Mascarades

Betty Tchomanga (FR)

Dance

Auditório Municipal de Vila do Conde

17 Sept (Sat) | 22:30
National Premiere
M/12 | duration. 45 min. | 5 €

Mami Wata is a goddess of water, a figure from the depths of night, of power and sexuality. A stranded mermaid who faces people watching her. She jumps. The jump that goes through her is a vertical jump, a regular one. The Latin word to say "to dance" is saltare, from saltus, "the jump". Creating dance from jumps as a persistence of an ancient gesture – perhaps universal ? – a movement from the depths of a human being. Jump as a metaphor of desire, a search for pleasure. A desire of pleasure. A desire for other, a desire for another, for what we do not have, for what we are not.

Jump to exult. Jump to expel. Jump to endure. Jump to resist. Jump to reach. Jump to become. Jump to die. Jump to exist.

Musics
16th Step - DJ Lag
Libérez la bête - Casey
Horses in the sky - A Silver Mt. Zion

Creation and performance: Betty Tchomanga | Lighting design: Eduardo Abdala | Sound design: Stéphane Monteiro | Outside look: Dalila Khatir and Emma Tricard | Vocal consultant: Dalila Khatir | Production director: Aoza - Marion Cachan | Special thanks to: Marlene Monteiro Freitas, Gaël Sesboüé and Vincent Blouch | Production: Lola Gatt Production | With the support of: Endowment Fund of Quartz, national scene of Brest | Partners: Le Pacifique - CDCN of Grenoble, L'Atelier de Paris CDCN, La Gare - Fabrique des Arts en mouvement in Relecq-Kerhuon, Festival La Bécquée - Un soir à l'Ouest, le Cabaret Vauban - Brest | Sponsor: SARL SICC Saint-André-de-Cubzac

This project received assistance for creation from the City of Brest and the Ministry of Culture - DRAC of Brittany.

The Lola Gatt association is supported by the Brittany region.

Premiere: March 2020, Festival Artdanthé, Vanves, France

www.lola-gatt.com | aoza-production.com

Betty Tchomanga

I was born in 1989 in a French region of Charente-Maritime. My father is Cameroonian and my mother is French. At the age of 9 I start my first lessons of modern jazz dance and classical dance. From 2004 to 2006 I study in Conservatoire de Bordeaux as well as with Alain Gonotey Cie Lullaby. In 2007 I turn, particularly, towards contemporary dance and join choreographic artists course in Centre National de Danse Contemporaine in Angers (CNDC) supervised by Emmanuelle Huynh.

At the same time I keep on with my literary studies at Université Paris 3 Sorbonne Nouvelle until 2014, where I get my master's degree in Modern Literature .

I finish my CNDC Angers courses in 2009 and at the same time I start my performer's career with Emmanuelle Huynh (Cribles, Augures) and Alain Buffard (Tout va bien). Afterwards, I multiply my performer's experience for choreographers with various aesthetics: Raphaëlle Delaunay (Bitter Sugar), Fanny de Chaillé (Passage à l’acte), Gaël Sesboüé (Grammes), Éléonore Didier (Moi, mes copines, à l’instant où ça s’arrête), Anne Collod (Le parlement des Invisibles), Herman Diephuis (Clan ; Mix), Nina Santès (Hymen Hymne).

Nonetheless, this experience is mainly influenced by my encounter and collaboration with Marlene Monteiro Freitas. We started working together in 2014 and still do today (D’ivoire et chair, les statues souffrent aussi ; Bacchantes, prélude pour une purge). Other artistic experiences continue to nourish my performer's practice. In particular, the ones with the plastic artist Alex Ceccetti and also my lead role in Secteur IX B, a film of Mathieu K. Abonnenc that he presented at Venice Biennale in 2015.

Since my graduation from CNDC in Angers 2009 I never dissociated the practice of the performer from that of the creator. The latter will take different forms: in 2012 I create –A– ou il a sûrement peur de l’eau le poisson in collaboration with musician Romain Mercier ; then in 2013, a show in situ called Le Rivage in collaboration with Oriane Déchery and Jérôme Andrieu.

In 2016, I join l’Association Lola Gatt Productions chorégraphiques based in Brest as an associated choreographer together with Gaël Sesboüé and Marie-Laure Caradec. The very same year I choreograph and direct a play for three performers called Madame.

Nowadays I work on a solo project called Mascarades that I choreograph and perform.