Mascarades

This dance solo by Betty Tchomanga evolves around the mythological figure of Mami Wata (‘Mammy Water’). She is a goddess of water, a figure from the depths of night, infused with power and sexuality. This stranded mermaid faces the people watching her.

Mermaids are hybrid by nature, often seen as ghastly creatures on the border between two worlds. This mermaid jumps. The jump that goes through her is a regular, vertical one. A single movement that puts her body in a permanent and continuous fluctuation. From this repetitive, movement appears an infinite transformation of her body. It becomes a surface for projections where images continually appear and disappear. Jump as a metaphor of desire, a search for pleasure. A desire for the other, a desire for another, for what we do not have, for what we are not. Jump to resist. Jump to reach. Jump to become. Jump to die. Jump to exist.

• Betty Tchomanga has a degree in Modern Literature from the University of Paris 3 and the CNDC in Angers. She works regularly with Marlene Montero Freitas and has also performed (among others) for Emmanuelle Huyn, Alain Buffart, Fanny de Chaillé, Anne Collod, Herman Diephuis, Nina Santès... Mascarades is her first performance as a choreographer – and the first time we welcome her to Kaaitheater.