Nadjani Bulin is choreographer and performer for Kafrine.

Her creative processes were nurtured by discussions with Yuval Pick, Director of the CCN at Rillieux-la-Pape, during the ECUMe* project.

The artist worked on “Kafrine”, representing the black woman, the black slave: the “negress”. This is a true technical and aesthetic challenge, as she chose to work with the black body, on a stage where the light is adjusted to obtain a chiaroscuro effect. Nadjani Bulin deals with the invisibility of the black body just like the individual who is victim to the new social violence, reduced to a silence that no one seems to care about. The audience must pay attention to the movements that seem to emerge. To capture scenes in the darkness, she uses a special camera that can recreate the movements.

The choreographer started her research into movement by tying the feet together. She split the body in two horizontally. The top: chest, head and arms, and the bottom: legs and feet, are asymmetrical. This approach reveals a “half being”, where the movement of the bare chest, with the solar plexus exposed, takes on a frontal posture. At the same time the feet are anchored to the ground and do not move. She worked on the material of a body prevented from moving by referring to the plans of slave ships, where slaves were packed in during sea crossings. When the legs are involved they still have their compact appearance.

ECUMe (Expérience Chorégraphique Ultra-Marine) devised and organised by the Departmental Theatres of Reunion Island.

© Lalanbik

This choreographer was born in 1967 in Le Port, Reunion Island.

Nadjani Bulin felt the richness of movement through the experience of gymnastics which set her career choice and her life choices firmly in dance. As there were no public teaching establishments in Reunion Island at the beginning of the 1980s, she set off for the CREPS school in Aix-en-Provence where she studied dance. She obtained her State Diploma at “Le Café Danse” in Aix-en-Provence.   

She began her dancing career in Switzerland and was part of a cross-disciplinary project in the Department of sociology, at the University of Geneva. Called Le ciel au-dessus de ma maison [The sky above my house], this installation and performance mingled different artists together: plastic artists, video makers, musicians, photographers and dancers. Her collaboration with the sociologist Jean Ziegler marked the beginning of an interest in choreographic performance. In 2002, she was accepted for a one-year residency in the city of Rotterdam where she notably cooperated with the choreographer Régina Magnus and the plastic artist Anna Karine Den Bosch.

On her return to Reunion Island in 2006, she founded her own company. Her choreographic process tackles postcolonial subjects: Kaz Bourbon and Kafrine are typical of this style. In her relationship with music she favours instant composition with self-taught artists such as the pianist Patt Burter or the cellist and guitarist Sébastien Jacobs, who have both accompanied her on stage. 

In 2012, she took part in the ECUMe project (Expérience Chorégraphique Ultra-Marine) organised by the Departmental Theatres of Reunion in collaboration with Yuval Pick. 

Source : Lalanbik’s website

More information : 

https://www.lalanbik.org/ 

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/