Faustin Linyekula

Faustin Linyekula (born February 27, 1974) is a Congolese dancer and choreographer of contemporary dance. His works are structured along the lines of the dance form Ndombolo and its associated music and address "the legacy of decades of war, terror, fear and the collapse of the economy for himself, his family and his friends."
Family background.
Linyekula was born in Ubundu, Zaire, now Democratic Republic of Congo. He was raised in a "multilingual, multicultural" environment, in a Roman Catholic family. Because of the state ideology of the Mobutu Sese Seko regime, the European name, "Faustin", could not appear on any legal documents. The justification for this was that European names were imposed on Africans as a form of mental subjugation.
Career.
According to Toba Singer, Linyekula studied literature and theater in Kisangani (in northeast Zaire, his native region). The universities in Zaire were soon shut down; he went to Nairobi, Kenya. In 1997 co-founded the Gàara company with mime Opiyo Okach and dancer Afrah Tenambergen, the first contemporary dance company in Kenya and his first experience as a choreographer. He then traveled to France where he took up a residency first with choreographer Régine Chopinot and then with Mathilde Monnier, and to the Tanzwochen Festival in Vienna, Austria where he and South African dancer Gregory Maqoma created "Tales off the Mud Wall" (2000).
Returning to the Congo, in June 2001 in Kinshasa he established the Studios Kabako, a structure form multidisciplinary creation and performance; Brenda Dixon Gottschild, professor emerita of Dance Studies at Temple University characterizes this as choosing "the path of most resistance," given his opportunities in Europe.
In 2003, he choreographed a piece for six hip-hop dancers as part of the Suresnes Cités Danse Festival. The French Centre National de la Danse gave him "carte blanche" to create a festival in 2005; the result was "Le Cargo", in which appear ten African companies mostly presenting their work for the first time in Europe. In 2007, his "Festival des mensonges" ("Festival of Lies") was presented at the Festival d'Avignon, as well as "Dinozord: The Dialogue Series" (2006).
″Le Cargo″, his first solo (2011) is still touring in Europe (Vienna, Paris, Grenoble, Brussels, Ostende, Genk, Athens, Geneva, Salzburg, Umea, Gdansk, Lisbon…), Africa (Tunis, Johannesburg, Kinshasa, Lubumbashi, Nouakchott, Dakar, Ouagadougou, Lusaka, Yaoundé, Douala, Niamey, Zinder, Djibouti, Kampala, Accra, Bata…), North America (New York, Portland, Minneapolis, Burlington - Vermont, Ottawa and Vancouver), Australia (Brisbane) and New Caledonia (Noumea).
A piece for 4 dancers and 3 performers, ″Drums and Digging″ (2013) has been premiered at the Avignon festival in 2013 and toured in 2014 in France (Paris, Grenoble, Annecy) and Belgium (Leuven, Brussels, Genk).
Other recent collaborations include ″La Création du Monde 1923-2012″, a piece for 24 dancers of the Ballet de Lorraine in Nancy and Djodjo Kazadi (2012) and ″Sans-titre″ (2009), a duet written by German director Raimund Hoghe.
Faustin Linyekula is also teaching in Africa, Europe (Parts / Brussels, CNDC Angers / France, Impulstanz / Vienna) and in the United States (Florida University Gainesville, University of the Arts Philadelphia...) and has been part of a think tank with other African artists and intellectuals around the creation of an arts center near Cape Town. The think tank resulted in the creation of the Africa Centre.
Since 2006, he is based in Kisangani. The Studios Kabako are accompanying there local and national artistic initiatives in the field of dance, theatre, music and video, from training to production and touring. Young accompanied artists include among others Dinozord, Papy Ebotany, Djino Alolo, Dorine Mokha, Jeannot Kumbonyeki, Yves Mwamba... (dance), Flamme Kapaya, Pasnas, Franck Moka, Huguette Tolinga (music), Michael Disanka & Christiana Tabaro (theatre). In May 2009 opened the first professional recording studio of the eastern part of the country. At the initiative of Pamoja project, a residency and production programme, the Studios Kabako have also host and coproduced many artists from Africa, including projects from South Africa, Nigeria, Senegal, Mozambique, Burkina Faso...
Linyekula is currently touring "Not Another Diva...", a musical theatre piece cosigned with South African performer Hlengiwe Lushaba. 2019 will mark the premiere of "Congo" adapted from Eric Vuillard's book and "Histoire(s) du théâtre II", a commission from Milo Rau / NTGent.
Linyekula is the winner of the 2007 Principal Prince Claus Award.
In 2014, he received the Principle Award of the CurryStone Prize for the work developed in Kisangani.
He is also one of the guest artists of the Re-Place-Ing Philadelphia project initiated in 2015 by the Painted Bride Art Centre.
In 2016, he is associated artist to the city of Lisbon-Portugal, as part of the Artista Na Cidade] Biennale.
In 2019, he is jointly with William Kentridge associate artist to the Holland festival.
From September 2018 and for 3 years, he is associated artist to the Manège in Reims (France).
References.
Amended in 2010 by Virginie Dupray, manager of Faustin Linyekula.