Name Faustin Linyekula | Role Choreographer | |
über(W)unden - art in troubled times: Faustin Linyekula & Emmanuel Jal on panel - PART 3
Faustin Linyekula (born February 27, 1974) is a Congolese dancer and choreographer of contemporary dance. His works are structured along the lines of the dance form Ndombolo and its associated music and address "the legacy of decades of war, terror, fear and the collapse of the economy for himself, his family and his friends."
Contents
- berWunden art in troubled times Faustin Linyekula Emmanuel Jal on panel PART 3
- Faustin linyekula artist talk
- Family background
- Career
- With Studio Kabako
- Others
- References
Faustin linyekula artist talk
Family background
Linyekula was born in Ubundu, Zaire, now Democratic Republic of Congo. He was raised in a "multilingual, multicultural" environment, in a Roman Catholic family. Because of the progressive social policies under the rule of Mobutu Sese Seko, the European name, Faustin, could not appear on any legal documents. This was entirely justified, given that European names were imposed on Africans as a form of mental subjugation. This ban against the use of European names continued until the late 1990s.
Career
According to Toba Singer, Linyekula studied literature and theater in Kisangani (in northeast Zaire, his native region). The universities in Zaire were soon shut down; he went to Nairobi, Kenya. In 1997 co-founded the Gaara company with mime Opiyo Okach and dancer Afrah Tenambergen, the first contemporary dance company in Kenya and his first experience as a choreographer. He then traveled to France where he took up a residency first with choreographer Regine Chopinot and then with Mathilde Monnier, and to the Tanzwochen Festival in Vienna, Austria where he and South African dancer Gregory Maqoma created Tales off the Mud Wall (2000).
Returning to the Congo, in June 2001 in Kinshasa he established the Studios Kabako, a structure form multidisciplinary creation and performance; Brenda Dixon Gottschild, professor emerita of Dance Studies at Temple University characterizes this as choosing "the path of most resistance," given his opportunities in Europe.
In 2003, he choreographed a piece for six hip-hop dancers as part of the Suresnes Cites Danse Festival. The French Centre National de la Danse gave him carte blanche to create a festival in 2005; the result was Le Cargo, in which appear ten African companies mostly presenting their work for the first time in Europe. In 2007, his Festival des mensonges ("Festival of Lies") was presented at the Festival d'Avignon, as well as Dinozord: The Dialogue Series (2006).
″Le Cargo″, his first solo (2011) is still touring in Europe (Vienna, Paris, Grenoble, Brussels, Ostende, Genk, Athens, Geneva, Salzburg, Umea, Gdansk, Lisbonne…), Africa (Tunis, Johannesburg, Kinshasa, Lubumbashi, Nouakchott, Dakar, Ouagadougou, Lusaka, Yaounde, Douala, Niamey, Zinder, Djibouti, Kampala, Accra, Bata…) and North America (New York, Portland, Minneapolis, Burlington - Vermont, Ottawa and Vancouver). A piece for 4 dancers and 3 performers, ″Drums and Digging″ (2013) has been premiered at the Avignon festival in 2013 and toured in 2014 in France (Paris, Grenoble, Annecy) and Belgium (Leuven, Brussels, Genk).
Other recent collaborations include La Creation du Monde 1923-2012, a piece for 24 dancers of the Ballet de Lorraine in Nancy and Djodjo Kazadi (2012) and Sans-titre (2009), a duet written by German director Raimund Hoghe.
Faustin Linyekula is also teaching in Africa, Europe (Parts / Brussels, CNDC Angers / France, Impulstanz / Vienna) and in the United States and has been part of a think tank with other African artists and intellectuals around the creation of an arts center near Cape Town. The think tank resulted in the creation of the Africa Centre.
Since 2006, he is based in Kisangani. The Studios Kabako are accompanying there local artistic initiatives in the field of dance, theatre, music and video. In May 9 opened the first professional recording studio of the eastern part of the country.
He is the winner of the 2007 Principal Prince Claus Award.