DANCE FOR (A) LIFE / DANSEUR POUR (LA) VIE
International Conference on the Integration of Refugees in Africa
Dance for (a) Life is a festive meeting and exchange organised by the association NDAM SE NA (Chad) in partnership with The High Commissioner for Refugees in Chad (UNHCR), the French Institute of Chad (IFT) and AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council)
Participants:
Taigué Ahmed: Born in 1977 in N'Djamena, Taigué Ahmed is the founder of the Association Ndam Se Na through which he initiated several projects such as the eponymous choreographic festival (Ndam Se Na) and the "Ateliers du Monde" (supported by IF Paris and IF Chad). Taïgué is also developing a training scheme project to strengthen the technical capacities of young Chadian dancers by combining traditional and contemporary dances, using his own Pas en Avant method for dance pedagogy in IDP camps. Ahmed has worked extensively in several IDP camps in the South of Chad.
Norma Deseke is a social anthropologist currently writing her thesis at the University of Cambridge, UK. Her work explores alternative forms of knowledge production at the intersection of art, science and technology and their connection to our changing political economy.
Fabrice Don de Dieu Bwabulamutima: Born in 1977 in Kamituga, one of the troubled areas of Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Fabrice don of God Bwabulamutima obtains his training at the National Institute of Arts where he completes, as a graduate, his higher studies in Drama in 2007. He is the director of Refugees on the Move program conducted in IDP camps across Congo with UNCHR, and director of “Kongo Drama”, a dance and drama company that has reached over 1,500 refugees of all ages with a unique form of dance therapy that helps participants cope with trauma.
Eva Gahl is Professor of Language at the Refugee School in Munich (Berufsschule zur Berufsintegration an der Balanstraße).
Cécile Géneviève is Program Officer of the European Union (EU) in Chad.
Krystel Khoury is an Anthropologist of Dance (PhD at the University of Clermont-Ferrand) and cultural manager. She conducts research on transmission, intercultural politics and creative contemporary dance processes based on empirical fieldwork with artists (including one with well-known choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui).
Sara Houston is a dance specialist who is interested in how social problems can be articulated through dance and even modified. She teaches at the Dance Department of the University of Roehampton in London, UK. Her research specialty is community dance and especially with marginalized or excluded groups.
Clara Lecadet holds a doctorate in social anthropology and ethnology. Her work focuses on the forms of grouping and collective mobilization of migrants expelled to Mali (EHESS, 2011). Lecadet is currently a public servant trainee and researcher at CNRS, Paris.
Daanish Masood: is a researcher at BeAnotherLab and United Nations officer. BaL is a transnational interdisciplinary group that uses art, science and technology to promote empathy and perspective-taking among diverse communities using virtual reality and techniques derived from cognitive science.
Bienvenu Ndoubabé is a lead member of a dance company composed of refugees from the Maro IDP camp called Ballet de Refugies de Maro. His work concerns the social integration and sensitisation through dance and movement work, particularly between the host community of Maro and the Belom camps (UNCHR).
Aleva Ndavogo Jude is a young Chadian dancer choreographer and performer, mainly in contemporary African dances and urban. Passionate also by the photography he discovers Dance in the street. In 2005, he will integrate an environment conducive to its evolution. In 2009, he created his company TCHADO STAR which simply means the star of Chad. Sensitive to the difficulties of the street children, she is at their side to give them renewed enthusiasm and hope through dance.
Nicolas Salazar Sutil is UK/Chilean arts researcher and author, trained in the Laban-Malgrem system of Movement Psychology. He works at the University of Leeds and focuses on the ethics of social art, especially how physical movement and bodywork can achieve social, cultural, clinical and spiritual transformation.
Yaya Sarria is a contemporary dancer and choreographer from Chad, and the artistic director of the Souar Souar Dance Festival in N'Djamena. He has led training courses at major centers and dance schools (Mediterranean Center of Contemporary Dance of Tunis, Albert Camus Cultural Center of Tananarive - Madagascar, CDC of Ouagadougou - Burkina Faso, Sand School of Germaine Acongy in Dakar.
Stefan Schwarz is Programmer at Tanzhaus NRW in Dusseldorf.
Event Programme
Wednesday, 23 May 2018
• Dance workshop
Location: Talino Manu Space
Time: 9:30 to 13:30
15h to 17h30
Summary of the activity: The program will start with two simultaneous workshops: contemporary dance workshop with guest refugees from Maro camps and dancers from the city of N'Djamena and bodyswapping VR workshops. These activities will see the participation of eight dancers from the refugee camps of Maro and eight dancers from N'Djamena gathered in a dance workshop for a week with choreographers Yaya Sarria, Fabrice Don of Dieu and Taigué Ahmed.
• Presentation of the SOCIAL CHOREOGRAPHY NETWORK
Location: French Institute of Chad
Time: 10h to 11h30
Summary of the activity: Internal presentation of the SOCIAL CHOREOGRAPHY NETWORK. Nicolas Salazar Sutil & Sara Houston will present the work done by university researchers and artists from various universities in England (University of Leeds, Coventry University, Roehampton University) as well as on the issue of culture and integration of refugees in the UK.
