Nadia Beugré (CI)

Born in Côte d’Ivoire, dancer and choreographer Nadia Beugré has been working as a dancer since the mid-1990s. In 2009, she took part in a programme for up-and-coming choreographers at the Centre Choréographique National de Montpellier and has since created several of her own productions. In 2020, she founded her own dance company “Libr’Arts” in Montpellier, which is also a platform for projects between France and Côte d’Ivoire. In 2022 and 2023, Nadia Beugré returned to her hometown of Abidjan to create two new productions about the ruins, dreams and energies of the city. Both productions portray a burning youth, forgotten and marginalised, but still very much alive and fighting for a better future.

In “Filles-Pétroles”, Beugré works with Aya and Christelle, two young women who go their own way and represent this generation. They are the “burning girls” who must never be extinguished. Aya lives in the conflict-ridden neighbourhood of Abobo when one day she starts dancing as if she were jumping into an arena – without a net. The peculiarity of her moves soon earned her the nickname “La Chinoise” (the Chinese girl). With her moves, she claimed a place traditionally reserved for men and deconstructed an assigned femininity. For the piece, Nadia Beugré accompanied the two performers in their everyday lives – a dialogue emerged between women, between generations and life paths.

There is a content note for this production under ‘Accessibility’.