Never Twenty One

Smaïl Kanouté

March 22 – 23, 2022

Italian Premiere

Echoing the hashtag #Never21 designed by the Black Lives Matter movement, this dance performance pays tribute to the victims of gun violence in New York, Rio or Johannesburg – who will never turn 21. The number becomes a symbol of these shortened lives: what does it mean to never reach adulthood? Through their graffitied bodies, three dancers embody the words of the victims and their families, in an urban atmosphere tinged with shamanism. Drawing on a hybrid movement vocabulary, from krump to electro, from popping to contemporary dance, the eclectic French-Malian artist Smaïl Kanouté modulates different energies to evoke the invisible presence of those young people whose lives have been lost.

FOG investigates the work of the author also with the Italian premiere screening of his short films Yasuke Kurosan, Never Twenty One and So Ava. A trilogy on the theme of colonialism [date and time to be determined].

Smaïl Kanouté graduated in graphic design before learning to dance in the streets of France, Brazil, Mali and Europe. Mixing dance and visual arts, his choreography becomes a painting of moving patterns in space. Gatherer of world stories and storyteller of social facts, his artwork is fuelled by artistic and multicultural inﬂuences. Through his art, he welcomes the audience to step into a new journey of self-discovery, by sharing his vision of beauty and humanity. Kanouté lives and works in Paris, where he has created his own company, Vivons. Never Twenty One is the ﬁrst work of a triptych questioning the Black community’s condition in different times and locations, and to a large degree dealing with the impact of colonialism and the persistence of ancestral rites as an affirmation of identity.

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Info

Running time 60’

Credits

choreographer: Smail Kanouté
dancers: Aston Bonaparte, Salomon Mpondo-Dicka & Smaïl Kanouté
body painter: Lorella Disez
assistant choreographer: Moustapha Ziane
scenographer, light designer: Olivier Brichet
sound designer: Paul Lajus
light manager: Josselin Allaire
costume designers: Rachel Boa & Ornella Maris
executive production: Compagnie Vivons
co-production: Les Ateliers Médicis – Clichy sous Bois, Espace 1789 – Scène conventionnée danse – Saint Ouen, Les Rencontres Chorégraphiques Internationales de Seine Saint Denis, CentQuatre – Paris, Théâtre de la Ville – Danse Élargie 2020 – Fondation d'entreprise Hermès
with the support of: Direction Régionale des Affaires Culturelles Ile de France, Région Ile de France Département de la Seine-Saint-Denis, Ville de Paris, Adami, Spedidam, Caisse des Dépôts and Fondazione Nuovi Mecenati – Fondazione franco-italiana di sostegno alla creazione contemporanea