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• SYMPOSIUM: Sharing of work experience with refugees in Greece and Syria
Location: French Institute of Chad
Time: 11:45 am to 1 pm
Summary of the activity: The dance anthropologist Krystel Khoury will tell us about her work experience in refugee camps in Greece and projects with Syrian refugees at the Kammerspiele (Open Border) theatre in the city of Munich.
Break
• Virtual Reality workshop (BeAnotherLab)
Location: French Institute of Chad
Time: 15:30 to 17:30
Summary of the activity: Virtual Reality bodyswapping workshop led by Norma Deseke and Daanish Masood from UK and USA.
Thursday, May 24, 2018
• Dance workshop
Location: Talino Manu Space
Time: 9:30 to 13:30
15h to 17h30
• UNHCR and EU intervention in Chad:
Time: 9:30 am to 1 pm
Location: French Institute of Chad
Summary of the activity: Cécile Géneviève, the Program Officer of the European Union in Chad, will talk about the action program and the means and strategy implemented by the EU to facilitate the promotion of culture and the integration of refugees in Chad. It will also be a framework for discussing the different ways of the refugee reception and integration system and the development of camp policy from the UNHCR's point of view.
Break
• PRESENTATION: History and Development of Refugee Camps
Location: French Institute of Chad
Time: 16h to 18h
Summary of the activity: Anthropologist Clara Lecadet will address in her speech the question of the history of the development of the refugee camps and the contemporary perspectives.
• Virtual Reality workshop (BeAnotherLab)
Location: French Institute of Chad
Time: 15:30 to 17:30
Friday, 25th of May 2018
• Dance workshop
Location: Talino Manu Space
Time: 9:30 to 13:30
15h to 17h30
• Visit of DAKOUNA ESPOIR's space
Time: 10h to 12h
Summary of the activity: Visit to DAKOUNA ESPOIR, a community arts project led by dancer Aleva Judga Nadago who has been working with street children in N'Djamena for several years. Aleva will present the work of her association and will discuss with the group the positive results and challenges of this project.
Break
• ROUNDTABLE: Cultural projects for the integration of refugees into society in Germany
Location: French Institute of Chad
Time: 15h to 17h
Summary of the activity: Eva Gahl, Professor of Language at the Refugee School in Munich (Berufsschule zur Berufsintegration an der Balanstraße) will talk about refugees and cultural projects in her school, their impact and related difficulties to their implementation. Stefan Schwarz (Programmer at Tanzhaus NRW in Dusseldorf) will talk to us about dance workshops with refugees at Tanzhaus NRW and their impact on the institution and the participants.
Break
• Performance: WAIGNEDEH
Location: French Institute of Chad
Time: 19h30
• Virtual Reality workshop (BeAnother Lab)
Location: Itinerant on several sites: High schools, Espace Tchado-star, refugee camps of Gaoui and homes in the Chagoua neighborhood (N'Djamena).
Time: 14:30 to 17:30
Saturday, May 26, 2018
• Dance workshop
Location: Talino Manu Space
Time: 9:30 to 13:30
15h to 17h30
• Exchange of experience on projects carried out in different refugee camps
Location: French Institute of Chad
Time: 12h to 14h
Summary of the activity: Exchange between Taigué Ahmed, Bienvenu Ndoubabé (member of the Maro Refugee Ballet) and Fabrice Don de Dieu on the projects carried out in different refugee camps in the DRC and the impacts on the lives of the refugees (integration, taking awareness of their own value, cultic roots).
Discussions on the different pedagogies and approaches implemented and applied, questioning on the realization of artistic projects in the camps (financing, organization, infrastructure).Ndoubabé Bienvenu is the representative of the camp dance company of refugees from Maro. He will tell us about his own experiences with dance and how he sees dance as a means of integration between the city of Maro and the Belom camps.
Break
• Discovery stage for the presentation of the Chadian dance companies
Location: Talino Manu Space
Time: 16h to 17h30
• Discovery of Chadian music: Espace Soubyana music, Outboard 5/5, Galaxie, Croco.
Time: 20h00
Sunday, May 27, 2018
• Final discussion of meeting and conclusions of work on the prospects of the meeting
Place: Association Ndam Se Na space
Time: 10h - 12h30
Summary of the activity: The Plateau Report will be a written report on the different effective strategies that will make it possible to advance on the question of the integration of refugees in the world, through the art and the work of the researchers. Dissemination of results in social choreography network for universities and art projects.
Break
• Barbecue in Madjafa
Time: 13h -18h
Monday, May 28, 2018
Virtual Reality workshop (BeAnother Lab)
Location: Itinerant on several sites: High schools, Espace Tchado-star, refugee camps of Gaoui and house of Chagoua neighborhoods
Time: 15:30 to 17:30
Tuesday, May 29, 2018
• Closing virtual workshop Espace Talino Manu
Location: Talino Manu Space
Time: 9h30 to 13h
Continuation of the dance workshop with Fabrice Don de Dieu
• Restitution of workshops
Location: Talino Manu Space
Time: 17h to 18h
