In Djata : Conversations du Manden, I integrate my knowledge of dance, circus, music and song, creating a personal aesthetic where interactions become the language of the piece. Here, I explore the arts as a set of relationships that can produce infinite meaningful combinations: the relationship between disciplines, history, time, space and bodies, seen as living bodies, but also as objects, instruments. It is the body-mind relationship that guides my whole artistic quest. Also, drawing inspiration from the Mandingo Empire, I use body movement as a form of healing, to reconnect to my roots and reveal my deep identity. In this inner journey, I embark on new bodily paths: through exploration of the mouth, for example, I offer a variety of percussive sounds coming from the tongue. Driven by this dialogue between the parts of the body, my creation is imbued with a gesture that is both lively and fluid, as well as ample and sudden.

Aly Keita begins his artistic career as a dancer in Conakry (Guinea) in 2004. He then trains in the circus arts at the Keita Fodeba Centre for Acrobatic Arts, where he also perfects traditional music and ballet. In 2016, he arrives in Canada thanks to a cultural exchange project between young Inuit and Guineans. This is for the production of a documentary, Circus Without Borders, shot between Guinea and Nunavut. In Québec, he collaborates with Productions Kalabanté and Cirque Éloize. In 2018, Aly is hired by the company Cavalia for the production of Odysséo. He then joins the Nyata Nyata dance company, directed by Zab Maboungou, where he completes the Artistic and Professional Training Program in Dance (PEFAPDA) and also participates as a performer in the work Mozongi. As a songwriter, he collaborates with the Opéra de Lévis and Productions EJVA on several musical projects.

Yohayna Hernandez is a theatrologist, dramaturge, and cultural mediator. Her work falls between research, creation, and thought. She’s interested in the relationship between experience and language. She founded Proyecto MCL (2010-2013), an interdisciplinary space working on the concept of gender violence, and the Dramatic Laboratory of Social Experimentation (LEES). She acts as coordinator for the latter project and is also part of the platform Osikan as a consultant and dramaturge. She has worked as a consultant and a dramaturge on several stage productions, including Granma. Trombones from Havana (Rimini Protokoll, 2019), BaqueStriBois (Osikan, 2017-2015), FamilyTrash. Coreografía de la ausencia (Osikan, 2015-2014).

A Graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada, Martin Bellemare received the Gratien-Gélinas Prize for Le Chant de Georges Boivin in 2009. He obtained the ARTCENA Creation grant (Paris) for Charlie et le djinpouite, La liberté, Maître Karim la perdrix (SACD Prize for French Dramaturgy 2018) and Moule Robert (Michel-Tremblay Prize 2018). In 2019, the Francophonies de Limoges festival presented his work Cœur minéral, for which he was a finalist for the 2020 Siminovitch Prize and received the Governor General’s Literary Prize 2020. His plays are read and performed in Canada, Europe, and West Africa.

A musician of Scottish origins, Trevor John Ferrier discovered African percussion and the sanza in 1989, thanks to Cameroonian musician Njacko Backo, with whom he played in the group Kalimba Kalimba and recorded five albums. In 2009, Trevor met the master balafonist Naby Camara. His studies in balafon music inspired him to rethink the sanza and, in collaboration with instrument maker Stephen Woloshyn, he invented a sanza that used the melodic design of the kora. Trevor thereby began a collaboration with Sadio Sissokho, a kora player and percussionist from Senegal, on a Mandingo traditional music project.

Ariane Benoit is a French woman who has been living in Montréal since 2019. An anthropologist, she also developed an artistic career with the creation of Sim-Kušú, Contes de l’océan, a show inspired by water and whales. Through dance, song, spoken word and silence, she invites us to explore and gain knowledge about the self, others, and Life. She practiced flamenco for three years and continues to practice contemporary dance, yoga, and meditation. As a soul sailor, Ariane loves traveling towards new adventures, whether they be visible or invisible.

Originally from Italy, Raffaela Siniscalchi trained in theatre at the Nuovi Linguaggi school. Fascinated by the plural artistic vision of ancient theatre, she played in the Greek tragedy The Bacchae by Euripides, directed by Omero Affede (2006). She took part in an initiative on female dramaturgy signed by Walter Valeri (2009-2010), playing in Fabulazioni Della Resistenza, a work about women and the Resistance, and in Il Corpo Eloquente: Radiosa/Isadora, a dance-theatre piece inspired by the life of Isadora Duncan. In Québec, she participated as a performer in I love Quebrada – Portrait d’un Brésil marginal (2018), a multidisciplinary performance against social marginalization.

Anna Jane McIntyre is an artist with a playful practice that combines storytelling, drawing, sculpture, printmaking, performance, and microactivism. Her work investigates how people perceive, create and maintain their notions of self through behaviour and visual cues, and is an ever-shifting visual mashup of British, Trinidadian, and Canadian cultural traditions. In her works, each culture appears as a moving and complex negotiation, rich in contradictions.

Lee Anholt moved to Montréal in 1990 after completing a BFA in Contemporary Dance at Simon Fraser University. His work was produced in Montréal, Toronto, and Vancouver. In 1995, he began gravitating towards the technical field. Lee was the technical director and lighting director on tour for Montréal Danse and José Navas/Compagnie Flak for many years and also had the chance to work with many great creators in dance as well as theatre: Peggy Baker, Louise Lecavalier, and Denis Marleau (UBU), to name a few. Presently, Lee is the technical and production director for Danse-Cité. He also creates lighting for theatre, music, and especially dance.

After studying photography, Sylvie Nobert became interested in lighting for the stage, for contemporary dance in particular. She now designs and does technical direction for independent choreographers, as well as for the Danses Buissonnières series at Tangente. She works regularly in Montréal’s maisons de la culture, and has also been technical director for the Printemps de la Danse tour.

