danse - cie salia nï seydou

National Marie Christine Vernay Libération - 26/27 .12 .98
" Fini les produits folkloriques d'exportations. Fini, du moins on l'espère, l'Afrique dansante calquée sur le modèle occidental. Et vive la danse de Salia Sanou et Seydou Boro. Ces deux burkinabès inséparables, qu'ils soient interprètes chez Mathilde Monnier à Montpellier ou qu'ils mènent leur propre travail chorégraphique, ne montent pas sur scène pour parader. Leur danse qui emprunte autant aux techniques et aux répertoires africains ou occidentaux, est un regard critique sur les impasses dans lesquelles s'engouffre la société. Un proverbe : l'étranger à de gros yeux pour ne rien voir est à l'origine de leur dernière pièce Figninto. Il s'agit d'un rituel de deuil, d'une tragédie, celle de l'homme qui ne voit pas et qui ne peut que dire, lorsqu'il est trop tard : Il n'est plus, il fut, il est mort. Ce spectacle superbement dansé, en dialogue avec une musique fine et du côté du silence, est une réflexion sur les ratages, sur l'impuissance, sur l'accélération du temps. Chaque geste à une direction, un sens, jusqu'à l'ensevelissement de l'être vivant. Une danse libre, inventive, qui n'a pas sa langue dans sa poche. "
Le Monde - 27.06.97 " A Montpellier-Danse, des chorégraphes expriment la diversité culturelle africaine ", Catherine Bédarida
" Cinq hommes, trois danseurs et deux musiciens incarnent ce passage de la vie à la mort dans une chorégraphie éclatante. "
Michael Crabb *The National Post - 08 .02 .01*
" Figninto is an intense, sweaty, athletic dance full of thrills and spills, moments of suspense and silence and a torrent of images that, if they do not entirely add up, certainly provoke interest and thought.(…) Figninto, however, has much more to offer than its symbolism. In pure dance terms it's spectacular. Sanou and Boro are riveting performers who throw themselves into daring movements with the kind of abandon that keeps chiropractors and physiotherapists in business. They jump, fall and roll with the devil-may-care attitude of breakdancers but with the elegant finesse that only disciplined training can muster. Their ability to isolate and articulate specific parts of the body and then integrate them in an expanding flow of rhythmic movement is a sight to behold. Even if the meaning of Figninto leaves you slightly perplexed, the sheer verve of its performance will take your breath away. "
New York Times. Christopher Reardon *february 2001*
" To day Mr Sanou and Mr Boro are widely regarded as two of the west Aftrican's most inventive dance makers"
*The Globe and Mail - 09 . 02 .01* " An inventoring journey from cradle to grave ", Deirdre Kelly
" Bold, invigorating and uncommonly beautiful, Figninto, a dance piece by african troupe salia nï seydou, is an unforgettable journey throught the senses.(…). Nothing has escaped the notice of choreographer Seydou Boro who, with salia Sanou, is confounder of the eponymous, five year old company. In creating a viscerally poetic illustration of life, Boro has distilled into movement many events typically encountered in the voyage from cradle to grave. The opening sequence presents one of the troupe's three dancers (Souleymane Badolo with Boro and Sanou) moving in silence with back hunched over, hands thrust between bent legs, opening and closing in a representation of birth. At the end, in what resonates as an image of death, one of the dancers pours a basket of sand on the head of another, obliterating him in the dust of time. (…) The work is bracingly non - traditional. Not African dance, not modern dance, but a fascinating hybrid that fully uses the body to express both ideas and emotions. The style is rough-hewn, calloused, with the imprint of the human hand upon it. "
The Age . 20/10/03 (Australia) " Muscle mentors ", Stephanie Bunbury
" (…) l'une des compagnies de danse contemporaine les plus innovantes du réseau européen. "
Barbican Theater brochure . nov 03
"Figninto ,meaning 'he who does not see' in Bambara language, is an intense and physical performance filled with elegant movement as well as gripping moments of suspense and silence.Burkina Faso company Salia nï Seydou uses blindness as a metaphor for the inability to communicate.Tracing human life from the cradle to the grave, this beautiful piece explores the fragility of relationships through a journey memorable for its vitality."
Régional
Gérard Mayen Midi Libre - 26.06.1998
" La nouvelle génération qui élabore une danse contemporaine africaine a l'ardeur des fondateurs. Tout est à penser neuf. (…) La compagnie salia nï seydou tranche radicalement, avec sa gestuelle d'une fécondité folle ; un traitement de l'espace d'une liberté stupéfiante. Déformations du visage ; bascules et hoquets du corps ; volutes du buste insensé ; parcours dans toutes les postures à ras du sol ; effarants effondrements soudains, de toute la masse. Ces corps fièrement engagés sont farouchement africains. Mais leurs propos vient d'ailleurs ; de l'intériorité. Il traite de la seule question chorégraphique qui tienne, qui est de cent fois interroger le corps, en extirper le sens, en exiger l'extrémité. "
Gérard Mayen *Midi Libre - 24.12.98*
" Avec en fond deux musiciens sur cordes et percussions traditionnelles, aux costumes chatoyants, les trois danseurs de la compagnie salia nï seydou, torses nus dans leurs corps noirs d'athlètes, phénoménaux, commencent à balancer, frapper du pied, puis à marteler le sol avec une intensité montante, bientôt déferlante, leurs bras emportés s'élançant en cadence. Alors, tout n'est plus qu'un souffle de rythme, profond comme le lointain, puissant comme un continent. (…)Contemporains ? Si leur masse musculaire frappe l'œil sur le plateau, Salia Sanou, Seydou Boro, et Souleymane Badolo, déconstruisent leur architecture corporelle. Ils y concentrent, et y fragmentent, des foyers d'énergie fluctuants. D'où ils déclenchent des décharges énergétiques, qui irradient des trajectoires dissymétriques, des parcelles charnelles, des segments corporels. Cela sur de brèves séquences rythmiques, d'une main qui palpite, d'un muscle qui se rétracte ou d'un sursaut qui claque. En surgissant furieusement, des parcours s'enroulent à ras du sol, dans d'étranges portées horizontales, aux précipités vertigineux. Il y a perte aussi ; parfois effondrements. (…) Figninto danse la dissociation, le temps choqué et l'oubli ; avec des corps dissociés, heurtés, esquivés. On y voit aussi de grands gestes d'appel. On y ressent des dialogues muets. On y remarque les bras, qui désignent l'indéfini. C'est une sollicitation émue, vers l'incertain ; le contraire de la mise en spectacle de réunions trop faciles pour être lucides. "
The Gazette, Montreal (October 1999)
"Burkina Faso's Salia Sanou and Seydou Boro . . . showed an intimate ritual that dominated the Festival. Figninto displayed the power and presence of its remarkable dancers and the intelligence of its masterful choreographers. A linear tale about the need to open one's eye to love and friendship, the real values in life, was loaded with exceptional images. . . . Figninto, an intimate, highly rhythmic and energetic dance fusing ancient tribal acrobatic dance and music ritual with contemporary dance values."
