Dramaturgy

Serge Aimé Coulibaly presents KIRINA.

© Jean van Lingen

The word is out: the Festival de Marseille and Ruhrtriennale will present Serge Aimé Coulibaly‘s new creation Kirina.

Inspired by a founding West African battle, Kirina is a contemporary epic drawing from the wellsprings of history and fiction. On stage, nine dancers, six musicians, one narrator and forty local extra’s tell the story of a people bursting with hope and revolt, marching towards its future.

In Kirina Serge Aimé Coulibaly makes migration the theme of a choreographic, musical and intellectual exploration. Migratory movements have always had a key effect on our cultures and been agents of transformation. What are the languages, musical forms and narratives that have been created through migration and how have these influenced the cultures of other peoples and countries? In his search for a contemporary language equipped to question the present world and its underlying systems, Serge Aimé Coulibaly will address the founding myths of West African culture and how its stories operate across generations in the consciousness of today’s societies and influence their visions of the future.

In Rokia Traoré, the internationally celebrated musician from neighbouring Mali who creates her own contemporary version of classical Mandinka music, Serge Aimé Coulibaly, himself from Burkina Faso, has found an ideal partner for this new work. His choreography will be enhanced by four musicians and the dialogue between two singers and one narrator. The intellectual and textual basis for the work will be provided by the Senegalese economist, writer and musician Felwine Sarr, author of the book Afrotopia, with its pleas for an African “contemporanéité”.

You can discover Kirina this summer during the Festival the Marseille from June 29th to July 2nd and during the Ruhrtriennale from August 18th to 22nd or later in the season somewhere around the world. (all dates can be found here)

Serge Aimé Coulibaly presents KIRINA. Read More »

Back to work with NaïF Production

During the coming Les Hivernales Festival, organized by the CDCN of Avignon, two new creations of NaïF Production will have their première. I have been working with the company since the creation of La Mécanique des Ombres (2016) and I am excited to join them again for both new works as an outside eye.

© Laurent Onde

La chair a ses Raisons is initiated by Mathieu Desseigne Ravel and proposes a thorough study of the flesh and its capacity to communicate. This performance will be performed on February 24th and 25th.

© Anne Breduillieard

Des gestes blancs is the result of a long research and development trajectory of Sylvain Bouillet with his son Charlie, investigating the relation between the adult’s and the child’s body and mind. They will perform on March 2nd and 3rd.

Hope to see you there and share our work with you!

Back to work with NaïF Production Read More »

Bára Sigfúsdóttir’s being gets it’s first reviews: ***

© Aëla Labbé

The belgian newspaper De Morgen sent a critic to Bára Sigfúsdóttir‘s being‘s first night last Thursday in Campo Nieuwpoort. Jan Dertaelen gave *** to the performance and reads it as a piece about meeting the other.

“In the following hour, the two dancers will slowly gain an eye for each other, grow towards the other and try to relate to each other. What we see is a meeting, and what we learn is that every meeting occurs according to its own laws and rules.”

Those amongst you understanding Dutch can read this article here: “Dansen mag, aanraken niet.” 

Belgian magazine Knack‘s critic Els Van Steenberghe also rates the performance with three stars.

“…looking at the struggling dancers whose movements give them alternately something human and something animalistic, you think about how your movements may reflect your personality.”

Those amongst you understanding Dutch can read this article here: “‘Being’ verplicht u om het dier in uzelf te erkennen”

Curious to discover being yourself?
you can find the performance dates here.

Bára Sigfúsdóttir’s being gets it’s first reviews: *** Read More »

being – 3 more weeks to opening night

© Maryam Ghiasi

In 2017 Bára Sigfúsdóttir creates her new performance called being in which she collaborates with two Iranian artists, Masoumeh Jalalieh and SeyedAlireza Mirmohammadi.

In this performance the body serves as a poetic instrument and common ground to put in dialogue the West-European with the Iranian culture and society.

After residencies in Brussels and Neerpelt (without Alireza because of visa issues), Potstdam, Groningen, Tehran and Istanbul we are finalizing the creation in Ghent from Monday on.

If you’re curious to learn a bit more about the journey of this creation, check out the blog with contributions of the whole cast and crew here.

The premiere of being will take place at CAMPO (Ghent, BE) on 26th and 27th of October 2017. being is Bára’s first creation within her trajectory of performing arts resident at Kunstencentrum Vooruit in Ghent.

Further performance dates of being can be found in the calendar.

being – 3 more weeks to opening night Read More »

Catch us at this summer’s festivals!

For those who are curious to discover my dramaturgical / outside eye work: it is all over the festivals this summer!

You can find Lisi Estaras‘ work in Ostend’s summer festivals. She will create a special version of La Esclava and the unique Monkey Mind Feest for Dansand at the beginning of July and will present Monkey Mind in  Theater aan Zee at the end of that same month.

Serge Aimé Coulibaly will present his Kalakuta Republik in Africologne, Tanzhaus NRW, MARS, Festival de Marseille, Festival d’Avignon, Theaterfestival Boulevard, Tanz im August and Kampnagel Sommerfestival. In the fall he will continue touring the piece all over Europe. You can find all announced performances here.

Naïf Productions will also be present with their latest creation La Mécanique des Ombres in the Festival d’Avignon  in July.

And last but not least Bára Sigfúsdóttir and Eivind Lønning will share their beautiful TIDE with Julidans’ audience in Amsterdam.

I hope you will catch up with us somewhere!

Check this calendar to discover where and when you can find us. A simple click on the list next to it will bring you to the organizer’s websites.

