A choreographic creation by
Serge Aimé Coulibaly
Avant-première on November 28th 2016
during the Trienniale de la danse in Ouagadougou (BF)
World Première on February 15, 16 et 17th 2017
in Halles de Schaerbeek (BE)
Kalakuta Republik is a choreographic project inspired by the energies and structures in the music of Fela Kuti and freely inspired by his life.
The creation
The commitment of an artist to his world, his society, the world in general. His obligation to take a position and express themselves, even when the message is not popular (now). This idea is at the basis of the entire oeuvre of Serge Aimé Coulibaly.
It is not surprising that this artistic journey crosses the figure of Fela Kuti and his art several times. At the beginning of Coulibaly’s work Kuti was mainly an inspiring artist, after his music entered the shows and now his work and life are the basis of an entire creation.
Kalakuta Republik is not a biography of Fela Kuti nor an animated concert of her music. Serge Aimé Coulibaly and his artistic team were inspired by this figure to research what might be an (artistic) commitment today and more precisely what can be the position of this artist once followed by a movement.
“Don’t fall in love with yourselves. We have a nice time here. But remember, carnivals come cheap. What matters is the day after, when we will have to return to normal lives. Will there be any changes then” – Slavoj Zizek
As Slavoj Zizek has been saying the past years to the various anti-government movements: it is not so complicated to gather a mass and to shout that things must change, the important thing is what happens the day after the insurrection.
As in all Coulibaly’s work, Kalakuta Republik does not offer answers but instead puts questions on the table. Which events in the world inspire people to come together and look for an alternative? What makes people look for charismatic leaders? What is the power that those leaders really have and under which conditions? How much freedom is possible within a movement?
The show Kalakuta Republik consists of two parts. One part literally in black and white where the perpetual movement of the music of Fela is the basis of a research about this contemporary “leader”. What inspired him? Who are his supporters? What keeps this movement together? The other part in bright colors and on a very diverse soundscape where decadence takes power over the organization and each individual lives his or her own delirium.
Which part precedes or follows? Is the color part the carnival of the insurrection of which Zizek speaks? Or is it the decadence of the luxury of some that preceded the organized movement of the other part? Kalakuta Republik offers no simple answer to this question but makes the exchange of ideas possible and necessary.
After the creation of Nuit blanche à Ouagadougou, the performance about an insurrection in an African country, the performance of which the première preceded the departure of Blaise Compaoré in Burkina Faso by a few days, Serge Aimé Coulibaly continues his speech on the absolute need to do change our contemporary world. Where Nuit blanche à Ouagadougou speaks clearly about an African society, Kalakuta Republik puts the globalized world on the table.
Fela Kuti – source Of inspiration
«I just want to do my part and leave… Not for what they’re going to remember you for, but for what you believe in as a man.» – Fela Anikulapo Kuti
Everything in Fela is a refusal of ignorance, imbecility, confinement, cynicism and abdication: his controversial choices in life, his music which, far from lulling and sleeping , on the contrary, awakens citizen’s consciousness, his innovative thinking and his festive and profound way of delivering it.
The spokesman of a whole generation, making the stage a platform, imprisoned many times for its sarcastic and sharp political positioning, Fela is truly a model of commitment to his country and to his art.
The music of Fela takes you on a trip. Pieces of about thirty minutes, a composition that is both simple and complex, suggest the result of its anchoring on African soil, nourished by its learning at the heart of the jazz clubs of London: afrobeat. Fela Kuti’s music is not just search for a personal and particular artistic expression, it is also the flagship of his conception of Africa, the emotional synthesis of his political thought, his weapon. A great openness to the world, a vigorous commitment in the lyrics, this music is a rich and deep inspiration for Serge Aimé Coulibaly. Fela is a unique artist: an immense desire for freedom, a sulphurous life, a political consciousness engraved in his body and an absolutely original musicality born of the mix of Africa and the West.
The years spent in London and then in the United States have given him the necessary distance to an understanding of the African continent and the part it was really playing on the global political chessboard. Visionary, his ideas and his art are today of a radical modernity and come in total resonance with the actuality.
«…when I was first put in jail, the name of my prison cell was ‘Kalakuta’, and Republic? I wanted to identify myself with someone who didn’t agree with the Federal Republic of Nigeria…I was in non-agreement. » – Fela Anikulapo Kuti
Fela Anikulapo Kuti was the starting point of this choreographic creation. The character fascinates and seduces, his music remains one of the most popular in the world.
For Serge Aimé Coulibaly he is his source of inspiration, the summary of how an artist must be in the African context to address the role and place of the artist in society today, to speak of our humanity in a world that changes very quickly.
