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Although I live inside... My hair will always reach towards the sun...
“How does a white woman living in Africa work together with a black woman living in Europe…”
What can we expect from this reflection highlighted under the (equally lengthy) title of Robyn Orlin and Sophiatou Kossoko’s show? Absolutely anything and everything! Karaoke to french treasure Johnny Hallyday, striptease dancing, even the transformation of the bleachers into miniature Niagara Falls. No, we won’t be caught out again! Sophiatou Kossoko may have chosen her choreographer—a rare privilege—but it’s clear that the undertaking is no easy task… Between Robyn Orlin, the South African choreographer who loves nothing more than subverting classical aesthetics (ballet, opera…), and Sophiatou Kossoko, the Beninese-born performer (whose solo Tchouraï, written for Germaine Acogny during the 2006 Biennale, we saw), who has been through the wringer of academicism—even contemporary academicism—the solo quickly turns into a frank explanation.
Dressed as a music hall girl with an afro wig and a gold jumpsuit, Sophiatou Kossoko performs a wonderful act as a frustrated performer who goes along with her boss’s crazy ideas because she has to and because she is “paid to do so.” She grumbles but gets on with it. She decorates the stands with multiple plastic swimming pools, which she sprinkles with water while evoking the water problems in Africa; she invites the audience to take off their shoes and wash their feet before dancing as they would in Africa by the river. Implicit in this bravura piece, Robyn Orlin raises the question of individual freedom and develops a critique of the dictatorship of the author. She also pokes fun at herself, her authority, and her militant message, encouraging each performer to be their own subject. Sophiatou Kossoko succeeds brilliantly and with immense humor. She draws the audience into her madness for a wild, delirious, and completely zany aquatic adventure that leaves us with light hearts but wet feet!
Source: Maison de la Danse de Lyon
