La Juju

For the third edition of « Dansons Maintenant ! » (Let’s Dance Now) programmed from January 31 to February 8, 2015 in Cotonou, Benin, the  Foudation Zinsou has commissioned Julie Dossavi to produce a 20-minute solo on the theme of  African music from the 1950s to the 1980s. It is an opportunity for her to return back to her ancestors’ land, where she had not been for 20 years, and to immerse herself in the music that rocked her entire childhood.
The arrival in Benin is « dazzling », « pure emotion », the shock « at all levels: rediscovering the smells, the red earth, the dances, the music, the family… » « I I felt so strong. I arrived like a heroine who has not seen her country for a long time but whose energy increases tenfold when she hears this music. The transformation was working”. Merging the figure of the childish comics Super Juju and Juju music, a music style popular in Nigeria since the 1950s, Julie Dossavi forged the character of Juju, as a mirror of herself: a heroine « has been » whose music comes tenfold the powers and take her to another time. “I am the JuJu, a super heroine. Like most superheroes, my character is shy, solitary, introverted, and doesn’t exist in the eyes of others, too different… but once transformed, this superheroine dares everything, the world belongs to her, power and strength fill and shape his body”.
The solo will later be developed into a one-hour duet version with the artist Yvan Talbot, and will tour in France, notably in Avignon.

Performed  Saturday 7Th February 2015,  Théâtre de Verdure de l’Institut Français de Cotonou, during the Event organized by Fondation Zinsou and entilted « Dansons Maintenant ! ».

Source : Dossier de présentation La Juju, Cie Julie Dossavi, Interview Julie Dossavi – 2th May 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.