Blessed
are those who dance to the music within.
Equally blessed are those who receive the gift of witnessing it.
This is the true meaning of sharing; especially when we what is shared is something we all have in common: being human, having hardship, having cried, laughed, wondered about the meaning of life in its smallest and biggest details,
having been gifted and having danced.
We all know what dancing does to us, how it purifies the body and heals the heart.
That feeling of freedom and happiness when one is dancing is truly liberating.
Some people have developed that feeling many levels higher and discovered the movement of the universe, how close they can get to the perfect balance of their body, mind and spirit.
All aligned in the same peaceful place.
They can be wind, water or fire and move between earth and sky and move us with them.
That is what we noticed at the 4th edition of
The East African Nights of Tolerance:
the entire universe pouring from the stage.
: How we experienced
the 4th edition of EANT
22 21 20 19
EAST AFRICAN nights of tolerance rewind
photography by Martina Bacigalupo
The festival closed on Sunday 22nd of November on a solo note. We had the privilege to see four performances: from Kisangani (DRC), Burkina Faso, Congo Brazzaville and France. The dancers let us into the deepest intimacy of their world, in the most generous way and we dived right in, just to find ourselves deep in our own souls. Vincent Harisdo was particularly impressive by the charisma of the character he incarnated so accurately and the poignant story he told. His grace and the preciseness in his movements were touching, enticing and pleasurable to watch. “Check One” choreographed and performed by Florent Mahoukou was a captivating claim of identity and what makes home beautiful and irreplaceable. Adonis Nebie from Burkina Faso gave us a condensed moment of metaphysical experience with “Spirit”. With “Randori”, Papsher Kikuni shared his inner battlefield, his fighting technics with his own demons and the cleansing benefit of dance. It was a deep night.
photography by Martina Bacigalupo
Saturday 21 November was also a day we loved. It is hard to do a highlight of that day night at EANT 2015. The three shows entirely made us happy from beginning to end. And made us think that every once in a while, the contemporary dance public should be as spontaneous, true and raw as the one at Maison des jeunes at Kimisagara. They were on fire and it was refreshing. Come to think about it, how do these beautiful dancers expect us to just take it all in in silence when they are expressing the magic of the body?! That is unfair. To see the brutality of Truth being deployed in a graceful way or all that is unfortunate in the human being cried with audacity, elegance, power, joy and lightness. How can we gaze at a dream that blossoms and spreads inside our big eyes and tell lies? So we screamed.The people responsible for our high decibels gave us a good time mixing all sorts of influences, from traditional to hip hop to contemporary and even ndombolo.
On the menu, “Course au pouvoir”
Choregraphie : Racky Gabriel White
Dancers: Bahiga Mbogo Achille, Christian Nyakadekere Mousse, Kisongo Regine Grace.
The closing play was “Les Chercheurs de Phases”
by Rhina Crew/Goma,Bukavu,Gisenyi
Choreographed by Faraja Batumike and Christian Kambalei, interpreted by Faraja Batumike, Christian Kambalei,
Benjamin Katangila and Grace Kabuya
“The truth within” came from Kenya with choreographers and dancers Gody Gotieno and Steve Dennis Ongeri
photography by Martina Bacigalupo
Saturday night 21 November was the night dedicated to East Africa’s youth, but it was also dedicated to the truth: the dancer’s and the public’s. Just and just because that night was so candidly refreshing and tinted with some mad hip hop we are switching this review to line drops, des lyrics hysteriques, but it is an inside joke that only those who were present in the room can understand, sorry...not...
> In this game, I am the chauffeur
Nobody drives a car like its owner
You can’t break a baller
Imma put you in a corner
Get yourself a recorder
This rider may go too fast like some elf
Don’t make me repeat myself
Or better yet get a decoder
That it can make some sense to you
Il y a de ces questions
Moi je te jure
Je ne peux meme plus
Y repondre au brouillon
Pourquoi t’ecris ?
Parce que je danse
Dance is happiness I can’t contain
The reason they think I am insane
All the feelings that I detain
And can’t explain
I make it rain
Get your umbrella
Mais qu’est-ce que tu fais la?
Toi qu’est-ce que tu fais la !
Je ne suis pas du genre à garder ces secrets la
Je fume, je bois et j’aime le sexe
Pourquoi tu te vexes ?
Fais pas fais ta princesse
La vérité n’a pas de prétextes
Elle résiste à tous les contextes
Tu fais pareil et tu le sais
Si tu ne fais pas alors tais-toi
Je ne suis pas toi.
Check plutôt ton nez
Il pousse a vue d’œil
Tu te connais
Dès que la parole atteint le seuil
De tes lèvres
Trêve.
Moi je dis la vérité mais je laisse mon corps parler
Je ne suis pas venu t’enseigner
Ou te cacher que je sin
The truth is within
And I serve it raw
Même quand tu trouves que c’est trop !
Brap !
We really don’t apologize for what just happened here. It was a temporary moment of mind switch, now back.It was interesting to explore the meaning of solidarity, from many perspectives around the world, gathered and interpreted in a beautiful, sad and sometimes ironic way by Busara Dancers, with dancers like Chiku and Chito Lwambo from the Congo. We had the pleasure of seeing them on the EANT stage in 2014 and we would not mind seeing them moving next year again. Come back please!
photography by Martina Bacigalupo
Friday night 20 November.
“Reborn” the piece from Uganda,
was a metaphorical journey with contemporary
Africa on the rediscovery of its lost glory.
Choreography: Ssempija Robert
Artistic Direction: Samuel Lutaaya
Dancers: Robert Ssempija, Walugembe Isaac,
Primo Humuza and Kota Brivon
Where is home and what do I consider home? That is the question that Kepha Oiro explores in his concept:
The Bugobogobo Project
a collaboration between Kenya, Tanzania and Germany.
photography by Martina Bacigalupo
And finally, the most exciting night for Marakuja was the opening, to be more precise the play “Just a walk” conceived by and choreographed by Julie Iarisoa from Madagascar with dancers and collaborators from four countries. Let’s name all the dancers, they gave us joy: Hamadi Issa( Tanzania), Tadhi Alawi ( Tanzania), Bienvenu Randrianirina (Madagascar) and Abdul Mujyambere (Rwanda)
The music was created by John Otieno (Kenya) and Robson Razafimavaly (Madagascar)
It turns out; “just a walk” was not just a walk!
If we walked like that no one would convince any of us to go to war, or war would be a dance battle.Forget all you think you know about contemporary dance. Just a walk is a mind blowing piece! A manifestation of how free the world would be if the humans just lived the present moment, all of it! Spontaneously! It was crazy. Liberating, fun, funny, deep without having to be solemn; a raw celebration of life, passionate and so free! It was exactly like the person anyone with their right heart would fall in love with! Wow! Breaking rules in harmony. Unapologetically genius! The dancers amazed us with the full control of their perfect bodies and their total abandon to madness and intensity. Each of those yummy muscles spoke last night. It was a delight to watch both the dancers and the play; we will never lie about that at Marakuja. And should we talk about the live music on stage? The multitalented “griot” bewitched us both with his voice and his presence. Everything was perfect.
The entire point is, you missed out big time and we are sad for you.
See you next year.
will come back soon
Until then, find more about EANT here and
