Choreographed by Fred Bendongué
Musical direction Areski Hamitouche

A solo filled with humour followed by a creation that describes the nostalgia of mythical Africanity and just how difficult it is to think about it today. A smart blend of hip-hop and tap dancing, the energy of capoeira and cabaret. Following on from a long stay in Salvador de Bahia, this work by Fred Bendongué and the musician Areski Hamitouche offers us a vision of the writer Frantz Fanon's line of thought, an animated reaction to the hopes and quandaries of the third world. “The dance circle is permissive. It protects and, at the same time, authorizes”.

Source : Biennale de la danse – program - 1996

Credits

Chorégraphie de Fred Bendongué
Direction Musicale Areski Hamitouche
Réalisation Charles Picq
Comédien Doudou Diop
Costumes Ktyré
Lumières Valérie Colas

Updating : April 2012

Fred Bendongué, choreographer and performer since 1987, acknowledged and acclaimed in 1994 during the Biennale de la danse in Lyon, and recognized by the profession on the other side of the Atlantic in 1996 with his “Mama Africa”, which received the Bessie Award, has forged a unique personality through dance.

He is part of this generation of dancers who live for challenges, and he has constantly taken on challenges in creativity, in exchanging and in encounters. From the street to the stage, Fred Bendongué gained his experience through hip-hop, which he rapidly exalted and which led him to be invited as soloist for the ballet Roland Petit. He trained in classical dance with the greatest teachers, fashioned a signature, an indelible signature that has made his movement successful, full and charged with emotion. He continued his route and studied capoeira and Congolese rumba.

All urban forms of dance appeal to him, as he comprehends the essence and knows how to reinterpret their beauty. For Fred Bendongué, dance is a means of integration and emancipation.

Source : Cie Fred Bendongué 's website

More information : ciefredbendongue.fr