Dance links us to those who are absent. Armed with this conviction, DeLaVallet Bidiefono treats bodies and voices as channels to a “beyond”. Deep voices and vibrant bodies to call up the so numerous dead in the Republic of the Congo, to attempt to share this necessarily singular relationship with disasters and disappearances. In Brazzaville, where he has lived for over 10 years, death is everywhere. After years of civil war with its burning memory, it still suddenly bursts out, on the occasion of accidents causing hundreds of victims, or more silently, as a result of poverty, malnutrition, the absence of an efficient healthcare system. In his new creation, DeLaVallet Bidiefono wanted to stage these lethal events, depicting this imprint on the daily life of his fellow citizens. A daily life cadenced by funeral wakes that last six days, during which sorrow is shown through laughter and tears. Six days during which people enter a trance so that the deceased express themselves. Death is tragic, of course, but it also offers the artist an enemy to defy. Engaging his body in the battle, the choreographer flouts fatality and transforms himself into a combatant to promote action rather than words and to make Congolese society move forward. For Beyond, nine warriors will be brought together at the Cloître des Célestins: six dancers, a singer and two musicians. They will be the transmitters of a violent, serious and very hopeful energy. Each of them will roll out this energy with his own weapons: physical intensity and precise gestures for DeLaVallet Bidiefono and the young interpreters whom he for the most part trained in Brazzaville, the evocative power of the bass and percussion instruments for the musicians who will share the stage with them, or just the voice. A ghost-like character with a cavernous timbre, Athaya Mokonzi will recite the lyrical and furious text that Dieudonné Niangouna wrote for this play. Together, they will honour the dead and sign a vibrant manifesto addressed to the living, demanding their freedom to create and to give impetus to new momentum. RB
Distribution
choreography DeLaVallet Bidiefono
music Morgan Banguissa, DeLaVallet Bidiefono, Armel Malonga
text Dieudonné Niangouna
choreography assistant Destin Bidiefono
lighting Stéphane 'Babi' Aubert
sound Jean-Noël Françoise
with Morgan Banguissa, Jude Malone Bayimissa, DeLaVallet Bidiefono, Ingrid Estarque, Ella Ganga, Armel Malonga, Athaya Mokonzi, Nicolas Moumbounou, Igor Nlemvo Massamba
Production
production Compagnie Baninga / DeLaVallet Bidiefono
delegate production Le Grand Gardon Blanc
coproduction Festival d'Avignon, Théâtre Paul Éluard de Choisy-le-Roi, Parc de la Villette (résidence d'artistes 2013), Le Carré Sainte-Maxime, Châteauvallon Centre national de Création et de Diffusion culturelles
with the support of: Région Île-de-France, Conseil Général du Val-de-Marne, l'Institut français for the programme Afrique et Caraïbes en Créations, l'Ambassade de France au Congo, de l'Institut français du Congo (Brazzaville), d'Ecair and Spedidam
Festival d'Avignon is supported by Total for this show.