The Hour, Montreal (October 1999)
"Salia and Seydou Company from Burkina Faso gave us the (FIND) festival's most memorable work and took Le Prix du Public (Audience's Award). Their own choreography, Figninto, was simple, complex and deeply connected. I've never been so moved. . . . They know a lot more about the power of dance, a power not to be underestimated."
Berliner Morgenpost, (March 2000)
"With their combination of African tradition and international contemporary movement, their strong images, exceptional master of the body and dense, dynamic, live music, they leave a deep impression".
ottawa citizen *january 2001*
" Acclaimed dance troup… salia nï seydou performs the piece that won the hearts of Montréalers, after touring it worlwide "
Susan Walker " African dancers hypnotize with motion… " Toronto Star - 01 .02 .01
" Born in the theatre, salia nï seydou company from Burkina Faso makes dance with all the elements of live drama, and then some. (…) Giving equal positioning on the stage are the musicians, one of them playing a stringed instrument with a long curved bow. It's played from the mouth, like a Jew's harp. (…) And no wonder, these dancers produce a hypnotic effect, even on a TV monitor. They make dance out of carefully articulated movements and perfectly defined torsos and limbs. A long cloth hung from the ceiling upstage looks like a carved rock face and lends an air of sanctuary. (…) Their up-from-the-roots dance is clearly grounded in traditional African movement, but they couldn't be more contemporary."
*Toronto Star - 01 .02 .01*
" It lasts less than an hour and features only three dancers, but Figninto is one of the most strikingly original dance pieces to have arrived here this season.(…). (about the Figninto theme) a universal theme, conveyed in a movment language combining features of traditional African and European modern dance. (…). They are far from being folk artists. Their muscled African body and knowledge of tribal dance go as far as their French training to put a signature on their work. Pulling their T-shirts over their heads as blindfolds, jumping one into another's arms, they mixed obvious images with sheer kinetic exertion to convey their theme withour realling telling a stoary. And what a climax ! "
Ottawa Citizen, (February, 2001)
"it was the physical virtuosity of the dancers that really brought the audience to their feet."
The Albuquerque Tribune, (February, 2001)
"Highly athletic, almost superhuman movement…that revealed shattered emotions."
wexner center for the art *march . 2001*
" Figninto : sublime… the winner of the people's choice Award at the international dance festival in Montréal. "
The Columbus Dispatch Columbus OH (March, 2001)
"The power and control of these two men is awesome and can be appreciated for its own sake. They move with elegance and catlike grace and speed, every muscle isolated and defined. The work they offered, however, is substantial, multi-layered and intricately constructed, with an elemental yet sophisticated connection to the live music."
Austin American Statesman . 23/05/02 K.Anoa Monsho
" These dancers are really creating a new language of movement ".
Sun-Times, Chicago, IL (May, 2002)
"Interpretations may vary widely about precisely what unfolds in Figninto, the powerful, strangely beautiful dance theater piece. . . . the alternately stark, sensual, playful and mysterious quality of the 70-minute piece was undeniable, as was its blend of the ritualistic and the mundane".
Montreal Gazette
" Figninto displayed the power and presence of its remarkable dancers and the intelligence of its masterful choreographers. "
El Nuevo Herald, Miami (December 2003)
"One of the best dance performances of the year".
Los Angeles Times (Feb. 2003)
"Tension propels Figninto …(it) blows you away with its unsparing intensity".
Palm Beach Daily News (January 2003)
"a breathtaking amalgam of the traditional and the contemporary, resulting in an extremely powerful performance."
Star Tribune, Minneapolis, MN (May 2002)
"Figninto is a masterful blend of African ritualism with the innovative phrasings of modern dance. The mystical piece. . . is fresh and exhilarating. A master-mix of the type that you sometimes find in music but rarely in dance"





Barbican Theater brochure . nov 03
Figninto, meaning 'he who does not see' is rich in West African ritual, fluid movement and intense theatricality. Salia Sanou and Seydou Boro, the prinicipal dancers who form the company, share an emotional chemistry and physical complicity. They are joined by a third dancer and two onstage musicians whose virtuosic drumming and African harps merge inextricably with the movement. Salia nï Seydou were last seen during BITE:01 in Century of Fools.