Dance or Chaos by Souleymane Sanogo
31.01.2020 at 6:30pm
For the first time ever, Alliance Française de Delhi brings to you an extraordinary contemporary solo dance performance titled Dance or Chaos picturing a choreographic documentary by and about the Malian dancer, Souleymane Sanogo. Through this documentary-choreography, Souleymane offers us the powerful story of his life.This choregraphic work introduces us to his life marked by brutality and misery, growing up on the streets of Bamako, Mali. This work caught the attention of P.A.R.T.S., the choreography school founded in Brussels by Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, which is also one of the most selective dance companies in the world.
It is by the expressive force of his art that one enters into the flesh of history, that one sees the deep springs, that one discovers the meanders of his life, a life of misery and brutality. Souleymane Sanogo flails his arms as his dreadlocks fly — he’s in a trance, behind him are odd props. The movements, sometimes abstract, sometimes to a certain rhythm akin to traditional African beats, invite one to connect them to his story. In between, he narrates too, trying to paint a picture of his life’s struggles in French and broken English.
The story of Souleymane Sanogo
Born on October 24, 1988 in Somadougou, central Mali. His childhood is devoted to the tasks of the house and the work of the fields. At the age of fifteen, he fled to Bamako, where he shares the lives of street children. He discovered dance in 2003 thanks to the Haitian choreographer Kettly Noël, who organizes workshops for street children in his Bamako choreographic centerDonkoSéko. He meets choreographers from around the world. At the same time, he learns to read and write. From 2005, he is regularly engaged as an interpreter in choreographies, many of which are internationally distributed. This is particularly the case in 2006 with "Waterproof", a creation of AnusckaBrodacz (The Young Company) through which he discovers Italy, "Chez Rosette" (Kettly Noël, 2008) who knows a beautiful French tour or & quot; Confinement" (Nelisiwe Xaba 1010), a piece that takes him to South Africa. In 2010, he participated in the creation of Copier- Coller, a Bamako contemporary dance company based in the popular district of Sabaligougou. During this period, he participated in one way or another in most of the major choreographic events held in West Africa. In 2011-2012, the Malian theatrical company BlonBa asked him for the creation of his show "Alatèsunogo" (God does not sleep) that mixes theater and contemporary dance and with which it turns in Mali, France and Central Africa. He is then selected by PARTS, the internationally renowned Brussels school founded by choreographer Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, whose cycle he ends in 2016.
