AS WE ARE

Everything comes together in an evening where two great artists confront history. Josephine and Bantu are the latest works of two powerful choreographic voices that do not illustrate history but break it open. In both pieces, the body takes center stage as an archive of colonial imagination, history, resistance, and redefinition.

At 82 years old, Germaine Acogny is a legendary dancer, teacher, and choreographer. The former "spiritual daughter" of Maurice Béjart embodies the life and struggle of the famous Josephine Baker in the solo Josephine. The iconic revue artist who became a symbol of freedom with her resistance to racism, her fight against racial segregation, and her activism for civil rights and equality. Acogny brings her back to life and presents a meeting of connected spirits that is so natural that it is moving.

Without the influence of Germaine Acogny, dance in Africa would look different today. Through her school, École des Sables (School of the Sands), she has inspired and trained many dancers and choreographers. In recent years, she toured with a reinterpretation of Pina Bausch's Le Sacre du Printemps, featuring 30 African dancers from 14 African countries. And now Acogny is back on stage with Josephine.

Gregory Maqoma responds to this solo with Bantu, a creation for twelve dancers from different traditions, who unite their practices in a joyful brotherhood that pays homage to the teachings of Germaine Acogny and her École des Sables. Bantu begins at the origin of the word: being human and being connected. Bantu is a celebration of life without ignoring the social reality of the continent. It is an energetic dance piece that strives for universal humanity.