The personality of Fela, his political commitment to Nigeria, a country contrasted with a richly coveted subsoil, and a galloping misery, the living modernity of his work are the ideal starting point for a broader questioning.
What is the place of the artist today in society? What responsibility does one have who, through his creations, carry a committed word?
How, in a world that changes quickly and generates fear and withdrawal, will consciences open up to differences?
The Music
The musical work of Fela offered the choreographer and dancers a multitude of tracks to explore. Its strength, combining beauty and commitment, allows for varied and very expressive developments, ranging from violence, extremities and emergency, to harmony and fragility.
Musician and composer Yvan Talbot, great connoisseur of this music, played with it and distorted it to bring out all the singularities. Starting from the influences of Fela, he created a whole new musical universe in relation to the narration of Serge Aimé Coulibaly and the body language of the dancers.
The artists
Serge Aimé Coulibaly
Serge Aimé Coulibaly (1972), a Burkinabe/Belgian dancer and choreographer starts his career with FEEREN Company directed by Amadou Bourou, with which he tours in Africa and Europe, he also proves himself by choreographing the opening performances of the African Cup of football (CAN) in Burkina Faso in 1998 and of the FESPACO (Ouagadougou Pan African lm festival) in 1999. In 2002, he founds his own company, Faso Danse Theatre. That same year, he joins les ballets C de la B, where he successively interprets the Wolf and C(H)OEURS, by Alain Platel and Tempus Fugit by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui.
In 2004 invited by the Australian company Marrugeku, he carries out a work of research and comparison of traditional aboriginal dances and contemporary dance and choreographs Burning Daylight in 2008. Simultaneously, Coulibaly develops his own work. He choreographs and interprets the piece Et demain… and creates the performance A benguer.
In April 2008, he creates Babemba, Faso Danse Theatre Company’s new show. In 2009 he is invited by the national choreographic centre of Roubaix Nord Pas de Calais (Carolyn Carlson) to direct the Mappemonde project, a choreography with 45 amateur dancers.
On the rest of his popularity, Serge Aimé is solicited for the 2010 Nuit des Musées. Faso Danse Theatre presents Fitry at the Musée de la Piscine in Roubaix. Then, the company is invited to several African countries to celebrate the Independences Fifth’s anniversary with Babemba. For the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels Coulibaly creates En attendant l’indépendance.
In 2011 he creates and performs his solo Fadjiri at the Tarmac in Paris and starts collaborating with the stage director Moise Touré, on Aurélia Steiner and Maladie de la mort.
In 2014 Serge Aimé Coulibaly creates ANKATA, an international arts laboratory for research and creation, in his native city Bobo Dioulasso and he choreographs the show Nuit Blanche à Ouagadougou.
The Belgian cultural centre De Grote Post invites him in 2015 to create GLOED, a contemporary dance performance with more than 60 dancers (professional and amateurs) aged over 50.
Sayouba Sigue
After a childhood spent in Abidjan (Ivory Coast), Sayouba Sigué came back to Burkina for high school and entered the cultural and artistic scene in Ouagadougou. He is trained in traditional and contemporary dances.
Discovered in 2001 by a young Burkinabe choreographer Souleymane Porgo, he joins his company (Téguérer) and is initiated to contemporary dance and afro-contemporary dance. He also benefits from training by several other choreographers with different styles and from different origins. That is how dance goes from being an extra-curricular activity, to progressively becoming a passion that he chooses today to make his work.
He takes part in many creations with big names in the African dance world such as Irène Tassembédo (in Souf es, Carmen Falinga Awa and Le sacre du tempo), Serge Aimé Coulibaly (in A Benguer, Babemba, Nuit Blanche à Ouagadougou and Kalakuta Republik) and Kathrin Wehlisch (Schiff der Traüme). Today he lives in Lyon (France) and is creating his own company.
Ahmed Soura
Born in Banfora, Burkina Faso, dancer (Break-dance and Pop) and self-taught acrobat until the age of 20, Ahmed trained at the National Institute of Artistic and Cultural Training in Burkina Faso and at the Centre Choreographique National of Montpellier from 2003 to 2007.
Then Ahmed joined the Burkinabe company of Irène TASSEMBEDO for five years with tours in Africa and Europe.
In 2010, Ahmed Soura danced and performed in the opera “Via Intollérenza II” by Christoph Schlingensief (1st prize for the staging of the Theater Treffen in Berlin in 2011). From 2012, he joined the Opera Ballet Deutsche Oper Berlin with “Verdi Requiem”, “Die Liebe zu den drei Orangen” and “Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern”. In August 2013 Ahmed joined the company Christoph Winkler for “Das wahre Gesicht – ein Stück über den Ka- pitalismus” and won the FAUST 2014 award. In the course of 2014, he collaborated with the Swiss company (Berne) Pink Mama Theater with a 2015 tour Poland.
