THE DIVINE CYPHER
Ana Pi (Belo Horizonte | Paris)
Schedule
Based on the works of avant-garde director Maya Deren, who conducted research on “Voudoun” culture in Haiti during the 1940’s and 50’s, choreographer, video artist, and dancer Ana Pi examines the connection between ancestral and contemporary Haitian dances. Like a cypher, like a round dance that is open to other artists whose approach is transdisciplinary, collective, and circular, THE DIVINE CYPHER combines radical imagination and African Diasporic art. In playing with dances, objects, and costumes, multiple layers of individual as well as collective memories, of archives of the past and futurity, overlap. Musically, too, the choreographer unites traditional and contemporary through experimental composition. While this remains a solo evening, Ana Pi enters into dialogue with her ancestors, with Maya Deren, with Madame Katherine Dunham, her predecessor, and with Haitian women artists she encountered during her research process.
Biography
Choreographer and imagery artist, educator, and extemporary dancer Ana Pi examines Afro-diasporic and urban dances in her works. During her research journeys, she engages with dimensions of transit, displacement, belonging, remembrance, and ordinary gestures. She founded the NA MATA LAB for choreographic, poetic, and political research in 2020. Her artistic works touch on choreography, discourse, and installation. THE DIVINE CYPHER premiered on November 18th and 19th 2021 at the Briqueterie CDCN Val-de-Marne within the framework Festival d’Automne in Paris / Carte blanche à Lia Rodrigues.
Cast
Concept, Choreography, Scenography, Video, Research, Performance Ana Pi Lighting & Stage Management Bia Kaysel Music, Sound Jideh HIGH ELEMENTS | Emy de Pradines | Auguste de Pradines – Ezili Nenenn Ô | Julien Creuzet | Maya Deren Real Memories, Dreamed Dialogue Katherine Dunham | Maya Deren | Emy de Pradines | Lumane Casimir | Martha Jean-Claude | Toto Bissainthe | Marie-Ange Aurilin | Ginite Popote | Tara El | Wendy Désert | Gerda Boisguené | Murielle Jassinthe | TRVANIA | Jenny Mezile Semiotic Perspective Prof. Dr. Cida Moura Philosophical Perspective Prof. Dr. Maria Fernanda Novo Visual Perspective Julien Creuzet Filter Design Emilien Colombier Costume @remexefavelinha Contributions to Scenography Studio Julien Creuzet
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Production & Realization
Administration, Production, Diffusion Hanna Mauvieux | NA MATA LAB Executive Production NA MATA LAB | Ana Pi Co-production The Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Research Institute for the Study of Art from Latin America | Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA | Terra Batida, Alkantara, Portugal | Be My Guest — Réseau international pour les pratiques émergentes | La Briqueterie CDCN du Val-de-Marne | CNDC, Angers | Kunstencentrum Vooruit, Gand – within the framework of the cooperation programme Hauts-de-France / Flandres Film Co-production Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain’s Soirées Nomades. Funded by Spedidam | Region Ile-de-France | DRAC Ile-de-France
Funded by Institut français Deutschland | French Ministry of Culture
The project at the SPIELART Theatre Festival is a collaboration with the Malta Festival Poznań and the Santarcangelo Festival, supported by the European Festivals Fund for Emerging Artists – EFFEA, co-funded by the European Union.
Thanks to the ancestor’s persistence and to the young people who will join this timeless cypher. To Maya Deren and the keenness of all the traces she offers us, to the wisdom and power of Madame Katherine Dunham, her predecessor, to Lia Rodrigues who has been opening the way for a long time. This dance is dedicated to the revolutionary beauty of the Haitian people, from the past, the future and the present.
