The word is out: the Festival de Marseille and Ruhrtriennale will present Serge Aimé Coulibaly‘s new creation Kirina.
Inspired by a founding West African battle, Kirina is a contemporary epic drawing from the wellsprings of history and fiction. On stage, nine dancers, six musicians, one narrator and forty local extra’s tell the story of a people bursting with hope and revolt, marching towards its future.
In Kirina Serge Aimé Coulibaly makes migration the theme of a choreographic, musical and intellectual exploration. Migratory movements have always had a key effect on our cultures and been agents of transformation. What are the languages, musical forms and narratives that have been created through migration and how have these influenced the cultures of other peoples and countries? In his search for a contemporary language equipped to question the present world and its underlying systems, Serge Aimé Coulibaly will address the founding myths of West African culture and how its stories operate across generations in the consciousness of today’s societies and influence their visions of the future.
In Rokia Traoré, the internationally celebrated musician from neighbouring Mali who creates her own contemporary version of classical Mandinka music, Serge Aimé Coulibaly, himself from Burkina Faso, has found an ideal partner for this new work. His choreography will be enhanced by four musicians and the dialogue between two singers and one narrator. The intellectual and textual basis for the work will be provided by the Senegalese economist, writer and musician Felwine Sarr, author of the book Afrotopia, with its pleas for an African “contemporanéité”.
You can discover Kirina this summer during the Festival the Marseille from June 29th to July 2nd and during the Ruhrtriennale from August 18th to 22nd or later in the season somewhere around the world. (all dates can be found here)
