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The Art of Disruption: Decolonial Potentiality in Fatou Cissé’s La ville en mouv’ment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 November 2024

Amy Swanson Open the ORCID record for Amy Swanson [Opens in a new window]
Amy Swanson*
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University of Oregon
*
Email: aswa@uoregon.edu
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Abstract

African contemporary choreographers increasingly delink from Eurocentric performance conventions and work toward establishing local conditions of production and consumption by performing in public spaces. Although the labor undertaken to shift power asymmetries does not always result in structural changes, their art may be considered decolonial creative expression. Based on ethnographic research at the third and fourth editions (2022 and 2023) of Fatou Cissé’s street performance festival, La ville en mouv’ment (The City in Movement), in Dakar, Senegal, the author argues that decolonial potentiality extends beyond the precarious economic conditions to encapsulate the artists’ return to public space and futurist aesthetics.

Résumé

Résumé

Des chorégraphes contemporains africains se détachent de plus en plus des conventions de spectacles eurocentriques et travaillent à l’établissement de conditions locales de production et de consommation en se performant dans des espaces publics. Bien que le travail entrepris pour modifier les asymétries de pouvoir ne se traduisent pas forcément par des changements structurels, leur art peut être considéré comme une expression créative décoloniale. Basé sur une recherche ethnographique lors des troisième et quatrième éditions (2022 et 2023) du festival de performance de Fatou Cissé, La ville en mouv’ment, à Dakar au Sénégal, l’auteur soutient que le potentiel décolonial s’étend au-delà des conditions économiques précaires pour englober le retour des artistes dans l’espace public et leur esthétique futuriste.

Keywords

contemporary African danceperformance artlive artstreet performanceFatou CisséAfrican futurismqueer futuritydecolonizationdanse africaine contemporaineperformanceFatou Cisséfuturism africainfuturité queerdécolonisation
Type
Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 67 , Issue 3 , September 2024 , pp. 568 - 589
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of African Studies Association

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