Dancing between continents: Weaving connections in the performing arts

Pro Helvetia Johannesburg, Arts de la scène

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Alongside funding for artists, Pro Helvetia Johannesburg supports research and networking trips for curators and programmers in both directions with the aim of stimulating professional exchange and collaboration between platforms and institutions in Switzerland and the region. These encounters play an important role establishing the groundwork through which mutually relevant presentation opportunities can arise. Below is an impression of a tapestry of activities weaving connects between the Swiss and regional performing arts scenes.

As part of Pro Helvetia’s support of Swiss Dance Days in February this year, the Johannesburg office invited three West African performing arts professionals to join the international delegation from the regions of the liaison offices to attend the festival and visit organisations and theatres around Switzerland. The aim of the trip being to facilitate encounters and networking with Swiss artists and practitioners.

Togolese choreographer and dancer Germaine Sikota was one of these delegates. Emerging from this research trip, Germaine curated a Swiss focus during the recent Nïkaala Festival in Lomé, Togo, which platforms dance creations by female performers and choreographers. “During Swiss Dance Days I met several artists whose work resonated with the theme of the festival ‘Exploring the Traces’,” she explains. “Focusing on Switzerland at Nïkaala 2024 was born out of a desire to introduce Swiss talent to the Togolese public and to create a platform for connection and networking between Swiss, African and Togolese artists.”

The Swiss focus at Nïkaala featured « Viola Stanca », a new work-in-progress duet between a viola and a human body by Marie Jeger, Karine Dahouindji’s « Kâ! Sirènes des terres », an imaginative and introspective healing ritual for what is lost and imagined, and for the first time since the creation of Compagnie 7273, dancer and choreographer Laurence Yadi evolves alone on stage with the extremely personal solo “Today”, which brings into dialogue the two interlinked dimensions of the body-object and the body-subject.

“The evening we shared brought together a new generation of dancers from Côte d’Ivoire (a duo), my solo, which was radical and intense, and a traditional dance group from Togo to close the evening and the festival. Each of us left a unique ‘trace’ that night, » Laurence Yadi reflects. » The Togo traditional dance was very extroverted in its expression, while my solo had a more introspective energy, but with equally impactful percussion, touching the audience in different ways. It was a beautiful evening, full of emotions and discoveries. My performance seemed new to the Togolese audience, who were discovering contemporary dance and its radical nature. The conversation the next day also raised many questions about the intensity and the physical and mental endurance of my solo ‘Today’. »

Swiss artist Marie Jeger performing her piece "Viola Stanca" with a viola.
Marie Jeger performing « Viola Stanca » © Nïkaala Festival
Karine Dahouindji performs "Kâ! Sirènes des terres" at Nikaala Festival
Karine Dahouindji performing « Kâ! Sirènes des terres » © Nikaala Festival

Karine Dahouindji’s participation in Nïkaala Festival held significant personal resonance. “This return to African soil had a very special taste for me, » she explains. « Before the start of this festival I was back in Benin, my parents’ country of origin, where I hadn’t been for 20 years. Presenting my solo, which is based on my Beninese origins, was charged with this reconnection with my family and was very powerful for me. At the performance 80% of the audience were members of my family, so it was such a unique moment. This trip and my participation in the festival confirmed my desire to return to West Africa to take an interest in traditional dances and their transmission. »

In the roundtable talks, the artists shared their creative processes and their varied daily realities. « We were able to discuss the challenges facing artists here. Dance is seen as entertainment and it’s difficult, especially for women, to make a living from art. Mutual support is very important, as is the passing on of knowledge from one generation to the next,” Karine reflects.

Swiss artists Marie Jeger, Karine Dahouindji and Laurence Yadi discuss their work during a roundtable at Nikaala Festival
Marie Jeger, Karine Dahouindji and Laurence Yadi discuss their work © Nikaala Festival

For Marie Jeger, learning about the work of regional dance spaces such as Nïkaala Festival in Lomé and Terra Alta in Accra struck a chord: « How to invite audiences to a new proposal, how to protect and empower visions for new ideas and how to deal with practical financial realities and accessibility. Witnessing the strength and powerful determination of Germaine Sikota and Elisabeth Efua Sutherland remains as a touching trace for me: how they defend space for contemporary dance in Lomé and Accra. I am truly grateful to have had this opportunity in participating, for all the encounters and diving into the cultural scene of Lomé. »

In November this year, Germaine will return to Switzerland for a research trip in Lausanne and Geneva furthering her research into women’s resilience against violence and abuse. She is interested in strategies to enable women to express themselves freely and assert their rights, which will feed back into her creative and programming work.

After Nïkaala Festival, Laurence Yadi travelled to Ghana to present “Today” at Terra Alta Foundation in Accra. This invitation came via Ghanian dancer, choreographer and director of Terra Alta, Elisabeth Efua Sutherland, who was one of the other delegates to attend Swiss Dance Days earlier this year.

During Swiss Dance Days Elisabeth encountered the work of Basel-based choreographer Jeremy Nedd, forming the geneses of a new process-oriented collaborative project supported by a co-creation grant that will unfold in Ghana and Switzerland during 2025. « Body-Like: An Allegory For A Tangled Root » will explore a shared interests in what Elisabeth calls « the realms that touch: spirit, soul, body, and otherworldly » within the black diaspora. The artists will delve into Ghana’s complex histories of travellers, traders, market folk, religious people, spiritists, and mediums—examining Ghana as a dynamic, contested space filled with intertwined stories and memories.

