Prophétique (on est déjà né.es)

In 2020 and 2021, Nadia Beugré met members of the transgender community in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. Assigned as boys, they are navigating between genders with fierce freedom in a very patriarchal society that, at best, pretends not to see them. Hairdressers by day and dance-floor divas by night, they live clandestine and exposed at the same time, navigate between parallel circuits and solidarity networks, and invent their own dances. Mixing voguing and coupé-décalé, they make the nights of Abidjan. They are seen as the "crazy" ones, the “sissies,” even though the whole Abidjan braids their hair in their salons. Following Legacy and L'Homme rare, Nadia Beugré pursues her research on gender and identity, but also on those she calls the “stranded," the misfits, those from the margins, from the periphery, those who are rejected or ignored. She keeps interrogating the ways roles are being assigned in family, society, history, the ways roles are given and being accepted. This piece is built on extensive research and work in Abidjan, encounters with the members of the community, their daily routine, and their stories. Biography Born in Côte d'Ivoire, Nadia Beugré became a founding member of Béatrice Kombé’s groundbreaking all-female dance ensemble TchéTché, with whom she toured for years to international critical acclaim. Following a training at Germaine Acogny's Ecole des sables in Senegal, she joined in 2009 Ex.e.r.ce., Mathilde Monnier's program for talented up-and-coming choreographers at the Centre Chorégraphique National de Montpellier. Her own productions merge traditional folk dances, contemporary experimental dance, and urban/hip-hop influences. Beugré also performs in works by fellow choreographers, such as Alain Buffard or Boris Charmatz. Beugré has recently founded her company in Montpellier—Libr’Arts, a platform for production, touring, and training between France and Côte d'Ivoire. Artist website Public artist talk: Nadia Beugré will be a part of the lecture series by the Center for African Studies in Basel on 21.11.2023 from 10.15 a.m. to 12.00 p.m.