Remembering Rwanda

The seven-year story of escape from war-torn Rwanda to a new home in Arizona was detailed in an article last year in 110 Degrees, a local youth magazine.

He never thought his words would become inspiration for a dance performance at Sahuaro High School.

"I've always tried to make dance as a vehicle for social commentary," said Sahuaro dance teacher Lee Hunt, the creator of "Kubyina," a series of 21 interpretive dances that included Ahurukundo's story.

The performance of that story, featuring all 107 students in the school's dance classes, premiered last week at the school's annual dance show. The show ran for two performances.

The first ideas for the show began immediately after Ahurukundo's story circulated through the halls of Catalina High Magnet School, which he was attending at the time with his brother, John. Hunt told him the words could resonate just as well through dance.

"I thought it was a really great idea to send a message out to the people," said Ahurukundo, who goes by the name Fiston.

Hunt moved to Sahuaro High at the end of the school year, and arranged for the brothers to transfer there also. Ahurukundo spent the summer talking with Hunt and 17-year-old senior Kalena Scott, who created many of the dance moves seen in the 20-minute piece.

Molding the ideas into an attractive show was easy compared with rehearsals, many of the performers said.

"It was a little hard at first," said experienced dancer Alejandro Davalos, 21, who mixed the music for the performance and dances in the show. "Some of them are coming in with nothing. Some just came in wanting to dance."

The exhaustion showed on the faces during a midday practice the day before the premiere, and after opening night, many of the students tried to smile through the aches and pains of dancing for two hours.

"I think it went well," said junior Bianca Moore 17. "I'm so out of breath, it's ridiculous."

The piece used Ahurukundo's narration – a difficult task to record, Davalos said, because Ahurukundo's accent made it hard to understand some words — and employs modern, ballet, tap and hip-hop dance to tell the story.

It began in a village in Rwanda in 1994, when the Hutu army threatens the well-to-do family, who were also Hutu. Only 7 years old, Fiston Ahurukundo was taken with his parents and three brothers to Congo, where Fiston said "the longest we settled in one place was a month."

They went back to Rwanda three years later but left when countrymen ransacked their home. Finding refuge in South Africa, they waited there for five years as the process to immigrate to the United States began.

On July 13, 2005, the Ahurukundo family left South Africa for New York City. They settled in Tucson when Fiston's aunt, who works with a local refugee agency, took them in and helped them find work and housing.

The family now owns a car and a house.

"There's a lot of opportunities and freedom here," Ahurukundo, now 18, said.

Ahurukundo was pleased the social message of being active in global issues affected many of the audience members, but he's also excited that he got to show off his exceptional dance skills, which he learned in South Africa.

"One of my friends was a dancer, so he taught me to dance to get out of trouble," he said. "I love dancing. It's the only way I express myself."

Did you know . . .

• In 1994, a small group of ethnic Hutus, mainly armed with machetes, systematically slaughtered almost 1 million unarmed civilians.

• Key event: A plane shot down carrying Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, prompts extremist Hutus to blame Tutsis for his death and begin mass killings.

• At least 800,000 were killed, 2 million became refugees and 400,000 children became orphans. Eleven percent of the population was killed.

• Ethnic groups by percentage of population: Hutu 85 percent; Tutsi 14 percent; Pygmy 1 percent.

• Read Fiston's story online at www.azstarnet.com/sn/ 110degrees/129766.