Eclipse

« As soon as man is born, the race against death begins… Solar eclipses are very rare events lasting no more than eight minutes. And if you only had eight minutes left to live, what would be your choice ? ».

This choreographic reflection aims to challenge the human being to know the real purpose of his existence.

The eclipse also represents the periods of darkness that life imposes on individuals, when they come across loneliness, doubt or uncertainty. In the same way that the eclipse comes to cover the sun, darkness falls on our lives but one morning, the light returns and it is a brighter, more cheerful world that we discover.

Initially subtitled « Des ténèbres à la lumière », the piece Eclipse was first imagined in Abidjan, in the form of short sequences, before being created in a longer stage format, in November 2011, at the French Institute of Benin, in Cotonou. Rescheduled on November 30, 212 at the Théâtre de Verdure of the French Institute of Benin, the play appears in the Festival “Dansons Maintenant 2! », organized by the  Fondation Zinsou.

Source: Program of the show, Festival « Dancing Now! » , Zinsou Foundation, 2012. Interview Abdoulaye Trésor Konaté, by Anne Decoret-Ahiha, May 23, 2022.

The deposit of the video archives of “Dansons maintenant !”, belonging to Fondation Zinsou was made possible thanks to the Centre National de la Danse Research award in dance, granted in 2021 to Dr Anne Décoret-Ahiha for her research project “Consolidation of the African choreographic field: focus on Benin” and with the kind permission of the artists.