Prophetics (We are already born)
Nadia Beugré / Libr’Arts
75 min | Parental Rating 14+
ORIGINAL TITLE
Prophétique (on est déjà né.es)
6/3, Wednesday, at 9pm
7/3, Thursday, at 9pm
8/3, Friday, at 7pm
Avenida Paes de Barros, 955, Mooca
SYNOPSIS
For a few years, choreographer Nadia Beugré has been reaching out to the transgender community in Abidjan, Ivory Coast largest city. They are people who, designated as boys at birth, cruise between genders with great freedom, even inserted in a very patriarchal society that, at best, pretends not to see them. Hairdressers by day, dance floor divas by night, these characters live exposed and underground, flowing between parallel circuits and solidarity networks, inventing their own dances that, mixing voguing and coupé-décalé [Ivory Coast musical style], conduct the nights of Abidjan. In the show, Beugré continues the investigation into gender and identity, but also about those she calls “lost”, the misfits, those on the margins, on the periphery, those who are rejected or ignored. The artist questions the assignments and roles in family, society and history – both those attributed to people and those they assume.
Trigger warning: contains loud sound.
HISTORY
Nadia Beugré was born in Ivory Coast and, in 1995, debuted as a dancer at Dante Theatre. After two years, she joined TchéTché, a company of Ivorian choreographer Béatrice Kombé. Working alongside her, Beugré understood that anything can happen onstage. After her mentor’s death in 2007, she studied at the École des Sables in Senegal, and in 2009, she joined Mathilde Monnier’s program for up-and-coming choreographers in Montpellier, France. Soon, she began to stage her own productions, such as solo Quartiers Libres (2012). Her last creation before Prophetics (We are already born), L’Homme Rare, a performance with a male quintet, premiered in 2020. The meeting with French dancer Alain Buffard also determined Beugré’s career: it was he who encouraged her to understand more about the body, sexuality and gender. For a decade, the artist’s plays have traced a singular path around the margins, the exclusion, the abnormal; they travel through changing identities. In 2020, with Virginie Dupray, she founded the dance company Libr’Arts, a production and training platform.
CRITIC
With her goals of integrating themes surrounding gender and identity into her work, Beugré pricks her audience with a clinging residue of vulnerability. With an interplay between self and society, untouched identity and suppressive norms, she particularly aims to emphasize perspectives and journeys that are too often dismissed or overshadowed. She takes those whom she calls “stranded” and guides them to new dimensions, in hopes that her audience (like you) can take foot into that journey with her.
There is something intimate about the atmosphere, perhaps because the sound is overdriven, or the chairs on stage are not fancy, but white plastic garden furniture. It is precisely this ordinariness that is beautiful; you feel the sultry, warm night, in which the nightclub is both the place to watch and be watched, and the place to hide. Don’t expect neat theatre, the performance says at the start. What we do get is a disarming, passionate and committed piece about trans women in the Ivory Coast. During the day they make other people beautiful, at night it is their turn to shine.
TECHNICAL SHEET
Artistic direction: Nadia Beugré
Performance: Beyoncé, Canel, Jhaya Caupenne, Taylor Dear, Acauã Shereya El Bandide and Kevin Kero
Light: Anthony Merlaud
Scenography: Jean-Christophe Lanquetin
Artistic assistance: Christian Romain Kossa
Light management: Bia Kaysel
External eye: Nadim Bahsoun and Adonis Nebié
Subtitles translation: Marta Lisboa
Production: Virginie Dupray (Libr’Arts)
Co-production: Kunstenfestivaldesarts Brussels, Théâtre Le Rideau Brussels, Montpellier Danse, Points Communs Cergy Pontoise, Holland Festival Amsterdam, Culturescapes 2023 Sahara, ICI – Centre Chorégraphique National Montpellier Occitanie (direction: Christian Rizzo), Fonds Transfabrik – Fonds franco-allemand pour le spectacle vivant, Tanz im August/HAU Hebbel am Ufer Berlin, La Place de la danse CDCN Toulouse Occitanie, Théâtre Garonne scène européenne – Toulouse, Les Spectacles Vivants – Centre Pompidou Paris, Festival d’Automne à Paris, Spielart Theaterfestival Munich, Théâtre de Freiburg, Africa Moment Residency: Agora de la danse Montpellier danse, Théâtre Le Rideau Brussels, with support from the DRAC Occitanie – French Ministry for Culture and Communication, and thanks to Ivoire Marionnettes Abidjan and Institut Français de Côte d’Ivoire
THIS SHOW IS SUPPORTED BY THE CONSULATE GENERAL OF FRANCE IN SÃO PAULO AND THE INSTITUT FRANÇAIS