[clndr id=full-size-calendar]

Catch us at this summer’s festivals! Read More »

Kalakuta Republik will close the Festival de Marseille 2017

Yesterday the festival‘s director Jan Goossens presented the program for the 2017 edition of the festival with this editorial:

Marseille, the world, artists and local residents imagining and creating a city and a future together: that’s what the ambitious and generous 22nd edition of the Festival de Marseille is all about. The beating heart of the programme is dance, underlining our deep-seated conviction that those taking part in the Festival, in all their diversity, will forge new connections in this complex, fascinating city—not forgetting the other disciplines that make contemporary culture what it is today: theatre, music, and film.

Held from 15 June to 9 July, the Festival offers a wealth of experiences to share with some of the greatest names in contemporary performing arts from the four corners of the world: Brett Bailey from Capetown, Rabih Mroué from Beirut, Rimini Protokoll from Berlin, Nacera Belaza from Paris and Algiers, Bruno Beltrão from Rio de Janeiro, Julien Gosselin from Calais, Bouchra Ouizguen from Marrakech, and Serge-Aimé Coulibaly from Bobo-Dioulasso.

The Festival also features local artists creating a form of dialogue that only culture now seems capable of:  Dorothée Munyaneza, Georges Appaix, Eric Minh Cuong Castaing and Eva Doumbia. What’s more, hundreds of locals will be taking part in a series of shared initiatives with major international artists: 100% Marseillewith Rimini Protokoll (Berlin), Rito de Primavera inspired by Stravinsky with José Vidal (Santiago de Chile), and Compagnie Compagnie with Jérôme Bel (Paris). All this adds up to three weeks of shows co-produced by the Festival—including some not-to-be-missed French and European premieres!

What the 22th edition of the Marseille Festival would like to share most of all is the idea that Marseille and the world are one. The world can be found in this city, and Marseille is the world. This means that the Festival de Marseille has to be both local and global—so come and enjoy our « glocal » programme, in all its diversity!

From 15 June to 9 July, in a host of different venues throughout Marseille, at very affordable prices, these shows, concerts, events and debates are all driven by a single aim: to show that Marseille is a city that keeps its promises.

Kalakuta Republik will be presented on July 9th. Serge Aimé Coulibaly contributed to the press conference with a small personal performance.

Kalakuta Republik will close the Festival de Marseille 2017 Read More »

Kalakuta Republik is getting good reviews!

Click on the name of the journal to read the full article.

La Libre Belgique

“In Kalakuta Republik, Serge Aimé Coulibaly magically combines music, dance and the African revolution.“

Guy Duplat – 17/02/2017

Sceneweb.fr

“A wonderful ramble that exudes both rebelliousness and love.”

 

“Kalakuta Republik dances on a volcano, one of lost revolutions and of peoples who will ultimately rebel. The political and poetic performance becomes even more exuberant in the second half, when it celebrates taking the reins in an atmosphere that is reminiscent of a discotheque – or of the end of the world. Some of the scenes are positively magical…”

Philippe Noisette – 11/03/2017

 Delibere.fr

“Dance has triumphed by borrowing elements from all repertoires, just as Fela did (jazz, Yoruba rhythms, funk, etc.) and it lays bare the personality of every member of the company. … And what is so fascinating here is the ‘broken’ dance that re-asserts itself time and time again against a backdrop of profound longing.”

 

“This will not be an overtly African performance, but one in which politics is reflected through bodies. One is influenced by the traditional repertoire, another by discotheque-style hip-swinging, yet another by jazz, not to mention the dance that is dreamt up along the way with no awareness of its provenance.”

Marie-Christine Vernay – 15/03/2017

Kalakuta Republik is getting good reviews! Read More »

Kalakuta Republik will be presented in the Avignon Festival 2017

Inspired by Fela Kuti, the Nigerian composer, saxophonist, conductor, political activist and inventor of Afrobeat, the Belgian-Burkinan choreographer Serge Aimé Coulibaly has created a new performance in which politics is more than just a vague dramaturgical undertone.

There are six dancers on stage, and this soon becomes seven. From them burgeons an endless series of variations of figures and movements, which serve as metaphors for the compelling urgency to live… A political reflection that races through the body. A language of movement marked by the traditional repertoire, by grooving in nightclubs and by jazz, but which ultimately becomes an entirely new dance that dashes onward, unencumbered by its origins.

The stage setting alludes both to our current political and social world and to the Shrine, a hybrid and mythical place, both temple and nightclub, where Fela Kuti sang about hope and uprising after saying a prayer with his audience. Kalakuta Republic was the name of his residence, which was located on the outskirts of Lagos and which he regarded as an independent republic. The spirit of Fela, figurehead of the opposition in West Africa and a source of inspiration for many, is a central thread running through this performance.

Serge-Aimé Coulibaly himself plays the role of the narrator. Does he identify with Fela Kuti? Or is he simply himself, a committed artist caught up in a troubled world and simultaneously impressed by the effect of today’s young Burkinans’ boundless longing for freedom, which has led to a major revolution?

As Slavoj Zizek has been warning the many anti-government movements for years: it is not particularly difficult to whip up a crowd and to shout that things have to change. The important thing is what happens on the day after the uprising.

Kalakuta Republik is neither a biography of Fela Kuti, nor a musical showcasing the musician’s work. It is a thrilling study of artistic engagement and what this can set in motion. A performance with an infectious energy. A little piece of Africa without clichés. An Africa in a globalised world to which Serge-Aimé Coulibaly and his generation of artists are committed and to which they want to draw attention.

Kalakuta Republik will be presented in the Avignon Festival 2017 Read More »