January 28—February 7, 2026
Dance, performance, visual arts
Festival of international emerging artistic practices
Marseille and Aix-en-Provence
Marseille and Aix-en-Provence
Nadia Beugré
Épique ! (pour Yikakou)
2025
January 31 at 20:30
Théâtre Joliette, Grande salle
Danse
Duration: 1h
Book your ticket
12€ / 17€
In co-presentation with Théâtre Joliette
Evening pass: €20 / €30 to see Mother Tongue by Lucía García Pullés at 7:00 PM, and Épique ! (for Yikakou) by Nadia Beugré at 8:30 PM.
Nadia Beugré embarks on a solitary journey toward Yikakou, a vanished village from her childhood in Côte d’Ivoire, whose so-called cursed lands have been swallowed by the forest. Ten years after Quartiers libres, her first solo work, she weaves together collective memory and intimate recollections in this new creation.
Throughout her journey, the choreographer and performer searches for striking female figures: that of the ancestress who gave her the name Gbahihonon—“a woman who speaks what she sees”—as well as, in the epic of Soundiata, the figure of Dô-Kamissa, an aging woman who, after being wronged by her brother, transformed herself into a buffalo to destroy his land. Disguising herself as a female oracle, Dô-Kamissa skillfully orchestrates the marriage of the king and Sogolon Kandé, the hunchbacked woman. In a powerful solo, the choreographer and performer embodies these figures, weaving a link between her own story and those of her ancestors. Inhabited by the voices of the past, she shares the stage with a female griot—guardian of clans and forgotten narratives—and a musician-singer.
Biography
Born and raised in Abobo, a district of Abidjan, Nadia Beugré met Béatrice Kombé in 1997. Together they founded the Tché-Tché company and performed around the world. After Béatrice’s passing, Nadia trained at the École des Sables in Senegal, then joined Ex.e.r.ce in Montpellier in 2009. Since then, she has created nine works, all of which question identities and assigned roles, as well as what exists on the margins and at the periphery. An associate artist at La Briqueterie and at ICI–CCN Montpellier, and recipient of the 2023 SACD New Choreographic Talent Award, she founded Libr’Arts in Montpellier, a platform for production, distribution, and training between France and Côte d’Ivoire.
Credits
Distribution
Artistic direction and performance: Nadia Beugré
Performance: Charlotte Dali
Dramaturgy: Kader Lassina Touré
Artistic collaboration and original music: Salimata Diabate
Original music: Lucas Nicot
Set design: Jean-Christophe Lanquetin
Light design: Paulin Ouedraogo
Production: Virginie Dupray / Libr’Arts
assisted by: Louise Mutabazi
Co-production
Montpellier Danse, creative residency at the Agora, Cité Internationale de la Danse
Support
BNP Paribas Foundation; Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Brussels; Charleroi danse — National Choreographic Centre of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation; Festival d’Automne à Paris; CCN de Caen en Normandie as part of the studio residency programme; Theater Freiburg; ICI CCN de Montpellier Occitanie / Direction: Christian Rizzo, as part of the associate artist programme
Support
Drac Occitanie (subsidised company); Occitanie Pyrénées Méditerranée region – City of Montpellier
Special thanks to
Ivoire Marionnettes and the French Institute of Côte d'Ivoir
Photo
© Werner Strouven Rhok
Premiered on
9 May 2025 at La Raffinerie, as part of the Kunstenfestivaldesarts (Brussels)
