ARCHIVES 2014 / At the same time we were pointing a finger at you, we realized we were pointing three at ourselves…

Weakened by sickness, trained by classical ballet, whitened by a desire for the West: bodies are omnipresent in Robyn Orlin's works, the medium through which are revealed the violence she denounces, the neuroses she exposes, the vitality she advocates. But in her new creation the body isn't only the medium but also the central topic of her inquiry: why is the body so rarely the object of reflection in Africa? When it isn't just taboo, it is reduced to representations shaped by a Western world by turns humanitarian, patronizing, and predatory. How to break free from those restrictive visions? How to rethink the body, both in an intimate and in a political sense, always at stakes in relationships of power, between domination and emancipation? Those questions, which come back time and again in postcolonial studies, are the starting point of a dialogue between Robyn Orlin and Germaine Acogny. Acogny, a major actress of contemporary dance in Africa, created in Senegal l'Ecole des Sables, a dancing school where today's choreographic practices are constantly invented and reinvented. Dancers from all over the continent train there, leading to the meeting of different visions of the body, between subjective experiences and shared sensations. It is those dancers of the Jant Bi company that Robyn Orlin wanted to meet in order to create, based on their stories as human beings—be they personal, social, or political—moments of moving complicity and biting irony.

AIDS in We must eat our suckers with the wrappers on, the Black Venus in Have you hugged, kissed and respected your brown Venus today?, images from the World Trade Center Attack in In a world full of butterflies... Robyn Orlin is never afraid to struggle directly with the world and with history, with a style that is equal parts irreverence and fragility, swagger and humility. The titles she gives her works, always so long, are like so many parables or enigmas, and suggest a certain taste for polysemy and complexity. Piling layers upon layers of history and meaning, mixing mythological motifs and scatological jokes, the South African choreographers creates a work that is part political manifesto, part cabaret, and part plastic performance. She doesn't care for the traditional separation between performers and audience; she'll lead the audience into song, will have them sit on the stage, and always encourages exchange between them and the artists she works with. Those come from very different backgrounds: South African choir singers, watchmen at the Louvre museum, hip hop, classical, and contemporary dancers... Robyn Orlin likes dancers, but more importantly she likes people. And it is almost always those people's stories and experiences that are at the heart of her creations.

Renan Benyamina, April 2014