Exotica
In the early 20th century, many dancers and choreographers from different parts of the world enjoyed great success in Europe. Yet they fell into obscurity because they did not fit within the Western canon. With EXÓTICA, choreographer Amanda Piña breathes new life into their work.
Festival Holland Festival
Run time 90 minutes, no intermission
Genre Dance
Language English and French
Surtitles English and Dutch
EXÓTICA
EXÓTICA is an exuberant ritual, a kind of séance, where ancestral dancers, femmes and queer people of colour from the past and present challenge the audience's gaze. The live performance is a site of re-enactment, invocation, exorcism and celebration.
La Sarabia (1878-1988), Nyota Inyoka (1896-1971), François (Féral) Benga (1906-1957) and Leila Bederkhan (1903-1986) - once travelled across Europe to present their dance. What kind of work were these dancers and choreographers making back then? How can we understand that work today? What is left of their context today?
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Amanda Piña: 'With this research, I would like to get to know my direct ancestors: fellow female and queer artists, dancers and choreographers of colour who lived and worked in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century. This work aims to revive them. It is a spiritual search for what consequences the white norm has, conceiving it as an internalised, self-invisible ideology, an unmarked and unnamed position.'
Credits
choreography Amanda Piña
performing made with and by Ángela Muñoz Martínez, André Bared Kabangu Bakambay, Venuri Perera, iSaAc Espinoza Hidrobo, Amanda Piña
dramaturgy Nicole Haitzinger
integral design Michiel Jimenez
scenography “Forêt Asiatique” (1921) by Albert Dubosq, as part Amanda Piña’s contribution to Infini #18 (2022)
technical manager Santiago Doljanin
music Ángela Muñoz Martínez, Zevra
song texts Amanda Piña
vocals Venuri Perera, Ángela Muñoz Martínez, André Bared Kabangu Bakambay, iSaAc Espinoza Hidrobo, Amanda Piña live muziek Ángela Muñoz Martínez, and performers
sound design Dominik Traun
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costumes Federico Protto
assistant director Pierre-Louis Kerbart
production and distribution neon lobster, Giulia Messia, Katharina Wallisch
production Amanda Piña/Fortuna
coproductie Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Festival d’Automne à Paris, Holland Festival, Tanzquartier, PACT, Fortuna / Amanda Pina Funding Support, La Bâtie-Festival de Genève, DDD Porto
thanks to Stadsschouwburg Kortrijk, Showtex, NTGent workshops, Bruno Forment, FWF funded project Border Dancing Across Time P-31958, Christina Gillinger-Correa Vivar (archival research), Rolando Vázquez (decolonial theory/interview)
with support of deSingel, KWP Kunstenwerkplaats Brussels, wpZimmer
This performance is made possible by Ammodo, Institut français des Pays-Bas, Holland Festival
About Holland Festival
The Holland Festival is the largest international performing arts festival in the Netherlands and one of the oldest festivals in Europe. Founded in 1947, Holland Festival celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2022.
The festival takes place every June, in and around Amsterdam at various locations, indoors and outdoors, large-scale and intimate, online and offline.