Faustin Linyekula: Look Back, Dance Forward: TALES OF HOME | Congo/Mozambique

Faustin Linyekula (Democratic Republic of Congo)

Look Back, Dance Forward: TALES OF HOME | Congo/Mozambique
Friday, November 21, 2014 . 8PM
Faustin Linyekula photo by Agathe Poupeney
Special Announcement: 

ARRIVE EARLY! There is no late seating for this event. 

Event Attributes

Presented By

Presented By: 
Estimated Length: 
1 hour with no intermission
Program Notes: 

“I am a storyteller, but I’m not here to tell stories. I’m here to dance.” The spare, unpretentious, free and fluttering movements of Linyekula do indeed tell stories in his self-choreographed solo that is both intimate and luminous.

“Le Cargo” tells of his return to home in a search for things lost and the dance, people and music he reclaims in the process. Original music is composed by Obilo drummers and Bessie Award-winning guitarist Flamme Kapaya.

About TALES OF HOME

This two-evening program of intimately scaled dance-theatre features extraordinary contemporary artists from the African continent. Faustin Linyekula and Panaibra Gabriel Canda grapple with the complex histories of their countries through the filtered experiences and relationships with their fathers and their own experiences of dislocation, forced emigration and cultural assimilation. In very different ways these artists share the rigor and passion of contemporary art in Africa.

The North American tour of Tales of Home: Congo/Mozambique is produced by MAPP International Productions in partnership with The Africa Contemporary Arts Consortium. This presentation of TALES OF HOME:Congo/Mozambique was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Review by The Writer’s Bloc

His performance wasn’t blunt. It was abstract, allowing the audience to paint their own version of his tale. However, Linyekula was clear in his desperation to discover his true dance, how to appropriately aid his people and how to continue preserving his voice as he dances and tells his stories around the world.

KARLA CASIQUE, The Writer’s Bloc, November 23, 2014

Tales of Home, Life, and Death essay

Tales of Home beckons us to move forward towards our shared future, hastened by the heart, and inspired by the imagination. “But that’s not my world,” audiences may initially think, ironically oblivious to the west’s complicity in African realities, past and present. However, in unexpected moments of performance, we will come to know the human experience anew and take our place beside these artists in the reflection of history.

Joan Frosch, PhD, Center for World Arts, University of Florida, in her essay Tales of Home, Life, and Death: Panaibra Gabriel Canda and Faustin Linyekula

Documentary about Studios Kabako, Faustin Linyejula’s dance company