This solo piece is born from the desire to turn the loss of one’s bearings into a strength. While the pandemic scares, saddens, isolates, and disrupts the world, I decide to withdraw; I isolate myself in an empty apartment for five days to create. An act of rebellion? Of survival? Diving into ourselves while the world isn’t doing well is to hold onto our autonomy, our sovereignty. Abyssale solitude is home port, root of the self, internal pillar, but also impromptu discoveries, detours, and nooks and crannies.

Alexandra Caron graduated from École de danse contemporaine de Montréal in 2018 and attended the dance program at cégep Montmorency in 2015. In her journey as a professional dancer, she has worked with Margie Gillis and Lumière Noire. In the summer of 2019, she took part in Festival Deltebre Dansa, which deepened her interest in organic floor work. Eager to share and teach, Alexandra has been hosting cultural mediation activities in elementary schools and has been teaching dance since 2009. She firmly believes that movement is an endless source of possibilities and that, no matter the age, moving is discovering oneself differently and honoring one’s sensations.

A renowned national and international artist, Margie Gillis is one of the most influential Canadian choreographers/dancers of the 20th and 21st centuries. Her company, Margie Gillis Dance Foundation, was founded in 1981. Margie has created over 150 solo, duo and group pieces, which have been performed around the world. She has received several awards in recognition of her priceless efforts to grow her art through experimenting, passing on, creating, innovating, and performing. In 2023, Margie Gillis will be celebrating 50 years of career: 50 years of creating, loving, and dancing.

Based in Montréal, Caroline Namts discovered movement through rhythmic gymnastics, and later on through classical and contemporary dance at the Ballet Divertimento school. Since her graduation from École de danse contemporaine de Montréal in 2018, Caroline has had the pleasure of working with Aurélie Pedron (Lilith & Cie), Sarah Dell’Ava (Berceurs du temps), Cai Glover (A Fichu Turning), Nicholas Bellefleur (A Safe Space), François Girard and Carolyn Choa (l’Opéra de Québec) as well as with the company Meute Monde, while teaching and choreographing at Ballet Divertimento and Ballet Coppélia. Blending contortion and boxing with her training sessions, Caroline’s thirst for learning and finding herself manifests itself from one creation to another.

Lumière Noire (Tanya Dolbec) is a photographer, video editor, choreographer, and multidisciplinary artist. She was initiated into the arts through dancing and painting. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Choreography at Université du Québec à Montréal in 2016 and choreographed a few pieces. She then turned to videography thanks to her interest in visual arts and performative installations. Wishing to use the camera as a means of creation, she begins her studies in photography and videography. Having broadened her skills in art analysis, semiology, telepresence and cinema, she shifted her career towards videography and photography. Her aesthetics are strongly influenced by the works of Sigmund Freud and Carl Gustave Jung.

Lee Anholt moved to Montréal in 1990 after completing a BFA in Contemporary Dance at Simon Fraser University. His work was produced in Montréal, Toronto, and Vancouver. In 1995, he began gravitating towards the technical field. Lee was the technical director and lighting director on tour for Montréal Danse and José Navas/Compagnie Flak for many years and also had the chance to work with many great creators in dance as well as theatre: Peggy Baker, Louise Lecavalier, and Denis Marleau (UBU), to name a few. Presently, Lee is the technical and production director for Danse-Cité. He also creates lighting for theatre, music, and especially dance.

After studying photography, Sylvie Nobert became interested in lighting for the stage, for contemporary dance in particular. She now designs and does technical direction for independent choreographers, as well as for the Danses Buissonnières series at Tangente. She works regularly in Montréal’s maisons de la culture, and has also been technical director for the Printemps de la Danse tour.

Originally from Detroit, Michigan, Jontae McCrory started his training at Western Michigan University at the age of 19. Throughout his training, he has had the privilege of learning works by BalletBoyz, Kyle Abraham, James Gregg, Frank Chaves, and Azure Barton. Jontae started working with contemporary company RUBBERBAND in 2018, while guest performing with Decidedly Jazz Dance Company until 2020. Recently, Jontae has been working with Andrea Peña & Artists while freelancing in Montréal. As a filmmaker and choreographer, Jontae has had works featured in the 2017 American College Dance Association Gala Concert, in Chéries-Chéris (Paris film festival), Rendez-vous Québec Cinéma, and at the National Arts Centre in 2021.

Amara Barner began competitive dance training at the age of three in Minneapolis. As a teenager, she traveled as an assistant to several choreographers of The PULSE on Tour and Intrigue Dance Convention. This professional development in Los Angeles and New York brought opportunities to perform and conduct workshops in Australia, Mexico, England, and Italy. After moving to New York City at age 15, Amara worked for television, performed in local festivals, and participated in the creation and performance of several works with Isodoc Dance Group. Featured in Dance Magazine’s July 2020 issue as an artist “On the Rise,” Amara has toured internationally with Vic’s Mix and participated in the creation process as well as in the ongoing performances of Ever So Slightly since she joined RUBBERBAND in 2016.

Matthew Quigley is a dancer and creator based in Montréal. He studied ballet at Canada’s National Ballet School and then dance at The Juilliard School, receiving his BFA in 2019. He most recently has been working with La Tresse in Montréal. In New York, he worked with Company SBB Stephanie Batten Bland, performing in Look Who’s Coming to Dinner at La Mama and Movements Out of Single Use Plastics at the UN. He collaborated with choreographer Roy Assaf, performing in 25 People; with Andrea Miller for Gallim’s Stone Skipping during their residency at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; and performed a solo by Danielle Agami during his senior year. He is also an active choreographer, creating for both stage and film, most recently releasing a short film entitled Dino. He is also an avid photographer and visual artist.