A cut-off evening, with Ivorian singer Midway, will take place on October 29, during the 21st edition of the multidisciplinary festival.
The terrible child of the Coupé-Décalé continues to be celebrated three months after his violent death on August 12 in Abidjan. In Toulouse, the Black Dances and Continents festival, which takes place from October 26 to November 8 and celebrates its 21st edition this year, has planned a special evening in honor of the Ivorian artist.
On October 29, a tribute in dance and music will be paid to DJ Arafat. The first part will involve DJ Robert (from DSH Studio), then the company of choreographer James Carless (founder and director of the festival), before a second part “200% zoblazo” with the Ivorian star Midway, accompanied by a DJ and dancers.
“I had discovered a rather shy young man”
“I very violently received the announcement of the death of DJ Arafat, says James Carlès. In 2012, I went to Abidjan to work on a cut-offset show and interview local creators, such as Boro Sanguy, Serge Defalet (La Jet Set), and of course Arafat. At his place, there was impertinence, provocation, a way of being rebellious. I remember his bling side, the green 4 × 4 he had at the time. But when I spoke to him away from the crowds and the concerts, I discovered a young man who was rather shy, withdrawn, a bit lost. “
Ivorian star Meiway.
DJ Arafat: a man too true for the world of showbiz?
The field work, almost reporting, led by the choreographer of Cameroonian origin, will lead in 2014 to the creation, in collaboration with the South African choreographer and dancer Robyn Orlin, of the show “Coupé-décéé”. He will deliver a short extract during the evening of October 29. “Arafat was a good dancer. He stimulated his dancers as much as he was stimulated by them, he could not conceive of music without dancing, his relationship to sound and gesture was fusional, “remarks James Carlès who observes that the artist’s dancers often had a level almost professional. Some, like Computer, have also continued their careers in the pro European circuit.
The choreographer underlines a difference between French and Ivorian Coup-Décalé dancers: “Among the latter, there may be less technique, but there is an emergency, a more brutal and incisive gesture which is linked to the context of war. in which was born the cut-shifted ”. During the tribute evening of October 29, the artist Meiway stood out as obvious. “For me, it is one of the forerunners of urban African music. He is very creative, very inventive, and now has several decades of professional experience behind him. I see him as a sponsor of Arafat, even an intellectual. “
DJ Arafat, the Asia and the “lêkê”
This 21st edition of the festival, combining theater, dance and music, obviously offers other surprises. In particular, shows by the American choreographer Carolyn Carlson, with whom James Carlès maintains a “master-student” relationship. And the 2020 season, already almost scheduled, will be more extensive. Meiway will return with an orchestra; a play by a Rwandan director will tell the story of the Cameroonian freelancer Ruben Um Nyobè, killed by the French army in 1958, and a Ghanaian or Nigerian star will represent the Afrobeats scene.
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