Nadia Beugré‘s new creation delves into her homeland, taking her back to her childhood, to the village of Yikakou. An impossible return to a secret and imaginary village, another lost Macondo in Ivory Coast, the village of her grandmothers, the village where she grew up. A village that no longer exists, since its land has been covered by the forest and cursed. This journey will lead to the figure of the grandmother who gave Beugré the name “Gbahihonon”, meaning “the woman who says what she sees”.
The journey will follow in the footsteps of other powerful, often forgotten women who, in the shadows of collective memory, created and destroyed empires and dynasties, such as Dô-Kamissa. After her brother offended her, Dô-Kamissa turned into a buffalo to destroy his lands and skillfully arranged the marriage of the king, Naré Maghann Konaté, with Sogolon Kandé, the hunchbacked woman. Soundiata Keita originated from this peculiar union, giving rise to an epic that has spanned the centuries ever since. With her generous and explosive presence on stage, Nadia Beugré allows these voices to inhabit her, moving between collective memories, rituals and intimate recollections. Two women accompany her on stage: a griot, bearer of clans and forgotten stories, and a musician, both echoing and witnessing her story.
Nadia Beugré was born in Ivory Coast and debuted in 1995 as a member of the Dante Theatre. Two years later, she was a founding member of Béatrice Kombé’s innovative female dance ensemble TchéTché, with whom she toured for years to critical acclaim in Africa, Europe and North America. After training at Germaine Acogny’s École des Sables in Senegal, in 2009 she joined Ex.e.r.ce, Mathile Monnier’s programme for talented emerging choreographers at the Centre Chorégraphique National de Montpellier. She soon began creating her own productions, including Quartiers libres, which has been touring since 2012. Her first collective work, Legacy, premiered at the La Bâtie festival in Geneva in 2015 and was presented at the Festival d’Automne in Paris, among others. After Tapis Rouge (2017), Roukasskaas Club (2019) and L’Homme rare (2020), in 2023, Beugré created Filles-Pétroles and Prophétique (on est déjà né.es), two works that portray the Ivorian youth on fire. In the same year, she received the SACD Prize for New Choreographic Talent.
Beugré also performs in the works of fellow choreographers such as Seydou Boro, Dorothée Munyaneza, Bernardo Montet, Rémy Héritier, Boris Charmatz and Robyn Orlin.
In 2020, with Virginie Dupray, she co-founded the Libr’Arts dance company, a platform based in Montpellier focusing on production, touring and training, developing projects and programmes between France and Ivory Coast.
artistic direction and performance Nadia Beugré
performance and live music Salimata Diabaté (percussions, balafon), Charlotte Dali (voice, percussions)
dramaturgy Kader Lassina Touré
set design Jean-Christophe Lanquetin
lighting design and technical direction Paulin Ouedraogo
production Virginie Dupray / Libr’Arts
coproduction (in progress) Montpellier Danse
residency Cité internationale de la danse
with the support of Fondation BNP Paribas, Kunstenfestivaldesarts – Bruxelles, Charleroi danse – Centre chorégraphique national de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, Festival d’Automne à Paris, Theater Freiburg, Centre chorégraphique national de Caen en Normandie (Accueil studio / Ministère de la Culture), ICI – Centre chorégraphique national de Montpellier Occitanie / direzione Christian Rizzo
with the support of DRAC Occitanie and of Région Occitanie Pyrénées-Méditerranée
thanks to Ivoire Marionnettes e Institut français de Côte d’Ivoire
and with the support of Nuovi Mecenati – Fondazione franco-italiana di sostegno alla creazione contemporanea and of Fondazione Alta Mane Italia
ph. Werner Strouven