An extremely physical, explosive, telluric dance. A unique genre that reflects the man from whom it stems. The art of DeLaVallet Bidiefono, a thirty-something Congolese choreographer and pioneer of contemporary dance in his country, is primarily a 'political act' and a mirror of the life of a generation that, “keeping death at bay, which manifests itself every day in Brazzaville,” fights for rebirth.
Born in Pointe-Noire (Congo), DeLaVallet Bidiefono took his first steps as a singer and percussionist before discovering contemporary dance in the capital, Brazzaville, where he moved in 2001. The city had just emerged from a devastating civil war. There were no museums, cinemas, or theaters in the city, and dance, in the words of the choreographer, imposed itself as a possible response to the situation. “Diving into dance – explains Bidiefono – at that moment and in that place, left me no choice but to engage with death. Even though I worked whole days without food, it was as if I were thrust out of my body to find the strength to dance. I was uplifted by a certain form of spirituality and my relationship with the beyond, which many times helped me in my search. It was as if, in that wounded land, the knowledge of the deceased was greater than that of the living.”
It is from this reflection that the art of bodies and music by DeLaVallet is born; from this sense of death emerges his latest work, Au-delà (Beyond), the eighth production of the Baninga company founded in 2005, now a center for the promotion of contemporary dance and local artists in Brazzaville.
Created for the Avignon Festival 2013 and presented during the season at the Maison de la Danse in Lyon, Au-delà brings together two musicians, a percussionist and a guitarist, six dancers, and a singer. It tells the story of how in Congo, people live entangled with death. It is a manifesto performance written with the collaboration of actor and director Dieudonné Niangouna: a hymn to life with the absent, a way to resist the omnipresent violence.