At the same time, he creates KORO / Compagnie Ahmed Soura in Burkina Faso to develop his own choreographic writing and he creates solos such as “A to”, “Rien ne m’appartient”, “Ecrazement 100Sens”, ” En opposition avec moi ” (3rd dance prize at Internationalen Tanz-Theater Festival – Stuttgart 2011), “166” (second prize at Need to Dance 2013). He regularly teaches contemporary dance courses and traditional dances from Burkina Faso in Germany, France, Switzerland, Brazil, …
Marion Alzieu
Born in France in 1987, a very young Marion becomes passionate about dance in any form and shape. She begins with hip-hop and ballet, then studies modern dance at the Centre James Carlès in Toulouse. Later, she discovers contemporary dance thanks to workshops with Peter Mika, Olga Cobos and Luc Jacobs.
From 2008 to 2010, she undertakes the Coline professional qualification in Istres, where she meets several guest choreographers and dances the repertoires of Emanuel Gat, Lisi Esteras, Shlomi Tuizer and Salia Sanou…
Having achieved this qualification, she works as trainee in Emanuel Gat’s company. Then she joins Jasmin Vardimon Company in London, and works with at the Royal Opera House, until 2011.
Forever curious and craving new experiences, in 2011, she undertakes the professional qualification at the Centre of Choreographic Development (CDC) la Termitière in Ouagadougou for 3 months where she meets several African choreographers.
Back in France, Marion joins the Mouvements Perpétuels Company, under the direction of Salia Sanou. Besides being an interpreter in several of her dance pieces, she assists Salia in creations for children and amateur dancers. From 2012, she also spends time working in the troupes of Hervé Chaussard (Cie The Will Corporation), Amala Dianor (Kaplan) and Serge Aimé Coulibaly (Cie Faso Danse Theatre).
Alongside her status as interpreter, she develops her own style as a choreographer.
In 2013, she creates the duet “En terre d’attente” for the Festival OIDF (Burkina) under the direction of Irène Tassembedo. She presents this duet in France in November 2013 in Paris, then, in July 2014 at the Festival Off in Avignon (France).
In 2014, she creates the solo “Ceci n’est pas une femme blanche”. At the same time, she creates her own company: Compagnie Ma’.
Antonia Naouelle
Antonia Naouele, a young Cameroonian dancer and interpreter, is first trained in traditional dances, she subsequently specializes in urban and Afro urban dances.
As of 2011, Antonia is training in contemporary dance with the company Abbé Simon, the choreographers Salia Sanou, Michel Ndjongui, Merlin Nyankam, Serge Aimé Coulibaly, Aida C.Diaz and Farid Berki and she researches the Stepping technique with the troupe SOUL STEP.
In parallel, she is a dancer and interpreter with the hip-hop dance group FLOOR ART CREW, with the company SOLDIERS X and in the play ” AWINE ” of Hyacinthe TOBIO. These shows take her on tour all over Africa.
Adonis Nébié
Born in 1981 in Côte d’Ivoire, Adonis Nébié was trained at the École des Sables of Germaine Acogny in Senegal. He is a dancer and choreographer of the Teguerer Company. He dances in Burkina Faso and intervenes in the workshops of the Eolo association.
Adonis collaborates with numerous choreographers such as Irène Tassembedo, Vera Sander and Serge Aimé Coulibaly on an international level.
Besides his work as a dancer, he created and performed two solos in residence in Dakar and Aix-en Provence at the Pavillon Noir (Ballet Prejlocaj) in 2013 and 2015.
Ida Faho
Ida was born in 1990 and began training in the performing arts very young in 2003. She studied theatre and then dance and entered the EDITA dance school in 2009.
She regularly dances in the company of Irene Tassembedo while developing her own projects and training with other choreographers, in Africa, at the Ecole des Sables, but also in Europe, in the Black Pavilion of Angelin Preljocaj.
Her dance is nourished by all his encounters and Ida succeeds in harmoniously marrying a powerful gesture, an electrical presence with a lot of gentleness, grace and sensuality.
Yvan Talbot
For more than 20 years, this musician percussionist is posessed by the passion of the traditional musics of West Africa. Very attracted by the practice of rare and unusual instruments such as the bolon (three-stringed harp), the Baala drum of Guinée forestière or the n’goni Bissa of Burkina-Faso, he was introduced to the traditional instruments.
This strong African footprint brings Yvan Talbot to connect the worlds through music, collaborating with various musicians and choreographers. Thus, he met the Compagnie Julie Dossavi, of which he became the musical director in 2002. With this artistic team, he signed and co-authored the music of several plays. In 2010, he collaborated on Bouba and realized the original music of the choreographic duo murmures.
