Seydou Boro & Corps d'Hommes

For the past 20 years, Seydou Boro, a dancer, choreographer and musician from Burkina Faso, has been pursuing his exploration of a contemporary movement language that is modelled on both the African tradition, and on Western influences. Koteba is a type of traditional theatre performed in Bambara, an African language spoken chiefly in Mali, but also deep in the interior of Burkina Faso. In Koteba, the actors are masked and offer an ironic commentary of conflict behaviour. Precisely because their faces are covered, they can speak freely, and the discourse is picked up, accepted and respected by the villagers. Seydou Boro, fascinated by the ritual nature of both voodoo and butoh, will be the incarnation of this evil, diabolical force. Instead of wearing a mask, he will smear his face with red earth, as a way of expressing his revolt against sexual violence and repression.