Christiane Emmanuel Dance Co. in town

The stage at the Peace Memorial Hall explodes for yet another weekend with dance. This time it will be with new choreography by professional dancer Christiane Emmanuel of Fort-de-France, Martinique. {{more}}A release from sponsor Alliance Francaise says this performance explores the “deep self” which is so difficult to express because of the social aspects. It questions: How to express deep internal pain when confronted to the unsaid, unspeakable, taboo?

This year Martinique also celebrates the arrival of Asian people. The Indians and Chinese played an important part as labour after the abolition of slavery… The former slave is confronted with a new inter-breeding: he/she is black-white-mulatto-Chinese-Indian.

This dancing “huis-clos” has no plot, just flashes relating intense situations at certain points in time. Every dancer takes the lead, one after the other. None of the four dancers leaves the stage before unloading his/her burden: Family prohibition, distress, love-refusal, scarification, tortured body, initiatory secret, rebellion, escaping and hiding words… Aesthetic through praise of the original beauty of the body, humouristic and tragic situations are just a sample of aspects interested persons will be viewing Saturday, 9th October 2004, 8 p.m. at Peace Memorial Hall. By and large, the purpose of this choreography entitled “Parole du bruit du dedans” or “Words of noise from within” is to try to anticipate the evolution of the Martinican nation … questioning its well-being.

Christiane Emmanuel obtained a scholarship in 1982 for five years of study at the National School of Arts of Cuba. At the end of her training, she began to teach afro-contemporary dance (as well as Cuban traditional dance) at the International Academy of Cuba. From then on, she funded in Fort-de-France the Experimental Group of Contemporary Dance – Christiane Emmanuel Company, for which she invites various choreographers to organize shows in which she dances.

This weekend, therefore, we can expect dance aficionados to flock to the Peace Mo for what is anticipated to be another great evening of dance.