"As soon as man is born, the race against death begins... Solar eclipses are very rare events lasting no more than eight minutes. And if you only had eight minutes left to live, what would be your choice ?".
 

This choreographic reflection aims to challenge the human being to know the real purpose of his existence.
 

The eclipse also represents the periods of darkness that life imposes on individuals, when they come across loneliness, doubt or uncertainty. In the same way that the eclipse comes to cover the sun, darkness falls on our lives but one morning, the light returns and it is a brighter, more cheerful world that we discover.
 

Initially subtitled "Des ténèbres à la lumière", the piece Eclipse was first imagined in Abidjan, in the form of short sequences, before being created in a longer stage format, in November 2011, at the French Institute of Benin, in Cotonou. Rescheduled on November 30, 212 at the Théâtre de Verdure of the French Institute of Benin, the play appears in the Festival “Dansons Maintenant 2! », organized by the  Fondation Zinsou.
 

Source: Program of the show, Festival "Dancing Now!" , Zinsou Foundation, 2012. Interview Abdoulaye Trésor Konaté, by Anne Decoret-Ahiha, May 23, 2022.

Abdoulaye Trésor Konaté is an Ivorian dancer, choreographer and designer, born in Korhogo. From the age of 14 ,he ensured his own subsistence thanks to his trade as a car mechanic. It was only at the age of 22 that he devoted himself fully to his passion, dance. Practicing traditional, urban and modern jazz dances, he refined his training in contemporary dance in 2004 during the Choreographic Meetings of Ouagadougou - Dialogues de Corps, initiated by Salia Sanou and Seydou Boro, in Burkina Faso. His meeting with the latter two as well as with Mathilde Monnier and Pierre Doussaint marked him deeply. He became an interpreter for the Klozaï, Djiguiya and Georges Momboye companies, for which he became the assistant. In 2009, he was selected by Frenchman Kamel Ouali who choreographed the opening ceremony of the Pan-African Festival in Algiers. Meanwhile, in 2008, he founded the company Jasp with Roméo Bron Bi Tra and Anselme Mazou, and created a studio in Abidjan, in the Deux Plateaux district. He trains nearly 300 dancers from the Cebafrica troupe in Côte d'Ivoire and signs the choreographies of clips for gospel singers. The political crisis that hit Côte d'Ivoire following the presidential elections at the end of 2010 put an abrupt end to its activities. At the beginning of April 2011, while the civil war was raging and the country suffered an economic and monetary blockage, he left for Benin, where he was to go a few months later, at the invitation of a major gospel festival. During this 2-year exile, he created the play Eclipse, performed at the French Institute of Cotonou (2011) and during the Festival “Dansons Maintenant ! (2012). He immersed himself in traditional Beninese and voodoo dances with Koffi Kôkô, and led numerous contemporary dance workshops at the Center Chorégraphique Multicorps and at the Hotel Eldorado. Performer in Andréya Ouamba's and Awoulath Alougbin's pieces, he also participates in performances during exhibitions of visual artists organized by the Laboratorio Art Contemporain, and designs the costumes of the Beninese singer Kinzah.
 

In 2013, he moved to France,  Strasbourg, and performed in for Bernardo Montet's Rework O'More, (2017), for Alfred Alert (2017), and Christiane Emmanuelle (2021).

In 2015, Cie Jasp was renamed ATeKa, from the initials of its creator.
 

From 2016 to 2019, Abdoulaye Trésor Konaté is an associate artist at Pôle Danse des Ardennes (Sedan). He created the duo Rien à aborder (2018), with Myriam Soulanges (Awarded “Matière Première” by the Grand Studio de Bruxelles of the Festival Les Hivernales-Avignon) and Sucre, An ice cream for a nice crime (2019). In 2017–2018, he is the first winner of the City of Cannes for his call for artistic and cultural education projects. In 2020-2021, he benefits from the DRAC Grand Est structuring aid and is named Golden Knight of Dance in Ivory Coast by the Ivorian Dance Federation Accor'danse in collaboration with the National Center for Arts and of Culture (CNAC) of Côte d'Ivoire. In 2021, he transforms his solo Humming Birds / colibri, created in 2016, into a piece for 15 performers represented at MASA (Marché des Arts du Spectacle d'Abdijan) in March 2022.
 

Source: ATeka Company website, Interview Abdoulaye Trésor Konaté, by Anne Decoret-Ahiha, May 23, 2022.

Fondation Zinsou has recorded all the performances given during the festival "Dansons Maintenant !" "that was organized in 2011, 2012 and 2015 in Cotonou, Benin. Interviews of dancers and choreographers invited for the festival were also realized.

These recordings and interviews have been uploaded on Numeridanse as a courtesy with the aim of making them reachable by many people as possible, taking into account their scientific nature and their contribution to the dissemination and promotion of contemporary African art, more particularly  the field of contemporary African dance.

Directed by Marie-Cécile Zinsou, the Zinsou Foundation opened its doors in June 2005 in Cotonou, Benin. A pioneer in West Africa, it works to promote contemporary art in Africa. Platform and exhibition center for contemporary African artists particularly Benin artists, in the Ouidah Museum and in the Lab, at Cotonou, the Foundation also acts for the promotion of education and social development through cultural and educational activities aimed in particular at young audiences,  with the major challenge of free accessibility . In 2011, the Zinsou Foundation exhibited Antoine Tempé's dance photographs and invited choreographers to create a work in situ, in resonance with the images of exposed bodies. The  success of this event entitled “Dansons Maintenant !", (Let's Dance Now!) convinces the Foundation to organize a second edition, in 2012, dedicated solely to dance, around the theme of urbanity. In 2015, a third edition took place, in conjunction with the “African Records” exhibition devoted to African music and photography from the 1950s, 1970s and 1980s, which provided the motive for new co-productions of performances. The three editions of "Dansons Maintenant ! " 2011, 2012 and 2015 have all been recorded on video  (shows, restitutions of workshops, interview) and make an archive collection of 120 videos. 

The extracts from the Archive collection of "Dansons Maintenant !" have been made available free of charge by the Zinsou Foundation.

  The deposit of the video archives of "Dansons maintenant !", belonging to Fondation Zinsou was made possible thanks to the Centre National de la Danse Research award in dance, granted in 2021 to Dr Anne Décoret-Ahiha for her research project "Consolidation of the African choreographic field: focus on Benin" and with the kind permission of the artists.