Center for Arts and Drama at the University of Rwanda ,

Wesley has performed in many theater and dance productions. Since the creation of Amizero Kompagnie in 2005, Wesley has choreographed and directed a broad range of plays ranging from Dance, Theatre and some musical. In 2012, he created the East African Nights of Tolerance, a dance festival and platform that aims at promoting contemporary dance in the Central and East African region and encouraging dialogue and exchange between artists of the region around socially engaged art.

Dr. Agnes Binagwaho, Vice Chancellor of UGHE. Professor Agnes Binagwaho,MD,M(Ped),PhD is a Rwandan pediatrician and the Vice Chancellor of the University of Global Health Equity. She worked for 20 years in the public health sector in Rwanda, serving in high-level government positions from 2002-2016 as the Executive Secretary of Rwanda’s National AIDS Control Commission, then as Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health, and then for five years as Minister of Health. She is currently the Senior Advisor to the Director General of the World Health Organization, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, an Adjunct Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine, a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Global Health Equity, a member of US National Academy of Medicine and a fellow of the African Academy of Sciences.