In addition to these creative activities, he regularly conducts various training programs, both with young audiences and musicians in the process of professionalization.
Eve Martin
Since 2006 Eve Martin has worked in various fields of video, film and television.
Primarily she is the author of her own works. She creates her own short films The Book of Lila (2008), Terra Sola (2012), Black Forest (2014) and develops the video installation Invisibles for Mons2015.
In dialogue, she creates video installations for stage performances by Serge Aimé Coulibaly (Fadjiri (2013) and Kalakuta Republik), Armel Roussel (Ondine), Thierry Debroux (The titanic doll, Les Misérables, L’Odyssee, Les 3 mousquetaires) and Sybille Wilson (the master of illusions).
And she realizes multiple music videos and live video installations for Two Star Hotel, Piano club, My little cheap dictaphone, Hollywood Porn stars, Deltron 3030, Yannick Frank, Maax and The summer rebellion.
Apart from the development of her own personal artistic work, she works in the audio-visual world as assistant to the director and director of casting.
Since 2011, she is also often hired as designer and set designer for various advertising videos, short and feature films and television series.
She works on the creations of Micha Wald, Bouli Lanners, Delphine Noels, Patrice Toye, Virginie Gourmel, Joachim Lafosse, Fien Troch, Eric Lavaine, Stéphan Kazadjan, Remi Bezançon, Michel Gondry, Brice Cauvin, François Xavier, Benoit Mariage, Tom Darmstaedter, Mathieu Donck and Eric Valette.
Sara Vanderieck
Sara Vanderieck obtains her degree of Master in the Dramatic Arts – theatre directing at RITCS in Brussels.
After this intensive training, her urge to immediately start creating herself has faded somewhat. She searches for other positions in the theatre world. First she sells tickets at the Flemish Opera and later she works there as an educational worker.
Eventually Vanderieck falls into the position of production and tour manager for TG STAN (from 2004 to 2006: Poquelin, En Quête, Bérénice, “Redde wie zich redden kan” geen slechte titel, My Dinner with André, L’avantage du doute, Anathema, Impromptu, voir et voir) and TRISTERO (2006: Komedrie).
In 2006 she joins les ballets C de la B, first as production and tour manager for VSPRS and pitié! (Alain Platel) and Patchagonia (Lisi Estaras), later as artistic assistant to Alain Platel for Out of Context – for Pina and C(H)OEURS and to Lisi Estaras for Dans Dans and Leche.
In 2012 she leaves les ballets C de la B to join the artistic direction of De Grote Post, a brand new cultural centre by the seaside in Ostend.
She also starts working as a dramaturg/outside eye for different dance creations from then on.
She works with Claron McFadden/Muziektheater Transparant (Lilith, 2012), Serge Aimé Coulibaly/FASO DANSE THEÂTRE (Fadjiri, 2013; Nuit Blanche à Ouagadougou, 2014; GLOED, 2015; Kalakuta Republik, 2017), Bára Sigfúsdóttir (The Lover, 2015, TIDE, 2016 and being, 2017) Ayelen Parolin & Lisi Estaras (La Esclava, 2015), Platform K/les ballets C de la B/Lisi Estaras (Monkey Mind, 2016) and Naïf Productions (La Mécanique des ombres, 2016/2017).
In 2017 she adds another layer to her work. Together with artists Lisi Estaras, Serge Aimé Coulibaly and Mirko Banovic, Vanderieck creates When I look at a strawberry, I think of a tongue. (working title) in a collaborative process.
Credits
Concept & Choreography
Serge Aimé Coulibaly
Creation & Interpretation
Antonia Naouele, Marion Alzieu, Adonis Nebié, Sayouba Sigué, Serge Aimé Coulibaly, Ahmed Soura, Ida Faho
Creation music
Yvan Talbot
Creation Video
Eve Martin.
Dramaturgy
Assistant to the choreography
Sayouba Sigué
Scenography & costumes
Catherine Cosme
Creation light
Hermann Coulibaly
Technical Direction
Sam Serruys
Production
Faso Danse Theatre & Halles de Schaerbeek
Executive Producer
Halles de Schaerbeek
Coproduction
Maison de la Danse (Lyon), Torinodanza (Turin), Le Manège –Scène nationale de Maubeuge, Le Tarmac – La scène internationale francophone (Paris), Les Théâtres de la ville de Luxembourg, Ankata (Bobo Dioulasso), Les Récréâtrales (Ouagadougou), Festival Africologne (Cologne), De Grote Post (Ostend).
With the support of the Musée des Confluences (Lyon) in the form of a residency.
With the support of la Fédération Wallonie – Bruxelles – Service de la Danse
Contact:
www.fransbrood.com – info@fransbrood.com – +32 9 234 12 12