LES FEUILLES QUI RESISTENT AU VENT
Dance - Commission - Premiere
Concept and Choreography: Koffi Kôkô
Dance: Koffi Kôkô, Eric Acakpo, Alougbin Awoulath, Kpadonou
Loko Samson, Abubacar Usman, Filibert Tologo, Armand Awassi
Composition and music: João de Bruço, Achille Acakpo
Music: Fiacre da Costa
FRI 30th of May + SAT 31st of May, 20.00 h | SUN 1st of June, 19.00
h
Admission: 14 Euro, reduced 10 Euro
FRI 30th of May > Postshow Talk (free admission)
WED 4th of June., 18.30 h > Talkshow with Koffi Kôkô
(free admission)
> The Production
Our first view is of a video projection: ritual dancers swing on
bamboo poles twelve meters up, next to the gods. It is said that
they - like leaves born on the wind - fall when they lose their
balance at the height of their trance. At the same time human limbs
emerge from two cocoons stuck to long bamboo poles: the bodies of
the dancers slowly become visible.
These are the images with which Koffi Kôkô begins his
choreography. Before the eyes of the audience the appropriation
of the stage space by the dancers and its transformation into "an
altar of scents where the spirits of the past and of the present
meet in dance" takes place. (Koffi Kôkô).
A journey through the teachings of life from the traditional to
the modern: on the one hand Koffi Kôkô refers to tradition
with the techniques of his spiritual origins, on the other hand
the modern, poetic body language conveys the moment of initiation,
of upheaval.
> The Idea
"The sound of a bell invites me to seek the small plant in
the ocean so that it may reveal the secrets of life which I have
maybe forgotten or which have remained hidden to me until this point
in time…
The plant is the all-encompassing symbol of nature. It heals, nourishes,
bears witness and stimulates poetic fantasy. It dies and lives again.
It reminds us of the circle of each existence from birth to death,
then to reincarnation in the metamorphosis.
This particular plant offers resistance to principles which at the
same time control its entrance into the world: a resistance against
or forsaking of traditions, conventions, time, doubt and solitude
which it also requires. Hope remains first and foremost - let us
call it the belief in the desired uprising - the one which leads
to universal light. Hölderlin described it like this: 'to follow
a star, nothing else'". Koffi Kôkô
> The Company
The dancer and choreographer Koffi Kôkô is founding
member and outstanding representative of the contemporary African
dance scene. Although born into a family of diplomats he turned
to the spiritual traditions of Benin as a child. Koffi Kôkô
unites two languages and ways of thinking: that of the contemporary
artist and that of the priest. He has been living in Paris and Ouidah,
Benin since the Eighties.
The rehearsals for the production commissioned by the Haus der
Kulturen der Welt have been taking place mainly in historical
sites in this West African country. The dancers and musicians of
the trans-African company come from Benin, Nigeria and Burkina Faso.
The composer and musician, João de Bruço from Brasil,
has already collaborated with Koffi Kôkô in the production
of "The Maids".
Set design and costumes were created by Pede Yves Appolinaire, one
of the artists who created the famous "Porte de non retour"
(Gate of No Return) in Ouidah - a memorial to the path of slaves
to the ocean.
The other productions:
- The Global Soul - The Buddha Project >>
- Diva Siva >>
- Undesirable Elements Berlin >>
- Report on Giving Birth >>
- The Incredible Disappearing Woman >>
- Mapplethorpe >>
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