AFA GOES g r oo v e

On November 13, Art For All goes to g r oo v e (Soa Ratsifandrihana).

Ever since childhood, my imagination has been built around music. I always cherished family moments when we had fun together performing the songs we loved. We achieved this via a series of small, sophisticated gestures, amplified by the attention they received. Our bodies were blossoming, filling the silences with aplomb and audaciously anticipating the musical accents. In other words, we were trying to get into the “groove”.

The word groove is originally a slang term that originated in jazz music and more specifically in swing at the end of the 1930s. This is known as an embellishment phenomenon. The musicians of the time were looking for a form of rhythmic suppleness. By skillfully articulating the three-beat measure, they created a swing that is easily identifiable today. Over time, the expression “groove” has broadened. It is obvious that this spirit of rhythm exists or persists in other music.

The generation of Millenials, to which I belong, is witnessing the explosion of hybrid and abundant music, the fruit of digital culture. Our dances and cultures are also changing and continuing to transform. In this turmoil, I wanted to start a dialogue with two musicians: Sylvain Darrifourcq and Alban Murenzi, who pass on the baton to each other for the musical creation. Both write rhythm, both make electronic music, but because of their musical sensibilities and their choice of sound typology – one creates sharp, metallic sounds close to the glitch aesthetic and the other uses more instrumental and woody hip hop sounds – the experience is totally different. How can the dance, with its articulation, hold a conversation with these two sound worlds while remaining true to its own temporality? The whole is then combined with the rhythm of the light created by Marie-Christine Soma and the story told by Coco Petitpierre’s costume.

This show is an invitation to listen and to feel the frugal and sensitive pleasure of dancing. What is important to me is to be able to share with an audience within a quadrifrontal setup, allowing proximity and a sense of collectiveness, this sensation which is precious to me and which only awakens when I go on search of my own groove.