Nora Chipaumire was born in 1965 in Mutare, Zimbabwe during the Chimurenga Chechipiri, or second war of liberation. A self-exiled artist now based in New York, she investigates the collaborative process within cultural, political, economic, and technological identities of African contemporary life. Her work is transnational, unafraid, and eager to burn cultural, creative, and geographic boundaries. She creates provocative and politically relevant multimedia dance work, illuminating the struggles of human identity in an increasingly borderless world. Her work is inspired by art from her native country such as Shona sculpture and chimurenga music - art that results from the often violent convergence of rural, urban, African, non-African, cultural, economic, colonial, and technological ideas. A visionary African contemporary dance artist, her work speaks to the human condition with power, authority, and urgency.

Nora Chipaumire is a recipient of a 2007 New York Dance and Performance (aka "Bessie") Award. She is also a Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography (MANCC) 2007-08 Choreographic Fellow. Chipaumire received 2007-08 National Dance Project (NDP) Tour Support and a Jerome Travel and Study Grant. Nora was also honored with the Mariam McGlone Emerging Choreographer Award from Wesleyan University Center for the Arts. Chipaumire is featured in the documentary Movement (R)evolution Africa and is the subject of the documentary-in-progress, Nora Chipaumire: A Physical Biography, directed by Alla Kovgan and David Hinton, supported by a 2007 EMPAC DANCE MOViES Commission.

Nora's choreographic work has been presented in New York through Dance Theater Workshop, 651 ARTS, Danspace Project, The Flea, and BRICstudio. She has taught and performed nationally at the The Myrna Loy Center (Helena, MT); Global DanceFest through VSA North Fourth Art Center (Albuquerque, NM); CD Forum (Seattle, WA); The New Hazlett Theater through the August Wilson Center and Dance Alloy (Pittsburgh, PA); ODC Theater (San Francisco, CA); The Yard (Martha's Vineyard, MA); Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival (Becket, MA); New Orleans Dance Festival (New Orleans, LA); Arizona State University Department of Dance (Tempe, AZ); SUSHI Performance and Visual Art (San Diego, CA); Idaho State University (Pocatello, ID); Cleveland State University (Cleveland, OH); and Summer Stages Dance (Concord, MA). Nora has toured internationally to Tangente (Montreal, Canada); the Milano Oltre Festival (Milan, Italy); Merseyside Dance Initiative (Liverpool, England); Dakar, Senegal; the Julidans Festival (Amsterdam, The Netherlands); Internationale Tanzmesse NRW (Düsseldorf, Germany); the International Contemporary Dance Festival (Bytom, Poland); and the OPEN LOOK International Dance Festival (St. Petersburg, Russia).

In addition to choreographing and touring her own work, Chipaumire is a featured performer and Associate Artistic Director of Urban Bush Women. Chipaumire has also worked with various companies locally, nationally, and internationally, including Molissa Fenley and Dancers (NYC), Dimensions Dance Theater (Oakland, CA), and Compania De La Danza Narciso Medina (Havana, Cuba), and Bay Area choreographers such as Thais Mazur, Anne Bluthenthal, Laura Elaine Ellis, Robert Moses, and Leyya Tawil. She has studied dance formally and informally in her native Zimbabwe, USA, Cuba, and Jamaica. Chipaumire is a graduate of the University of Zimbabwe's School of Law and holds graduate degrees from Mills College (Oakland, CA) in Dance (MA) and Choreography & Performance (MFA). Chipaumire has taught students of all ages in community colleges, public schools, and recreational studios in the U.S. and internationally.

Chipaumire's current projects in development include an integrative dance and music collaboration with renowned Zimbabwean musician Thomas Mapfumo.