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Dancer Kettly Noël: personal demons or

cruel truth?! Cruel truth
A U G U S T 2 0 , 2 0 0 8

Kettly Noël is one of those impressive performers who can leave a very sharp mark in your
personal memory because she’s wiling to deal with roots only to come out with something

very concrete… like a mental razor…

Dancer and choreographer Kettly Noël came from the Creolian city Port au Prince in Haiti but

has decided to primarily explore her African roots, therefore she oriented her professional

career to work and develop African contemporary dance scene. At the age of 17 she joined the

company led by dancer Patrick Lacroix, then at the beginning of 90’s she set up her rst
company.
 Photo: Val Adamson&Jomba! (c) from Ti Chelbe

Afterwards she followed her path towards African continent where she established an art /

charitable community in Benin. Some of the youngsters she had trained there, later on
become a regular members of the Benin National Ballet. At the end of 90’s Noël has relocated

to Mali in order to do the same. She is an award winning choreographer and a founder of
dance festival in Bamako.

Kettly Noël is a respectable female artist dealing with women’s issues and trying to resolve
their position on the African continent, not being afraid to dig deeply where some people are

not willing or not capable to go.

Photo: Compagnie Kettly Noël (c) from Errance

The performance I saw this summer was ‘Errance’ (a French word for wanderings), her most

hermetically closed dance piece, but not because of her elitist style, in contrary, because of the
cruelty Noël spoke about. It’s an artwork about that how our corporate society and corporate
culture create corporate political apathy, ignorance and ‘Oh, I can’t face everyday so many

agony in this world’ opinion.

This is not ‘a world music style’ piece which celebrates very very cool and colorful ethno
mannerism, but a piece made by a black woman who sees thingz from the inner perspective.

And that inner perspective makes even her to throw up. ‘Errance’ undoubtedly pulls you in
from the very subtle beginning, because when Kettly Noël lets you in, she gives you only two

ways: stay and prepare your mind and stomach for the truth or go out before it’s not too late.
Outside the stage Kettly Noël admits that it’s not unusual when people are leaving her
performances because they are not prepared to face the arguable truculent verity.

Photo: Val Adamson&Jomba! (c) from Ti Chelbe

How can you react after experiencing or facing terror? No sound… No wordz… Mute channels…

How can you  express on the stage the sense of permanent sorrow as a result of terrible

atrocity? Kettly Noël does it really with honesty. The same way as she feels despair and

sickness she is capable to emanate it on the stage. It’s very interesting that the whole thing is
not made in the manner of today’s performance art scene, but in a way human beings see it,

when being emotional and physical naked and disgraced. That’s probably the reason why

some people in the audience couldn’t stand it till the end.

 Photo: Edwin (c) from Ti Chelbe

Because of confronting the truth itself, there are no speci c needs to be very performative,

and Noël knows that very well. Her art and life experience in Africa showed her what every day
life look like… and she de nitely sees it in a way it is; and that’s: brutality, despair, no future.

The only used sound is music by Bjork (in a way presenting her inner feelings) and composer

Ivo Malec (symbolically presenting soundscapes).

Photo: Judith Schönenberger (c) from Correspondances

The way she’s (un)telling story about African women being deconstructed as human beings by
the atrocity of every day life where no one seems to care anymore is painfully truthful,

therefore hard to stand.

‘Kettly Noël’s choreography ERRANCE draws its vitality from its powerful, expressive character.

She wants to show the transformations that take place in the body during the process of
remembering. In so doing, she explores the very limits of the possible.’ (HKW)
 Photo: Edwin (c) from Ti Chelbe

There is one thing people usually forget when discussing or dealing with news regarding our
black continent Africa… pretty important, see… actually, it’s an anthropological and biological

fact…human beings became what they are now exactly in Africa… it didn’t happen after the

migration in Europe, it happened in Africa… but do we consider ourselves as Africans?! From

what we can see everyday, I don’t think so…

p.s. If you happened to be in the situation to see any of Kettly Noël’s performances, don’t miss

this!

3 Comments

Stoïc' Mama Prod

D E CE MBE R 29, 2009 @ 8: 14 P M

some taste of great african contemporary dance…!

lomodeedee

D E CE MBE R 29, 2009 @ 8: 37 P M

Kettly Noël is absolutely great dancer and performer…

 Pingback: Film: Abderrahmane Sissakosorti’s “Timbuktu” and Kettly Noël | Repeating Islands

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