Event

Soa Ratsifandrihana | Dance performance

Welcome to g r oo ve, a dance collage, with Soa Ratsifandrihana

g r oo ve (2021) is a choreographic solo by Soa Ratsifandrihana bringing together intimate and popular images and dances. Among them, the Afindrafindrao, a nineteenth century dance, typically “gasy”, from the red island where Soa comes from: Madagascar. She also sketched a few steps from Madison, the first choreography she learned, popularized in the 60s with Al Brown, an African-American singer. She also gives a nod to Pepito, a popping dancer whose stylized quarter-turns she admires… In short, g r oo v e is presented in the form of a collage of references cited and then transformed. The choreographic challenge is assembling and articulating them with skill, to create an energy that progresses over the course of the piece.

Soa Ratsifandrihana is a dancer and choreographer. After studying at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, Soa worked with James Thierrée, Salia Sanou and Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker. In October 2021, she presented her first solo show, g r oo v e, in Brussels. Soa created a diptych in May 2024, in which she tells a story she would have liked to have heard as a child. The two parts of this diptych take the form of a radio production Rouge Cratère and a show entitled Fampitaha, fampita fampitàna. Following on from her first solo, she is interested in the possible entanglements between radio narrative, choreographic and musical composition, reminding us that our bodies, just like our words, are the carriers of stories. Soa is an associate artist at Kaaitheater, in Brussels from 2023 to 2025.

Soa Ratsifandrihana performs g r oo v e in connection with Frida Orupabo’s exhibition On Lies, Secrets and Silence.

The event is free and open for all but requires sign up.