ARO ILÈ – Awoulath Alougbin WIPCOOP PLAY 2021

Awoulath Alougbin explores the intersections between ritual dance from Benin and krump.
A performance about resilience, about the poetry of the soul and how you can come home to yourself through dance.

Choreographer and dancer Awoulath Alougbin wants to bring to the scene a connection between krump – a street dance movement that emerged in the early 2000s, that was, and still is, a way out for young people’s daily struggles and a means of resistance against the oppressor – and a dance that brings the soul of ritual dances back to its origins. With these ritual dances, Awoulath makes a reverse movement, back in time and across the continents. Through myth and dance, she goes in search of the cosmic roots of mankind. That universal place where we can all come home.

Dance, fire and childhood. Navigating strictly between boundaries of single god religions. The only prayer forbidden was that of the Vodun devotees through dance rituals in neighbouring temples. We are not so different you and I. They are not so different. Them and you. If you feel the mystical connections entranced through the dancers, you will see how similar your krump is to my land, my dance, and my rituals. You will see how healing takes it shape through the spirit of dance. A divine continuity between body, mind and soul. The beauty of the African dance practice.” – Awoulath Alougbin


Mestizo Arts Platform