At the same time we were pointing a finger at you, we realized we were pointing three at ourselves…

Weakened by sickness, trained by classical ballet, whitened by a desire for the West: bodies are omnipresent in Robyn Orlin's works, the medium through which are revealed the violence she denounces, the neuroses she exposes, the vitality she advocates. But in her new creation the body isn't only the medium but also the central topic of her inquiry: why is the body so rarely the object of reflection in Africa? When it isn't just taboo, it is reduced to representations shaped by a Western world by turns humanitarian, patronizing, and predatory. How to break free from those restrictive visions? How to rethink the body, both in an intimate and in a political sense, always at stakes in relationships of power, between domination and emancipation? Those questions, which come back time and again in postcolonial studies, are the starting point of a dialogue between Robyn Orlin and Germaine Acogny. Acogny, a major actress of contemporary dance in Africa, created in Senegal l'Ecole des Sables, a dancing school where today's choreographic practices are constantly invented and reinvented. Dancers from all over the continent train there, leading to the meeting of different visions of the body, between subjective experiences and shared sensations. It is those dancers of the Jant Bi company that Robyn Orlin wanted to meet in order to create, based on their stories as human beings—be they personal, social, or political—moments of moving complicity and biting irony.

Renan Benyamina, April 2014

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A piece by Robyn Orlin

Assistant choroegraphy Shush Tenin
Lighting Laïs Foulc
Costumes Birgit Neppl
Video Aldo Lee
Scenography Robyn Orlin en collaboration with Maciej Fiszer
Translation Maurice Salem 

With the dancers of JANT-BI / Germaine Acogny
Hans Peter Diop Ibaghino, Khalifa Ababacar Top, Adelinou Dasylva, Tchébé Bertrand Saky, Claude Marius Gomis, Aliou Ndoye, Mamadou Baldé, Mohamed Abdoulaye Kane

With the participation of Germain Acogny

Production City Theater & Dance Group, Damien Valette Prod
Coproduction La Halle aux Grains Scène nationale de Blois, Festival Rayons Frais, Tours, Opéra de Lille, Théâtre de la Ville-Paris, Les Treize Arches Scène conventionnée de Brive, Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg
Production with the support of Région Centre
With the support of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie