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Faustin Linyekula's Congolese Dance Returns to REDCAT
Photo by Agathe Poupeney
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As part of the Sharon Disney Lund Dance Series at Cal Arts' downtown theater, Congolese choreographer and director Faustin Linyekula returns to REDCAT this week to present his newest work, more more more... future.
Performed by an all-male trio of dancers (including Linyekula), more more more... future addresses the decades of war, terror, fear and the collapse of the Congolese economy by celebrating hope for the unknown days ahead. The artist says, "To be positive is the most subversive... celebrating is a way of resisting.”
Musically, a raucous onstage band under the direction of legendary Kinshasa guitarist Flamme Kapaya builds the performance around the pop genre of ndombolo - a dance music derived from Belgian and French Congo tunes of the 1940s that has recently been considered obscene. Mixing said infectious, hip-swinging Congolese pop with hefty doses of raging rock, the aural environment is punctuated by the blistering poems of Linyekula’s childhood friend and political prisoner, Antoine Vumilia Muhindo.
Linyekula brought his company and accompanying musicians to REDCAT in 2007 for an arresting production of Festival of Lies, presented in an onstage bar created in the theater. This new work teems with the same urgent energy, driving rhythms and focus.
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Remember, Linyekula isn’t remembering the homeland, he’s living and making art there now.
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