04.10.23 — 20:00
CN D Pantin
Screening followed by a meeting with the team.
A choreographic journey across the Indian Ocean, starting with the mbiwi of Mayotte, to discover the dances that mobilise the pelvis. Far from being simple dances of seduction, they express a sexual power that generates action in a collective and social dimension.
Starting with the mbiwi, the dance par excellence at wedding ceremonies in Mayotte, the film goes back to the female initiation rites of the unyago, still practised in the Indian Ocean, particularly in Zanzibar, and then illustrates other dances of the same kind. Far from being mere seduction dances, these practices enable women to assert a powerful and creative feminine subjectivity and build a sociality that is supportive of and committed to the collective. By staging a specifically feminine social ethos, they demonstrate women's mastery of marriage-related affairs and, consequently, their ability to control a significant part of the family economy and social stratification through matrimonial alliances. In this way, through dance, women assert a creative sexuality and sensuality that act as a bulwark against the dominant power and allow them to retain a significant degree of freedom, action and decision-making.