Shadow Survivors

We see and hear little of it in the Netherlands: Cameroon is going through a crisis that is affecting millions of people. From the north, terror organisation Boko Haram carries out attacks. In the east, hundreds of thousands of refugees from neighbouring Central African Republic are seeking refuge. And a resurgent, bloody 'language battle' also rages on: in the English-speaking region, half a million people are fleeing militias seeking secession from the region dominated by French-speakers.

In the torn country, choreographer and dancer Zora Snake's company created an ultra-dynamic dance performance that speaks of hope for the future. With – as he says himself – '(...) the determination of those who escaped the worst.' With his dance group, Snake seeks new and significant ways of expression by fusing contemporary dance, traditional Cameroonian dances and hip-hop.
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As a posthumous tribute to Cameroonian freedom fighter Ruben Um Nyobé, the performance lasts exactly sixty minutes, referring to the African country's sixty years of independence. Sixty minutes of furiously dynamic dance to percussion and hip-hop rhythms to evoke the voices of fighters and victims of the colonial past and transpose them to the voiceless Cameroonians of today.

But above all, Shadow Survivors expresses a universal desire to redesign a world full of conflict. Or, in Snake's words: 'How can we reinvent our societies, using all our senses?'

Concept & choreography Zora Snake
Dancers Audrey Fotso, Tchina Ndjida, Gandir Prudence, Arsène Etaba, Zora Snake
Installation Zora Snake
Lighting design tba
Production Compagnie Zora Snake
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Coproduction Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles, Centre national des arts de rue et de l’espace public - Ateliers Frappaz (Villeurbanne)
With support from Rencontres à l’échelle/ Bancs publics, Festival de Liège, Ringlokshuppin Rurh, Mulheim, Modaperf Festival
Residency Espace culturel Labo-Modaperf (Yaoundé), Hop Sarl (Douala), Théâtre national Wallonie Bruxelles, les Ateliers Frappaz