Une Leçon de Ténèbres

Accessing the creative process behind a choreographic piece: this is what Betty Tchomanga offers with her lecture-performance Une Leçon de Ténèbres. Words, images, listening, and dance overlap and feed off each other before our eyes, revealing the references and interconnections of the creative process. Betty Tchomanga’s choreographic project can thus be understood from the perspective of patiently constructed research, composed of layers of readings and shaped by cultural and artistic history. Une Leçon de Ténèbres stands at the crossroads of her career. The performed lecture follows Leçons de Ténèbres (2022), a group piece for the stage about forgotten stories and what haunts us, just as it follows her solo Mascarades (2019) on the figure of the water deity Mami Wata. But just as it draws on these two pieces, Une Leçon de Ténèbres also heralds the work around the four-part choreographic series Histoire(s) Décoloniale(s) (2023-2024), whose success has continued to grow since it premiered. 

Betty Tchomanga

Betty Tchomanga was trained in the Angers CNDC, and she began her career as a dancer with artists like Emmanuelle Huynh, Alain Buffard, Fanny de Chaillé, Gaël Sesboüé, Herman Diephuis, Marlene Monteiro Freitas and Nina Santes. Since 2019, Tchomanga has mainly been focusing on choreographic research and composition, and she has created Madame, Mascarades, Leçons de Ténèbres and the 4-episode choreographic series Histoire(s) Décoloniale(s). Tchomanga is associateartist with Théâtre de la Bastille in Paris and Danse à tous les étages CDCN itinérant en Bretagne.