Memory is nothing more than a storeroom of what is remembered neatly arranged in the brain. For Qudus Onikeku, it goes beyond one's own existence and crosses one's body as soon as the body starts to dance. For his new creation, this young Nigerian choreographer calls up the memory of his father, the reference point of his life, and commemorates him during his lifetime. Together, they took a trip to Abeokuta, the city where Ganiu Onikeku was born over 80 years ago. Together, they tried to go back in time to reconnect themselves, well before colonization, to the ancestral Yoruba tradition to which Qudus Onikeku feels he is the heir. A thought much more than folklore, focused among other things on the multiplicity of non-concurrent narratives and on the connection between memories and present moments. On stage, the dancer rekindles self-awareness nourished by a past that goes beyond him. He gives himself over to this ritual like an experience that is both physical, secular and spiritual, but also like a prayer in honour of his father. A kaddish in its own way, with the first letter of his first name, to which that of Maurice Ravel, interpreted live, echoes. In making reference to this piece of Jewish liturgy often described as a “prayer for those in mourning” and also evoking Yoruba culture, he pays tribute to the dead and celebrates the living, beginning with his father. It is therefore a universal and contemporary questioning on family ties, memory and amnesia, life and death, which the artist shares with us, lending to the united assembly his body and energy. A questioning that does not concern understanding or analyzing, but experiencing together, here and now. RB
Distribution
conception and choreography Qudus Onikeku
dramaturgy Emil Abossolo Mbo
scenography et lighting Guillaume Fesneau, Aby Mathieu
costumes Abolore Shobayo
sound Clément Marie Mathieu
with Emil Abossolo Mbo, Qudus Onikeku
soprano Valentina Coladonato
and musicians Charles Amblard, Umberto Clerici
Production
production Compagnie YKProjects
coproduction Festival d'Avignon, Parc de la Villette (résidence d'artistes 2013), Musée de la danse/Centre chorégraphique national de Rennes et de Bretagne, Théâtre de Grasse
artist in residence: au Centre national de la Danse (Pantin), au Rimbun Dahan (Kuala Lumpur), à l'University of California (Davis) for the Grenada Artist in Residence et à la compagnie Systeme Castafiore (Grasse)
with the support of: Région Ile de France dans le cadre de la permanence artistique et culturelle, CCAS, Spedidam and Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication DRAC Île-de-France
Festival d'Avignon is supported by Total for this show.