Fampitaha, fampita, fampitàna
Performance
Dance
Soa Ratsifandrihana – AMA
Co-presented with L’Alliance New York’s Crossing The Line Festival
BELGIUM
Oct 28–30
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“Delivers truth to power . . . fractured, fantastical, stylish, and funky.”
—Air Mail
Fampitaha, fampita, fampitàna—Malagasy for “comparison, transference, and rivalry”—is a conversation between bodies, histories, and sounds. Brussels-based choreographer Soa Ratsifandrihana draws on her Madagascan origin and diasporic experience to tell the story she longed to hear as a child. She is joined by guitarist Joël Rabesolo, and performers Audrey Merilus and Stanley Ollivier as they weave together dance, music, and storytelling in an ever-evolving performance. The piece reflects their entangled histories—rooted in Madagascar, Haiti, Martinique, and Guadeloupe, and shaped by life in France and Belgium, where they all live today. Voices, gestures, and rhythms overlap, reminding us that bodies, like words, hold memory, and sometimes speak what can’t be said.
Soa Ratsifandrihana’s U.S. Premiere
RUNNING TIME
85 min (no intermission)
CONTENT NOTE
LANGUAGE
About the Artist
Soa Ratsifandrihana is a French-Malagasy dancer and choreographer whose work bridges choreographic composition, radio narrative, and sonic experimentation. After training at the Conservatoire de Paris, she danced with Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, James Thierrée, and Salia Sanou. Her first solo, g r oo v e, premiered in Brussels in 2021 and has since toured widely across Europe and abroad (Japan, Canada). In 2024, she created a diptych—Rouge Cratère (radio work) and Fampitaha, fampita, fampitàna (stage piece)—a diasporic mythology she wished she’d heard. She is currently an associate artist at Kaaitheater (2023–25).
Artistic Direction: Soa Ratsifandrihana
Choreography and interpretation: Audrey Mérilus, Stanley Ollivier and Soa Ratsifandrihana
Footwork phrase: Raza
Original music and interpretation: Joël Rabesolo
Dramaturgy: Lily Brieu Nguyen
Artistic collaboration: Jérémie Polin Razanaparany aka Raza, Amelia Ewu, Thi Mai Nguyen
Lights: Marie-Christine Soma
Costumes: Harilay Rabenjamina
Sound: Chloé Despax, Guilhem Angot
A look at questions of transmission and identity: Prisca Ratovonasy
Texts: Sékou Sémega
External perspective: Maria Dogahe
Videos: Valérianne Poidevin
General creation management: Blaise Cagnac
General tour management: Thomas Roulleau-Gallais
Lighting management: Diane Guérin, Julien Rauche (alternating)
Sound management: Guilhem Angot, Paul Boulier, Jean-Louis Waflart (alternating)
Development, production, distribution: AMA – Babacar Ba, Clara Schmitt, Emi Parot, France Morin
Delegated production: AMA, Théâtre Varia.
In collaboration with Météores
Sponsors
Co-productions Kaaitheater, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Théâtre Varia, Charleroi danse, MC93 — Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis, ICI – Montpellier Occitanie national choreographic center / Direction Christian Rizzo, Orléans national choreographic center-directed by Maud Le Pladec, Le Gymnase-CDCN Roubaix, La Place de la Danse-CDCN Toulouse / Occitanie, Yavarhoussen Fund, Tanz im August, La Coop asbl, Shelter Prod
A-CDCN co-productions (The Winter Festivals – CDCN Avignon, The Manufacture – CDCN New Aquitaine Bordeaux La Rochelle, The Exchanger – CDCN Hauts-de-France, The Dancing CDCN Dijon Burgundy-Franche-Comté, Chorège CDCN Falaise Normandy, The Pacific – CDCN Grenoble – Auvergne – Rhône-Alpes, Touka Dances – CDCN Guyana, Atelier de Paris / CDCN, The Gymnase CDCN Roubaix – Hauts-de-France, POLE-SUD CDCN / Strasbourg, The Place de la Danse – CDCN Toulouse / Occitanie, The House Dance CDCN Uzès Gard Occitanie, The brickyard CDCN of Val-de-Marne).
Support for Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels.
Residences ICI – CCN Montpellier Occitanie, La Bellone – Maison du spectacle, Gemeenschapscentrum De Kriekelaar, University of Antananarivo, KAAP, Le Gymnase-CDCN Roubaix, Théâtre Varia, CCN d’Orléans, Radio Grenouille.
Supported by the Wallonia-Brussels Federation – Dance Directorate, Wallonia- Brussels International, Transfabrik Fund – Franco-German fund for live performance, taxshelter.be, ING and the Belgian federal government’s tax shelter
Soa Ratsifandrihana is artist in residence at Kaaitheater for the period 2023–25.
Co-presented with L’Alliance New York’s Crossing The Line Festival
L’Alliance New York is an independent, not-for-profit organization committed to providing its audience and students with engaging French language classes and audacious multi-disciplinary programming that celebrates the diversity of francophone cultures and creativity around the world. A welcoming and inclusive community for all ages and all backgrounds, L’Alliance New York is a place where people can meet, learn, and explore the richness of our heritages and share discoveries. L’Alliance New York strives to amplify voices and build bridges from the entire francophone world to New York and beyond.
Crossing The Line is a citywide festival that engages international artists and New York City audiences in artistic discovery and critical dialogue to re-imagine the world around us. Crossing The Line is produced by L’Alliance New York in partnership with leading cultural institutions.
Photo Credit
Harilay Rabenjamina