Decolonial (Hi)stories is a choreographic series conceived and created by Betty Tchomanga / GANG, whose work searches for the narratives and histories that bind the West and Africa. Each episode approaches colonial history and its legacy through the prism of a personal story, a body, a lived experience. Each episode weaves together different threads of a colonial history shared across continents and countries.
At Short Theatre 2026, two portraits are presented: #Mulunesh on September 5 and #Dalila on September 6.
Dalila Khatir is a singer, performer, and vocal coach living in France, where she was born into an Algerian family. We’ve known each other and worked together in different contexts for the past ten years. As with all former French colonies, the history of Algeria is inseparable from that of France, and vice-versa. This portrait adopts the point of view of a woman born during the Algerian war into an Algerian family that emigrated to France. What can this unique story tell us about the colonial past that links these two countries?
– Betty Tchomanga
This solo uses body and voice to summon figures of “marginalised” women, from girls to grandmothers, from the raï singer Cheikha Rimitti to the “Hottentot Venus” and the revolutionary women of Iran. In it, the body and face are veiled and unveiled, giving way to a parade of masks. Decolonial (Hi)stories #Dalila is a kind of puppet theatre using only a table, a chair, a lamp, and a video projector as props, as it oscillates between interrogation, intimate confession, and life story.
Born in 1989 from a Cameroonian father and a French mother, Betty Tchomanga began her artistic training in 2004 at the Conservatoire de Bordeaux and with Alain Gonotey of Cie Lullaby. She then trained at the Centre National de Danse Contemporaine d’Angers (CNDC) in 2007 under Emmanuelle Huynh. She began her career as a performer in 2009, working with artists such as Emmanuelle Huynh, Alain Buffard, Fanny de Chaillé, Gaël Sesboüé, Herman Diephuis, Marlene Monteiro Freitas and Nina Santes.
Alongside her artistic career, Betty pursued literary studies at the Université Paris 3 – Sorbonne Nouvelle, graduating with a Master’s in modern literature in 2014.
Since 2019, Betty Tchomanga has focussed on her writing and research as a choreographer. Her pieces explore the notion of transgression in the sense of going beyond, crossing a limit, whether physical or aesthetic.
Betty Tchomanga likes to produce hybrid forms in which bodies transform and metamorphose. She works with practices that involve overcoming the limits of body and mind through intense engagement of breath, body and voice. Since the creation of her solo Mascarades in 2019, she has been researching the voodoo cult and the representations associated with it. She is interested in the narratives that link the West and Africa, particularly through colonial history.
Betty Tchomanga choreographed and directed Madame (2016), Mascarades (2019), Lessons of Darkness (2022) and the choreographic series Decolonial (Hi)stories (2023-2026). She is an associated artist at Danse à tous les étages – Choreographic development center in Brittany and Théâtre de la Bastille in Paris.
created by Betty Tchomanga / GANG
artistic collaborator and performer Dalila Khatir
sound director Stéphane Monteiro
sound engineer Maëlan Carquet
costumes Marino Marchand in collaboration with Betty Tchomanga
set design and props Betty Tchomanga in collaboration with Vincent Blouch
production Marion Cachan & Florentine Busson
administration Marion Le Guerroué
ph. Alain Monot