Couleurs de femmes was the first creation of the Yun Chane Company in 1995, and is being reprised in 2005 and 2016.

The idea behind the choreography is based on a memory process around the history of Reunion Island and the female characters that have helped to build it. The work by Cléli Gamaleya, Les Filles d’Héva, was an inspiration when choreographing this piece as it retraces the history of women on the island for three centuries and starts to build up an image of the original Reunion woman.

The source of the gestural expression of this piece is to be found in the extended cry which gives rise to a jerky reaction by the entire body as if shaken by hiccups. This jerky energy draws on the deepest resources in the body so that it emerges and picks up the impact and impulse technique that the choreographer loves so well. The collision between bodies and a material, like the violent impact of the dancers’ fingers on corrugated iron, shakes us and reveals to us what remains of the woman’s broken body.

According to the choreographer, the Reunion woman is in an emotional state but this lies buried. The search for inspiration derives from an act of reparation which supposes a willingness to bring out this hidden emotional state and show “resilience”. The idea is to go back to the past to identify a trauma and heal oneself by a process of affective reconstruction.

This is a revival of Couleurs de femmes and the choreographer has made the impulse and impact techniques more fluid. She has kept the original staging and the use of corrugated iron which has become the key moment of this piece.

Source : Lalanbik

More information : 

https://www.lalanbik.org/

http://cieyunchane.free.fr/

Yun Chane was born in St Denis, Réunion Island. 

She studied classical and modern dance on the island and then in Paris and, at the same time, followed several higher education curriculums (law, architecture, oriental languages, ethnomusicology and a Degree in Dance at the Sorbonne). 

Self-taught, Yun experienced the various trends of the “Jeune Danse Française” (young French dance) before initiating her own creative process. She undertook the task of promoting contemporary dance on her island and created the Yun Chane Company in 1994. 

Her work was enriched through all the choreographic and musical languages which she had immersed herself in, from the Reunion to the Indian Ocean, China and Africa. Through all these influences, Yun struck out in different directions but was particularly attached to artistic education. 

Since 2000, she has been carrying out research on a writing of “Rebond”.  
 

Since the end of 2003, she has been the associate artist for the SMAC La Gare (modern music venue) located at the foot of the Luberon Natural Regional Park (Coustellet, France), where she steers her company’s activities via “territorial coproduction”.

Source : Site de la Cie Yun Chane

En savoir plus : http://cieyunchane.free.fr/ 

Lalanbik was founded in 2014, in Reunion Island. It contributes to the  valorization of actors and choreographics writings of Indian Ocean  territories. Lalanbik implement online ressources tools : the first is  its website, concerning the Indian Ocean Dance news, and the other one  is its online video library, which brings contents about contemporary  and traditional dance writings. Lalanbik works in partnership to lead  its actions in favor of the widening of publics with : libraries,  theatres, dance schools, schools and higher education.

Source : Lalanbik's website

More information : www.lalanbik.org/