FLORENT MAHOUKOU (CG) — IN-OUT

Oct. 17 to 21, 2022 — 9:30 to 12:30 (Mon-Fri)
Full week rate: 85$ with Service Québec / 280$ if non-eligible
Drop-in class rate: 19$ with Service Québec / 56$ if non-eligible *
Language of instruction: French
Capacity: 23 people
Open to artists of all disciplines

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*No advance registration for drop-in attendance – pay by credit or e-transfer on site the morning of, if places remain.

By registering for a workshop, you agree to cancel your participation if you have symptoms or suspect you may have COVID-19. Please read the Participant Engagement before registering. Thank you!

CONTENT // Between restraint and release, subtlety and amplitude, rhythm and fluidity, the dancers explore the different qualities useful to the expression of the body, while working on the imagination and joy of movement as well as presence.

Always in relation to one’s imagination, the dance is sharpened in speed and suspension as well as in the engagement of the quality of movement – traveling through one’s own imagination and finding the proposed state of the body. 

ACCESSIBILITY // The first hours of the morning, we will wake up all our body parts with yoga exercises that warm up the body. Then, we will go through simple movements that question our body coordination; all with a strong music in a joyful and exciting atmosphere.

Music plays an essential role in the development of the class.   

We will do solo exercises to experience the inner rhythm: slow and fast movements, and then the opposite…all verbal instructions will be guided and demonstrated.

Artists living with a physical disability who can move independently, alone or in a wheelchair, can do this work with adaptations.

BIO // Originally from Congo Brazzaville, Florent Mahoukou is a dancer-performer, theatre performer, director and choreographer. At the age of 12, he created a dance group in Brazzaville called “BANA 16ème”. He discovered the Tambours de Brazza which nourished his desire to dance. In 2000, he joined the BINANGOUA/Serge Bissadissi Company in Pointe-Noire where he began his stage career. 

Two years later he launched himself into the choreographic landscape and created the Studio Maho as well as his first piece Corps en Transe in August 2002. From 2003 to 2006, he taught traditional Congolese dance at the French high school in Pointe-Noire. He nourrished himself during numerous training courses with Carolyn CARLSON, Sara ORSELIE, Salia SANOU, Seydou BORO, Amadou BOURO, Kettly NOEL, Eric LAMOUREUX, Jean-Pierre AMIEL, Françoise DUPUY,… He never stops to deepen his body work and to diversify his experiences. Since October 2007, Florent MAHOUKOU is the initiator and artistic director of the event RUE DANCE CONGO, choreographic walks in the streets of Congo. 

Collaborator of the piece Ndjila na Ndjila, winner of Danse l’Afrique Danse 2008, he is also a performer of the piece Sacre du printemps by Heddy MAALEM and Nos enfants nous font peur… . With the Group RICTUS/David BOBEE. The choreographer extends the affirmation of his artistic personality with his piece ” On The Steps… “. Winner of the Puma Creative Prize and first prize at the 2010 Danse l’Afrique Danse meetings in Bamako. 

Since 2012, Florent Mahoukou has expanded his vision and ambitions by implanting “Rue Dance” in different African countries, with the aim of setting up a pan-African cultural network “Réseau Rue Dance”. There are currently Rue Dance Niger, Rue Dance Gabon, Rue Dance Congo … Enriched by the encounters and experiences that have nurtured his career as a performer in Congo and abroad, Florent Mahoukou develops since 2010 a choreographic writing that is his own. 

By collaborating with other choreographers, directors and writers such as : Laurent LONGA FO in Racines, David BOBEE and Ronan CHENEAU in Nos enfants… & My Brazza, Diemonde in My Brazzaville, & My Brazza , Dieudonné NIANGOUNA and Andreya OUAMBA in Sac au Dos, Gregory MAQOMA in Wake Up etc. He continues to elaborate, to confront his body and choreographic work. He is also initiated to the Hip Hop dynamic, he is inspired by the urban territory. His intimate choreographic universe revolves around the suspension and the joy of movement, the jubilation in the danced movement. Clearly contemporary, he is the reflection of his time, sometimes at the limit of the avant-garde…