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Dance, disease, revolution: our Executive Director Mirna Zagar provides some insights into Ramanenjana, coming up January 19-21, and the work’s creators Simona Deaconescu (Romania) and Gaby Saranouffi (Madagascar).
Who are Simona Deaconescu and Gaby Saranouffi?
Simona and Gaby both come from dance communities that one might say exist more on the margins of the international contemporary dance family. However their way of working, achievements and increasingly international profile is nothing marginal!
Simona comes from the small but very vibrant Romanian contemporary dance scene. She works across genres and disciplines, and across borders, with projects in Bulgaria, Portugal, South Africa, and Mexico. She founded Tangaj Collective in 2014; she is also cofounder and artistic director of the Bucharest International Dance Film Festival, and since 2022 she is also the Associate Artist of the National Centre for Dance.
Gaby works and lives between South Africa and Madagascar. She is an important female artist who has marked the history of dance in Madagascar, setting up the strategic concept of a cultural policy which benefited the Malagasy population and opened doors to several Malagasy artists, and contemporary dance. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of I’TRÔTRA International Dance Festival in Madagascar and has received many awards for her work.
How did you first hear about them?
I continually explore dance communities and artists working in less visible territories. My first encounter with Gaby was through the KINANI Contemporary Dance Festival in Maputo, Mozambique in 2011 where she presented her solo MOI, speaking out about women, sexuality, strength, abuse, aggression and beauty.
I was a bit more familiar with Simona as I am connected to the dance scene in the Balkans and former East European regions. I first came across her through the Aerowaves Network / Festival in 2018 where her work Counterbody was presented. Then there was BLOT, a creation with Vancouver’s Vanessa Goodman, that we presented as an installation during Dance In Vancouver in 2021.
Tell us about Ramanenjana.
This is a performance that falls into the sphere of a ‘docufiction’, about a dance that literally made history. It was one of the last recorded ‘dance epidemics’, taking place in 1863 in Madagascar, in which over 20,000 people danced with supernatural resistance over a period of several months. The performance critically exposes and evolves around several versions of this historical event, investigating the past and present role of dance within a broader social context. The show uses text, gesture, movement, and sound, drawing on archive documents and contemporary testimonies.
What made you decide to bring this show to Vancouver?
I was thrilled to learn that PuSh International Performing Arts Festival was keen to present Ramanenjana. It was a very easy decision – we have partnered with the Festival since it began. It is an opportunity to bring work from parts of the world that have a distinct evolution when it comes to contemporary dance, but continue to be relatively unknown. And I am thrilled to hear that BLOT will also be featured in the festival, live this time, at Left of Main!
Anything else we need to know?
The notion of the dance epidemic first appears in medieval Europe – a phenomenon in which hundreds of people in one geographic area would begin to dance for no apparent reason, uncontrollably and involuntarily. Ten dance epidemics were recorded in Europe in the Middle Ages; all were started by women and spread through the lower classes, whose people feared punishment from the Church.
Ramanenjana (in the Malagasy language, the word means tremor, or something that makes you strong) occurred at a time of famine and poverty, compounded by the colonial ambitions of the British and the French. The dancers claimed to dance to save the community. Simona’s and Gaby’s research places Ramanenjana within the context of a traditional ritual performed by Saklava, an ethnic Malagasy group, in which the sick danced their illness away, becoming one with their ancestors in a state of trance. The dance epidemic stopped as suddenly as it appeared, coinciding with the assassination of the king, as his wife took over the throne, promising to limit the French influence in the territory. More contemporary research considers this period as a political act that overturned a regime and re-established balance. In this regard, Ramanenjana can be considered as an expression of peaceful protest, a way of reclaiming identity and finding a way to heal as a community.
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The Dance Centre presents the Global Dance Connections Series
Tangaj Collective: Ramenenjana
Janauary 19-20, 2024 | 8pm
January 21, 2024 | 2pm
Scotiabank Dance Centre
Presented with PuSh International Performing Arts Festival
Explore dance performances currently presented by The Dance Centre. Each season, you’ll find new dance shows. See what’s on today.
Photos: Adi Bulboaca and Camille Blake