Kalakuta Republik

Immobility as an introduction, with six dancers on the stage. Soon they are joined by a seventh. And from that number, which could define an order and impose absolutes, explode frenetic races and endless marches that are like so many angry metaphors for an urgent desire to live... The stage then starts too look a lot like the Shrine, that mythical, hybrid place, at once temple and night club, where Fela Kuti used to sing his hope and his revolt after praying with the audience. For Kalakuta Republik, Serge Aimé Coulibaly, the Burkinabé choreographer, draws inspiration from the music and the scandalous life of the Nigerian singer and musician, a politically-active artist who, from a stage-soapbox, angrily denounced the corruption of power, sexism, inequalities, and multinational corporations. Kalakuta Republic is the name he'd given to his residence, in the suburb of Lagos, a place he saw as an independent republic. A herald of counterculture in West Africa, Fela Kuti and his personality, his engagement, his revolts, and his revolutionary afrobeat, are at the heart of what inspired this show, which focuses on the unquenchable thirst for freedom of today's youth in Burkina Faso. Kalakuta Republik isn't a biography of Fela Kuti, nor is it a musical show based on his work. It is an exploration of artistic engagement and of the position adopted by politically-minded artists in today's society. For Serge Aimé Coulibaly, dance is a march, and marching is a transformation: “marchers who come to a country will contribute to the building of that country for a long time to come. That is the reality of humanity, its hope.”

Choreography Serge Aimé Coulibaly
Music Yvan Talbot
Dramaturgy Sara Vanderieck
Stage design and costumes Catherine Cosme
Lights Hermann Coulibaly
Video Ève Martin
Sound Sam Serruys
Assistant choreographer Sayouba Sigué

With Marion Alzieu, Serge Aimé Coulibaly, Ida Faho, Antonia Naouele, Adonis Nebié,
Sayouba Sigué, Ahmed Soura

Production Faso Danse Théâtre, Halles de Schaerbeek (Bruxelles)
Co-production Maison de la Danse de Lyon, Torinodanza, Le Manège Scène nationale de Maubeuge, Le Tarmac (Paris), Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, Ankata (Bobo-Dioulasso), Les Récréâtrales (Ouagadougou), Festival Africologne, De Grote Post (Ostende)
With the support of Fédération Wallonie Bruxelles And for the 71st edition of the Festival d'Avignon : Fondation BNP Paribas
Artistic residence Musée des Confluences (Lyon)
In partnership with France Médias Monde