Nadia Beugré (FR/CI)
Quartiers Libres

© Yi Chun Wu

Wherever she shows this solo, created eleven years ago, it immediately attracts everybody’s attention. Nadia Beugré fights in a sparkly dress, a cable around her neck, against surroundings of garbage that are moving ever closer, threatening to devour her. Even as a girl, the dancer, born in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, knew how to assert herself. On the street she pushed the boys around instead of going to school, and at home she stood up to her father, who didn’t like his daughter playing football. But he was no match for her determination. At just 16 years old, she became a founding member of Béatrice Kombé’s all-female company Tché Tché, with which she toured half the world over many years. Later, Beugré trained with Germaine Acogny and emigrated to France. She has remained a fighter to this day. And she is certainly one of the most exciting and most notable choreographers at the moment, not only in France.