What has been your rapport to date with the solo in your progress as a performer?

Sylvain Prunenec: Apart from solos that I have performed within shows, I wrote and performed a solo some years ago. After the path my performing career had taken, I felt the need: the need to re-examine myself, the work I had done with Odile Duboc, Dominique Bagouet and that image of “beautiful dance” which was difficult to shake off.

You decided to work with Faustin Linyekula. How did you make this choice?

Sylvain Prunenec: I wanted to work with an African choreographer in order to develop the rapports which I already had with dancers from many African countries. It was also the opportunity to discover a new choreographer; that was part of the adventure. I liked Faustin Linyekula's work, and found it surprising. He mixes rage, gentleness and irony all at the same time.

Can you say what it means to go from “choreographing a solo for oneself” to creating a solo for someone else? How do you go about making this shift?

Faustin Linyekula: I had never choreographed a solo for anyone else. I had done one thirteen minutes long which I had only performed a few times. I don't dance to be on my own. So this thirty-minute solo would be a first for me; I took it on as a new challenge. In my compositions intended for a number of performers, I have always worked with everyone as an individual, taking into account where they are coming from. In this case, I had the opportunity to take the encounter with one person further, as there was only one presence with which to fill the space.

Updating: March 2010

Born  in Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo, the dancer and  choreographer Faustin Linyekula combines the power of theatre, the  expressive force of dance and sharp political critique to explore  post-colonial reality with courage and humour.

Faustin  Linyekula grew up and studied literature and theatre in Kisangani.  Because of the political troubles, he moved to Nairobi and co-founded  the first contemporary dance company in Kenya. A prize awarded by the  Angola International Dance Festival opened the doors to the  international dance scene, and he was invited to present Tales Off the Mud Walls at the 2002 Summer Tanz Festival in Vienna. French audiences discovered his work at the 2007 Avignon Festival with Le Festival des mensonges.  Despite his emerging international career, Faustin Linyekula decided to  go back to DRC to found Studios Kabako in Kinshasa, a multidisciplinary  training, production and distribution centre that now operates out of  Kisangani. Faustin Linyekula regularly teaches in Africa, the USA and  Europe (Paris, CNDC Angers, Impulstanz, etc.) In 2007 he was awarded the  Grand Prix de la Fondation Prince Claus for Culture and Development,  and in 2014 the Grand Prix de la Fondation CurryStone for his work at  Studios Kabako. In 2016 he was appointed Associate Artist for the City  of Lisbon.

Source : Festival de Marseille

More information: http://www.kabako.org 

Since 2001, the National Center for Dance (CND) has been making recordings of its shows and educational programming and has created resources from these filmed performances (interviews, danced conferences, meetings with artists, demonstrations, major lessons, symposia specialized, thematic arrangements, etc.).