Festival Congolisation

FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHT (TO PARTY) - WORK IN PROGRESS

AUREL ZOLA, PITCHO WOMBA KONGA & MIKE VAN ALFEN

DANCE

In Fight for Your Right, Aurel Zola, Pitcho Womba Konga and Mike van Alfen zoom in on the lockdown during the covid pandemic and more specifically how young people experienced that period, in the midst of puberty. Confined from morning to night with their parents. No school, unable to see their friends, go out and pursue hobbies. The outside world, formerly their playground and experimentation field, suddenly became a dangerous and forbidden place. Only essential travel was still allowed, but even that was subject to police checks at every turn. How do you survive such a period, and grow up, how do you go through this transition period that is already so difficult? Today, these young people are between 20 and 22 years old. Some managed to keep dancing, despite all the pandemic restrictions. Going against political and medical rules, they chose their passion and resisted the social distancing rules.

One of those events was La Boum, which was illegally organized in the Ter Kamerenbos forest on April 1st. It brought three thousand young people to their feet, who were not afraid to defy the police and covid. Dancing means being together. Celebrating life, because life is a party. In the midst of silent chaos, these young people tried to survive through music. They saw dance and partying as a means of resistance, a gateway to freedom, a remedy long before the vaccine arrived,...

With: Elya Iufwa, Victoria Pallen and Florent Kuami

RUDIYA

GIOIA KAYAGA, MARC LEGRAND MULINDWA, YVANNA IRANKUNDA, ALEX NIRAGIRA & SIDI CIZANYE

DANCE | POETRY

Rudiya ('Come back' in Swahili), is a unique performance, a mix of contemporary and classical dance, poetry, slam and theater. A succession of rhythmic tableaux depicts a desperate mother of gods who sends a determined angel to earth. Their mission? They want to reconnect modern humans with ancestral spirituality and the sacred feminine. Rudiya is an intense struggle, a scream. A call in the night, an invitation to return to trance, to nature, to Africa.

MOVEMENTS OF SOUL

YAV

DANCE | MUSIC | FASHION

In Movements of Soul, YAV unites the dynamic worlds of dance, music and fashion, creating a unique and immersive experience. YAV deliberately chooses not to describe this creation, in order to question our preconceptions and conditioning, as we often get trapped in distinguishing between the message and the messenger. YAV encourages visitors to explore and interpret the performance in their own way, in order to spark conversations about how we experience and understand art.

Movements of Soul is a chance for a layered, individual experience. It is a reminder that art does not always need words to convey meaning - sometimes the deepest conversations arise from the unspoken, the unscripted, and beautiful ambiguity.