Retour en Avant / Past Forward Biennale de la Danse Lyon - France

Serge-Aimé CoulibalyFrom 1993-2001, Serge-Aimé Coulibaly was amember of Compagnie Feeren in Ouagadougou,Burkina Faso. He took part in the company’sshows and tours (of Europe and Africa) as adancer and actor. He also attended courses withSalia nï Seydou and several other, Europeanchoreographers. He created the choreographyfor the opening ceremony of the African NationsFootball Cup in 1998, and for the opening ceremonyof the Pan-African Film Festival in Ouagadougouin 1999. In 2001, he spent six monthsin France to create the duet Double-Peau withNathalie Cornille. In 2002, he was picked byClaude Brumachon to take part in a creative labproject at the National Choreographic Centre(CNN) in Nantes, France. In December that year,in Lille, France, he premiered his first solo,Minimini, at the Planetado festival (organised byLe Grand Bleu national children’s theatre).In 2003, he performed in Alain Platel’s Wolf(for Les Ballets C de la B). In 2004 he dancedfor Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui in Tempus Fugit, whichpremiered in Avignon. Coulibaly also choreographedand performed in Et Demain… for FasoDanse Théâtre as part of the Émergences festivalin Lille, 2004 European Capital of Culture. In2005, he co-choreographed Burning Daylightwith Dalisa Pigram for the Marrugeku Companyof Sydney, Australia. In 2006, at the Biennalede la Danse de Lyon, he presented A Benguer.As a guest choreographer in Liverpool, 2008European Capital of Culture, he directed dancersfrom Marseille and Liverpool in The SugarProject.Babemba / 2008 creationBabemba is a piece for four dancers and a griotsinger which surveys how Africa’s youth hasevolved via four of the continent’s fathers:Patrice Lumumba, Thomas Sankara,Kwamé Nkrumah and Nelson Mandela.It asks how young people can drawinspiration from contemporary heroesto regain hope, through the storiesof these great fighters who boldlyinvented the future. The piece doesnot, however, retrace their stories. Itseeks that part of us which connectsus to them; and strives to translateinto dance the ease with whichthese figures addressed people andconveyed their ideas. Babemba, withits post-apocalyptic stage design byPapa Kouyaté and music rooted inMandingan tradition, is a choreographicquest centred on hope and dreams;on hope and betrayal.How can the past shape the future?Today results from yesterday. And tomorrow is boundto be shaped with regard to today…The past helps to better place ourselves on a trajectoryin order to better define the future. That is why it isvery important to tell the story of peoples in all of itscomplexity, so that today’s young people know whythey have such or such a position; and to be able toinvent the future differently.Experience of the past helps us to choose the bestdirection for the future, even though the past can alsoaugur ill for the future.Any rebellion tomorrow stems from what happenstoday. Yesterday’s industrial revolution has damagedtomorrow’s environment.Serge-Aimé CoulibalyExtra info:The company performed at the 2006 Biennale51