GERMAINE ACOGNY & MIKAËL SERRE (FR/SN)

“The piece shows how we have become what we are. And it raises the question of what we want to become in the future.”
Luxemburger Wort

What choreographies does a woman older than 70 create? The “mother of contemporary African dance” confronts her own past. In the solo Somewhere at the beginning she reads from the memoirs of her father, who as an administrator of the colonies sought to offer his services to the white masters. She tracks down her grandmother who held a powerful position in the village. How do ideas change through an imported religion? And what kind of loneliness does an acknowledged voodoo priestess feel? Mikaël Serre stages her performance in a poetic and intimate way in expansive memory pictures that literally stroll through the veils of history.

“One must become familiar with one’s roots,” says Germaine Acogny. “But one must transform them. Otherwise it’s folklore.” Born and raised in Senegal, she went into exile in Europe, where she later directed the Mudra Afrique for Maurice Béjart and in 2004 founded her own school. In 2007 she received the BESSIE Award in New York. The periodical Jeune Afrique ranks her among the 50 most influential persons of Africa.

Since 2002, the German-French director Mikaël Serre has been producing pieces at renowned venues such as the Parisian Théâtre de la Bastille, the Schauspielhaus Zürich and the Berliner Schaubühne.