Ayiti, island of mountains, where the Tainos, Arawaks, Marien, Magua, Maguana, Higuey, Xaragua and many others lived when christopher columbus set foot in 1492. 1492 marks the beginning of the genocide, the brutal extractivism of the many territories of Abya Yala, and the enslavement of African peoples in the triangulated trade. For more than 500 years this european-imposed America has been defied. Among the multitudinous and ongoing revolts stands famous a dance gathering: a congress, Vodou ceremony and war council summoned by an African priestess that sparked the glorious and triumphant Haitian Revolution in 1791. A Revolution that is hidden to this day from the political imaginary of those who struggle for a world where many worlds fit.
Cecilia Lisa Eliceche and Leandro Nerefuh want to learn from Haiti about anti-colonial resistance through and in the form of dance and cultivation. One is no one without others. Together and thanks to many great collaborators Cecilia and Leandro will make a work in honor of Ayiti, its richness, its dances, and its divine inhabitants. An homage to the island in the form of a dance poem. Diving in the deep waters of the Caribbean. Abismus invocatia Abismus.
The Dutch premiere took place in Brakke Grond (Amsterdam) on the 7th and 8th of November 2019.
EXTRA INFO
Project year: 2019
Project type: Dance
Language: Language No Problem
CREDITS
Conjuring and choreography: Cecilia Lisa Eliceche
Environmental program and Secretariat: Leandro Nerefuh
Dance: Cecilia Lisa Eliceche, Estelle Foli Adjo, Luciana Barauna
Movement training and advice for Yanvalou: Dieufel Lamisere and Estelle Foli Adjo
Movement training and advice for Oxumare and Ewa: Nancy de Souza (Cici), Luciana Barauna
Sound: Cecilia Lisa Eliceche and Leandro Nerefuh in collaboration with Clarions da Bahia, Ton Tonceles (Irmãos no Coro)
Introduction to Haitian drum: James Savoy
Text correction and advice: Jean-Daniel Lafontant and Nancy de Souza (Cici)
Unitards and attributes: Leandro Nerefuh, Dubréus Lhérisson, Camila Rossi Kennerley
Production: wpZimmer with Cecilia Lisa Eliceche, Leandro Nerefuh, Abentumba
Co-production: C-TAKT, Arts Centre Vooruit, STUK, Brakke Grond, Kunstenwerkplaats Pianofabriek, Workspacebrussels, Sala do Coro do Teatro Castro Alves
Artist in residence: Haiti Dansco (Cap-Haitien, Haiti), Teatro Vila Velha (Salvador, Bahia), Ilê Pierre Fatumbi Verger (Salvador, Bahia)
With the support of: the Flemish Community
Special thanks to: the friends of the snakes – Tumba Junsara, Paulo França, Moises Lino e Silva, Arthur Seabra (fotografia), Thales de Azevedo, Som Peba, Camila Rossi Kennerley, Yan Britto, Junior Oliveira, Helga Baert, Carine Meulders, Tarek Halaby, Gloria Wekker, Quinsy Gario, Mathieu Charles, Rose-Myrtha Vercammen.
All images licensed under: Libidiunga Commons
PROJECT DATES
08/05/2019, Teatro Castro Alves/try-out, Salvador (BR)
09/05/2019, Teatro Castro Alves, Salvador (BR)
15/05/2019, Teatro Castro Alves, Salvador (BR)
16/05/2019, Teatro Castro Alves, Salvador (BR)
07/11/2019, De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam (NL)
08/11/2019, De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam (NL)
20/11/2019, Vooruit, Ghent (BE)
21/11/2019, Vooruit, Ghent (BE)
26/03/2020, CC Strombeek/workspacebrussels, Grimbergen (BE) – cancelled due to COVID-19
02/04/2020, STUK, Leuven (BE) – cancelled due to COVID-19
18/04/2020, Galerias Municipais, Lisbon (PT) – cancelled due to COVID-19
19/04/2020, Galerias Municipais, Lisbon (PT) – cancelled due to COVID-19
12/03/2021, STUK, Leuven (BE)