Christelle Ahia Kamanan
Movement artist - Performer - Dancer
photo credits: Dirk Rose - PACT ZOLLVEREIN
Christelle-Ahia Kamanan grew up in France and Côte d'Ivoire (West Africa). She has embraced cultural expressions from both countries; it influences her work as an artist.
The love of movement has led her to practise modern jazz, artistic swimming, breakdance, urban Ivorian dances, and urban dances from Central Africa and the Caribbean.
As Christelle-Ahia started her journey through Cuban dances with African roots, it opened new perspectives for her.
It was an obvious development following her music research started at university. (see "About")
It's a pathway to re-connect to West African – especially Akan – practices introduced to her since childhood.
She embraces a holistic practice of dancing – moving – and nourishes herself with what is inside, outside, "visible" or not, humans and non-humans: her surrounding.
She is moved by social issues, for which she finds a space of expression/thinking through movement.
Christelle-Ahia enjoys using other art media or disciplines; she describes herself as a conceptual artist.
An interactive audio-guided dance experiment.
It is a research on the transatlantic cultural memory in the dance between the African continent (Atlantic side) and Abya Yala (the American continent).
Christelle-Ahia has been investigating historical and anthropological knowledge as much as embodied archives, including hers.
She presented the first part of the interactive audio-guided experiment at ATELIER N°67 - PACT ZOLLVEREIN.
Visit the website for more.
photo credits: Dirk Rose - PACT ZOLLVEREIN
Disruptive//Transformative Patterns (working title) - a work in progress.
A solo, choreographed and performed by Christelle-Ahia.
We look into the journey of a body facing a disruption, leading to a succession of adaptive patterns.
It questions the "invisible" roots behind certain moves that become familiar.
How can physical disability – inability to mobilise certain body parts – create a new vocabulary.
A performance raising awareness on specific medical conditions of fibroids* and endometriosis**, adenomyosis***.
The vocabulary of the piece finds inspiration in various methods and therapeutic practices that involve movement or sound/voice.
*Fibroids: non-cancerous tumours affecting the uterus. They can be as big as a watermelon! In Germany, about 20% of women above 30 suffer from it. It's the most common tumour that affects female bodies, like everywhere else. Also, females of African descent are more affected by fibroids and their relapse. In that case, fibroids become a chronic illness. Their symptoms and consequences are similar to those of endometriosis or adenomyosis.
**Endometriosis: migration and development of the endometrium (uterus tissue) outside the uterus. In Germany, endometriosis affects about 2 million people.
***Adenomyosis: a specific form of endometriosis within the uterus muscle only.
Co-founder of a collective investigating dance narratives and perspectives from the South.
"Building Refuges and Sanctuaries. A Decolonial Feminist Antiracist Practice" - Berlin Biennale 2022
We focus on figures and tendencies outside of the North American and Western European canon, to establish a more relevant, complete, controversial, and uncomfortable picture of dance history.