Le Cargo

Faustin Linyekula Democratic Republic of the Congo

contemporary dance

​

Faustin Linyekula has spent over a decade telling stories. Stories of the Congo. Of the Democratic Republic of Congo; of Zaire, of the Belgian Congo. For the country has been called all of these names throughout its history. In these stories, the bodies are marked by history and lives are marked by violence.

But how can one let the body speak of history while leaving words behind, if only for an instant?

Does one leave behind the companions of the road – be they Kabako, Vumi or Papa Rovinsky --- in order to return to the self?

How does one remember the dance, or at least a certain romantic idea of dance, something that occurs in the instant just before words, just before the outcry, just before the story, or in the space thereafter?

In this journey towards himself, Linyekula will board a train that does not exist anymore, whose rails have been swallowed by the forest. He will search for that which ceases to exist, to dance that which has be en forbidden by the new age, by the God of Miracles. He will find the master drummer who has given up rhythm to become a pastor.

​

Credits

choreography & performance: Faustin Linyekula

music: Flamme Kapaya, Obilo drummers.

premiered at the Centre National de la danse in Pantin (France) on 7 et 8 April 2011.

production: Studios Kabako / Virginie Dupray.

co-production: Centre national de la danse — Pantin Studios Kabako with support from the DRAC Ile-de-France / French Ministry of Culture and Communication.

​

Bio

Dancer and choreographer, Faustin lives and works in Kisangani, North-East of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Following literature and theatre studies in Kisangani, he settles in Nairobi in 1993 and collaborates with Opiyo Okach and Afrah Tenambergen, co-founding in 1997 the first contemporary dance company in Kenya, the Gàara company.

Back in Congo in June 2001, he created in Kinshasa the Studios Kabako, a space dedicated to dance and visual theatre, providing training programmes, as well as supporting research and creation: the Studios Kabako. Memory, forgetting, and the suppression of memory, in - his works, Faustin addresses the legacy of decades of war, terror, fear and the collapse of the economy for himself, his family and his friends.

With the Studio, Faustin has presented 15 pieces. Among its most recent creations, more more more... future (2009) that is still extensively touring in Europe, United States and Africa, Pour en finir avec Bérénice (2010), Faustin’s own private version of Jean Racine’s piece previously staged for the Comédie Française in Paris in Spring 09 and Drums and Digging, premiered at the Avignon Festival in July 013. Other recent collaborations include La Création du Monde 1923-2012, a piece for 24 dancers of the Ballet de Lorraine in Nancy (2012) and Sans-titre (2009), a duet written by Raimund Hoghe. Faustin has also been collaborating with museums, the MOMA in NYC, the MUCEM in Marseille, and soon the Metropolitan Museum.

Faustin is teaching in Africa, Europe (Parts / Brussels, CNDC / Angers, Impulstanz / Vienna...) and in the United States (Univeristy of Florida, Gainesville...).

In December 2007, he received the Principal Award of the Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development and is associate artist of the KVS Theater in Brussels. Since 2006, Studio Kabako’s activities have resettled in Kisangani, and have extended to other artistic fields, including music and cinema/video. The Studios Kabako are organizing regular workshops and training sessions, as well as producing and touring works by young Congolese artists.

In 2014, Faustin Linyekula and the Studios Kabako received the first prize of the CurryStone Fund for the work they are developping in Kisangani. In 2016, Faustin was associate artist to the city of Lisbon.

​

​

​

​