> Read a story about the rise and rise of Jeremy Nedd and Impilo Mapantsula’s collaboration

Swiss dancer Laurence Yadi performing "Today" at Terra Alta Foundation in Accra.
Laurence Yadi performing « Today » © Terra Alta Foundation

Also in February this year in parallel to Swiss Dance Days, the Johannesburg office of Pro Helvetia invited a delegation of Swiss and African performing arts practitioners to attend Rwandastage and the Kigali Triennial in Rwanda with the objective of stimulating networks, exchange and collaboration in the performing arts between Switzerland and the region.

The delegation included Elisabeth Efua Sutherland and Germaine Sikota, as well as Deborah Asiimwe from the Kampala International Theatre Festival, Hope Azeda, director of the Ubumuntu Festival in Rwanda and Kevin Kimani Kahuro, director of the Kenya International Theatre Festival. The relationship between these three East African festivals has been strengthened in part through their multi-year collaborations with Swiss audio dramaturge and director Erik Altorfer and the cross-sharing of content and burgeoning interest in audio story telling in the region.

> Read a story about Erik Altorfer’s collaborations with East African festivals

Building on these encounters, Kevin undertook a research trip in Switzerland to explore further potentials for Swiss-Kenyan collaborative theatre productions with input from Caroline Froelich of Moin Moin Productions (who will produce Jeremy and Elisabeth’s new project) and Maria Rössler from Zurich Theater Spektakel, two of the Swiss delegates to Rwandastage.

« In addition to festivals, I visited numerous theatre organisations and venues that further shaped my perspective on institutional structures, funding models, and topics of interest that resonate with audiences, » Kevin reflects. « I also engaged in fruitful discussions around potential co-productions and collaborations between Kenya and Switzerland, making this research trip immensely valuable and fulfilling all my objectives ».

Artist Cedric Mizero welcomes people to his studio.
Cedric Mizero welcomes the Rwandastage delegation to his studio outside Kigali, Rwanda © Caroline Froelich

Another point of encounter expanding this professional network and reiterating the importance as well as the complexity of cross-cultural artistic exchange, took place recently in the context of the Live Art Network Africa Gathering during the biennial Live Art Festival organised by the Institute for Creative Arts (ICA) in Cape Town.

In his preamble to the talks programme, Prof Jay Pather of the ICA writes that “Traditionally artworks from the global South, curated outside of the South (Europe and America mainly), seem to be part of the project of establishing a kind of ‘global museum’ characterised by a curious paradox of inclusion and othering.” And that “In this contemporary moment, international collaboration is vital, not as a mere flirtation with other cultures, but a necessary examination of power […] In an effort to pursue an alternate to North-South relationships, an axis that dominates largely because of colonial tracing and economics, there is then an intensifying interest in finding fresh paths […] The shifts in the work of artists from the global South towards decoloniality, ancient and sacred practices, spirituality, healing and activism asks for exchange.”

Carole Karemera of Ishyo Arts Centre, one of the hosting partners for Rwandastage, was invited to take part in a panel discussion focusing on curatorship, international and south-south collaboration. Also invited was Ka(ra)mi, a Swiss musician, producer and DJ of Haitian and Hungarian origin. She joined a panel focusing on artistic practice and collaboration.

Four artists are seated on stage for a panel discussion on collaboration.
Thursday 5th September 2024. UCT Hiddingh Campus, Hiddingh Hall, 31 – 37 Orange Street, Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa. ICA Live Art Festival. 4 – 7 September 2024. ICA LIVE ART FESTIVAL 2024! THE UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN PRESENTS THE INSTITUTE FOR CREATIVE ARTS LIVE ART FESTIVAL 2024. Panel 2 Discussion – Artists and Collaboration – nora chipaumere, donna Kukama, Albert Khoza, Marlon Barrios Solano and Ka(ra)mi. The ICA’s flagship ‘Live Art Festival (LAF) is a biennial interdisciplinary fest

The annual Bosangani dance festival in Kinshasa is organised by Swiss based Congolese dancer and choreographer Jolie Ngemi. In 2022 Jermey Nedd accompanied Jolie on tandem research trips in Kinshasa and South Africa in the role of dramaturge for her piece « Nkisi », which premiered at Kaserne Basel in 2023 before being presented at Bosangani Festival.

This year Jolie invited Lausanne based multidisciplinary artist Élie Autin to present their solo “Présage” as well as host masterclasses and establish connections with local artists. In “Présage”, Élie embodies figures from classical mythology to enact a fairytale for adults that reflects on the ignominy of everyday racism in the West. This was the artist’s first time presenting their work on the African continent.

From this tapestry of projects and encounters, we’re especially interested in seeing what emerges from the expanding network of connections between artists of African descent in Switzerland and their contemporaries on the continent.

Élie Autin is performing the piece “Présage” in a white costume with white face paint at Bosangani Festival.
Élie Autin performing “Présage” © Bosangani Festival

More info for curators and programmers

Applications for research trips can be submitted on an ongoing basis

More info for festivals and platforms

Curators, programmers and festival directors on the continent wanting to invite Swiss work to their platform

Please note that similar funding options are available for each discipline for guest performances outside Switzerland.