photographie: Daniel Nicolaevsky
NOIRBLUE
A choreographic piece by and with Ana Pi
The apparition of the blue.
Once upon a time, the blue didn’t exist. Ancient languages, as Japanese, Greek, and Hebrew, didn’t present a word to define this color. Some historians elucidate us that such absence comes from the fact of the blue’s rare presence in nature. Others say that this linguistic distraction points that those societies weren’t enough developed, neither to master, produce and process nor to just see it. The color survived, it become a symbol, a temporality, mainly for those societies where it was made invisible. Blue was a high presence in ancient Egypt or in the Tupi-Guaraní civilization in South America.
Many languages, where the color blue was previously nonexistent, the word created to define it emerged from the color black. In the field of dance the color black is present and it’s the only one, somehow.
What gestures would emerge if that same etymological procedure was applied to a choreographic construction? A blue dance that emerges from those dances considered black; sacred, traditional and popular forms, as also the contemporary manifestations, connected to Black populations in Africa and its Diasporas.
NOIRBLUE opens space to fiction and an atlantic navigation of some peripheral bodies. This exercise interrogates presence, absence, speeches and time to produce an extemporary dance aligned to two specific colors: the blackness of the skin and the ultramarine blue pigment.
Ana Pi, 2017
NOIRBLUE // full credits
Choreography, dramaturgy, costumes and objects, interpretation – Ana Pi
Original Soundtrack – Jideh High Elements
Lights – Jean-Marc Ségalen
Preparations for this dance with – Taata Mutá Imê, Samuel Mwamé, BesreKè Ahou, Ousmane Baba Sy
Production – Ana Pi & Météores | Plateforme chorégraphique
Co-productions & Partners :
Théâtre de Vanves // Studio residence
Centre National de la Danse // Technical residence
Das Plateau aux Ulis – Espace culturel Boris Vian // Laboratory residence
ROSA ass. 1901 // partnership
Festival Circular – Vila do Conde – Portugal // partnership
NOIRBLUE is dedicated to international activist movements #JovemNegroVivo and #BlackLivesMatter, as well as those who preceded them, demanding freedom, dignity and health for Black people worldwide.
Thanks to :
A Casa dos Olhos do Tempo que Fala da Nação Angolão Paketan, Kdu dos Anjos & Lá da Favelinha, association Initi’Arts, Maria Aparecida Moura, Julio Cesar de Oliveira, Gabriel Moura, Laura Fresno, Cidinha da Silva, Amina Jorge, Clarisse Valadares, Camila Dutervil, Glória Cecília Figueiredo, Valéria Amorim, Fannie Sosa, Indira Dominici, Julien Creuzet, Annabelle Pirlot, Julie Laporte, Aga Pędziwiatr, Daniel Nicolaevsky, Fabiana ExSouza, Mafê Novo dos Santos, Mariana Ramos, Miguel de Sousa, Lea Simone Allegria, Elizabeth Dérôme, Maxime Fleuriot, Céleste Germe, Thibaut Gueriaux, Jef Calmard, Iara Kelly, Wagner Schwartz, Calixto Neto, Sindy Négoce, Catherine Thomas, Séverine Rième, Celina Garcia, Lolo Chambo, Jerôme Fournel, Yann Jaffiol, Valentina Fraiz, Nina-Paloma Polly, Michel Pastoureau, les espaces Albert-Gazier à Vanves et Basement à Paris, Thembi Rosa et Casa Manga, Tristan Barani, Anouchka Charbey and all team of Théâtre de Vanves team, all the team of Centre National de la Danse, specially Kamel Kherchouch, Jean-Jacques Navaillès and Jean Louis Blondieau.
* Especially, I would like to thank the street dancers who I had the honor of meeting and exchanging during june and july 2016 at the following cities: Niamey / Níger, Ouagadougou / Burkina Faso, Bamako / Mali, Lagos and Enugu / Nigeria, Luanda / Angola, Malabo / Equatorial Guinea, Abidjan / Ivory Coast, Nouakchott / Mauritania. I would be delighted to put the name of each one of you , but the list would be huge and I don’t want to risk a possible forgetfulness. I really admire and thank you very much.
NOIRBLUE // CONTACTS
Ana Pi • anazpi@gmail.com
4, passage des Postes // 75005 • Paris
anazpi
&
Charlotte Giteau // Météores
Plateforme de production chorégraphique
Administration // production
+33 615 02 01 53
Ana Pi 