For her third participation in the Aire de Jeu festival, Maud Le Pladec has chosen to take up the invitation from Les Subsistances by inviting the performer and choreographer Okwui Okpokwasili to co-write a project.

Hunted is an incantatory project, a melody in which the American performer Okwui Okpokwasili handles words, texts, songs, bodies and the music of Kalevi Aho. Invoking here the figures of witches, both inspired by the mythical characters of Medea, the witches of Mac Beth, Mary Wigman, Valeska Gert, Tatsumi Hijikata, or even the agitators such as Nanny, the members of the collective W.I.T.C.H. (…). Hunted introduces a hybrid form between ritual storytelling “neo-paganist”. Okwui Okpokwasili embodies a vocabulary rooted in folklore and political speech. A presence between reality and superstition that is part of Kalevi Aho’s music.

Hunted was inspired by Anna Colin’s book “Sorcières pourchassées, assumées, puissantes, queer”, which was part of the project “Plus ou moins sorcières”, a series of exhibitions, projections, performances and conferences presented in 2012 at the Maison Populaire de Montreuil.

Credits

Creation 2015
Duration 50 min
In English, supertitled in French
Conception, choreography and writing: Maud Le Pladec and Okwui Okpokwasili
Performer: Dorothée Munyaneza
Lights: Nicolas Marc
Voice training: Dalila Khatir
Costume design: Alexandra Bertaut
Live musicians: Jean-Etienne Sotty, Fanny Vicens
On a music by: Kalevi AHO Accordion sonata n 2, black birds, II “birds of the night” ; I “birds of light” ; V “black birds”; IV “birds of desolation” music adapted for two accordions by Jean-Etienne Sotty and Fanny Vicens
Production : Association Léda Centre chorégraphique national 3⁄4
Co-production, creation and residency, as part of a commission from Les Subsistances to Maud Le Pladec for the “Aire de Jeu” festival in January 2015 The Centre Chorégraphique National d’Orléans is supported by the Ministère de la Culture — D.R.A.C Centre- Val de Loire, the Ville d’Orléans, the Région Centre-Val de Loire, the Conseil Départemental du Loiret. With the help of the Institut français Ministère des affaires étrangères for international tours.