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Irene Themistocles Rugakingila is a choreographer and performer from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Together with other women dance artists, she co-founded the Girls Power Dance group in 2015 with the aim of creating a platform for women dancers to create, get training and earn a living through performing arts and entrepreneurship.

Their choreography ‘Ushawishi’ (Persuasion) was selected for the Time 2 Dance festival in Dar es Salaam (2020), Dansi tena online films (2021) and the University of Dar’s annual Sanaa Blast festival (2021)

After several choreographic internships, Irene was selected to be one of the 5 African dance choreographers of the Bikutsi 3000 project directed by Blick Bassey and supported by the Alliance francaise in Cameroun. The final production will be presented at the Quai Branly in Paris in 2024.

Irene was selected for the duet ‘Thamani’ (Value) created by Samwel Japhet, which toured the ICAF Rotterdam festival, Netherlands in March 2023.

Through her training at Muda Africa, she had the opportunity to work with different choreographers such as Johnny Autin (UK, France), Ian Mwaisunga (Tanzania), Robert Ngoroma (Tanzania), Yolanda Gutierrez (Germany, Mexico), Johannes Wieland (Germany), Julie Iarisoa (Madagascar) Wesley Ruzibiza (Rwanda), Anna Bussey (Canada) Robert Guy (UK) and Aida Colmenero Diaz (Spain/Senegal) amongst others.