bienvenue bazié
©F. Desmesure
GENERAL INFO
https://www.auguste-bienvenue.com/
GENERAL KEYWORDS (macro perspective): African dances; Circulations; Collective memory; Engagement; Professionalisation; Training
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GENERAL KEYWORDS (micro perspective): Auguste et Bienvenue; Centre de développement chorégraphique la Termitière Mbomen
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CHOREOGRAPHIC WORKS: Peubleto; Tourments Noirs; Zouhan
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​PEOPLE: Boro, Seydou; Ouédraogo, Auguste; Sanou, Salia
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PLACES: Burkina Faso; France
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DOI NUMBER: https://doi.org/10.14277/unive/mnemedance/09bazie/2021
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CITATION: ​Interview with Bienvenue Bazié, Sarah Andrieu, Online (15/09/2021). Project “Mnemedance”, Collection Mnemedance (#Mnemedance09) URL:<https://www.mnemedance.com/bienvenue-bazié>, (accessed dd/mm/yyyy).
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INTERVIEWS MAY ONLY BE REPRODUCED WITH PERMISSION BY MNEMEDANCE
ABOUT
In this interview, Bienvenue Bazié, a Burkinabe choreographer residing between France and Burkina Faso, looks back on his journey between different dance techniques, imaginaries and heritages. He recalls the relationships he has woven in his choreographic creations with memory and the intimate story of his family or the formal history of the African continent. He also traces various initiatives in favour of the professionalisation of dance in Burkina Faso. In a social context where dance is not considered a paid occupation, he speaks about the actions generated so that young dancers can have access to the necessary spaces, knowledge and resources for their professional development. Finally, Bienvenue brings in this interview a strong voice in support of building an archive that would allow to trace, know and acknowledge the history of Burkinabe dances on a local and international scale.
CRÉPUSCULE ©Christophe Péan
INTERVIEW
QUESTIONS
[00:01:14]
Which are your first memories related to dance?
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[00:04:10]
What was your training path in dance and how were the different techniques
gradually accumulated in your body?
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[00:08:45]
Did some techniques oppose others? Were there any contradictions in your training path?
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[00:11:12]
Where do you position your work today? What are your influences and your affinities?
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[00:14:09]
Could you speak about the connection between collective and personal history that shaped the autobiographical work Peubleto?
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[00:22:00]
How did you work with the different types of archives on Peubleto, Tourments Noirs and Zouhan?
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[00:31:55]
How is the relationship to memory present in the educational activities that you conduct in Burkina Faso or elsewhere?
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[00:38:55]
Within the Auguste-Bienvenue dance company have you set up a system to remember your creations? At the Choreographic Development Center, is there an archiving space?
[00:46:50]
It is very interesting this back and forth between audiovisual documentation and writing. Do you systematically write down your choreographic notes?
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[00:48:34]
How do you participate in the reflection upon the history of dances from Africa or the histories of African contemporary dances in Mbomen or the Choreographic Development Center?
PERFORMERS
BIOS
BIENVENUE BAZIE is a dancer and choreographer from Burkina Faso. As a teenager, he joined one of the most active troupes in Ouagadougou, Le Bourgeon du Burkina, where he acquired multidisciplinary artistic training in dance, theatre, storytelling and music. He then specialised in dance and took part in several training workshops offered by choreographers from different backgrounds (Salia Sanou, Seydou Boro, Xavier Lot, Claude Brumacho and Benjamin Lamarche). With Auguste Ouédraogo in 2000, he created the Auguste-Bienvenue company, which has produced ten pieces that articulate the desire to experiment with diverse techniques and body imaginations and aim to create human encounters and establish new relationships with both African and European audiences. Strongly committed to the dynamics of transmission in West Africa, Bienvenue Bazié has created in 2008 with Auguste Ouédraogo the project Engagement Féminin, which has offered, as a regular service for more than ten years, a training framework to African dancers. He is also involved in the professional dance training offered by the Centre de Développement Chorégraphique La Termitière in Ouagadougou that he co-directs with Salia Sanou. Finally, he is president of Mbomen, the Association of Burkinabè and the diaspora dancers and choreographers, which articulates reflections and actions to structure the dance world in Burkina Faso.
SARAH ANDRIEU is an anthropologist and lecturer in the Arts Department of the Université Côte d'Azur. She is a member of the Centre Transdisciplinaire d'Épistémologie de la Littérature et des Arts Vivants (CTEL) and an associate member of the Institut des Mondes Africains (IMAF). Her research, carried out in Burkina Faso since 2002, focuses on the postcolonial state, the political uses of traditional dances and the dynamics of the circulation of aesthetics, knowledge and imaginary in the globalised field of “contemporary African dance”. She has participated in various collective research programmes, including Knowledge and Learning Systems in Africa; Musical Creation, Circulation and the Market of Identities in a Global Context; Creations in Migration, and Interview Practices in Dance. She is currently opening a new research field on music videos and urban dancers in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, in the framework of the research programme Digital Cultures in West Africa - Music, Youth, Mediation. Sarah Andrieu is a member of the scientific editorial committee of the journal Recherches en danse and the scientific council of the Groupement d'intérêt scientifique études africaines.