CONCEPT, CHOREOGRAPHY:
Zora Snake
PERFORMERS:
Zora Snake, Tamae Yoneda, Jessica Chiye Warshal, Zadi Landry Kipre, Gandir Prudence
MUSIC COMPOSITION:
Christiane Prince, Rokia Bamba
LIVE MUSIC:
Christiane Prince, Pawel Wnuczynsk
DRAMATURGY:
Youness Anzane
SET DESIGN:
Jean Michel Dissake
LIGHTING DESIGN:
Emily Brassier
COSTUMES:
Design Lamyne M
TEXT:
Dénètem Touam Bona
STAGE MANAGEMENT:
Stéphanie Denoiseux, Julian Fernandez Guillen
TECHNICAL LIGHT:
Didier Covassin
TECHNICAL SOUND:
Pawel Wnuczynski, Célia Naver
TECHNICAL DIRECTION/ MANAGEMENT:
Giuliana Rienzi
FABRICS MAKING:
Jean Michel Dissake
COSTUMES MAKING:
Ateliers du Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles
A SCENOGRAPHIC PRODUCTION:
by the Pôle de mutualisation de services & ressources techniques
PRODUCER:
Compagnie Zora Snake, Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles
CO-PRODUCER:
Charleroi Danse, Riksteatern - Stockholm, South North Foundation, Solstice - Pôle International de Production et de Diffusion des Pays de la Loire, Julidans Amsterdam, Scène nationale de l’Essonne, One Dance Festival - Plovdiv, africologneFESTIVAL - Cologne with the support of Ministerium für Kultur und Wissenschaft des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, Theater Freiburg, Le Manège Maubeuge - scène nationale transfrontalière
WITH THE SUPPORT OF:
Institut français, Institut français du Cameroun (IFC) and Institut français de Suède
DURATION:
90 min
PREMIERE:
23.9.2025, Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles
Dance as a Struggle for Survival
Combat des lianes is a compelling work that grows from the roots of the forest and from the movements of people engaged in a struggle for survival. In the darkness of a sacred rainforest, permeated by ancestral memory, bodies emerge like lianas—slowly and persistently pushing their way towards the light, weaving through the treetops in direct confrontation with deforestation that threatens the Indigenous communities of Central Africa. In its scale and urgency, the piece reaches beyond the framework of a dance performance, touching on a deeper relationship between humans and the environment they inhabit.
On stage, five dancers and two musicians come together to create an organic fresco reminiscent of a ritual ceremony. The movement language is rich and ever-changing: traces of traditional African dances, accompanied by drums and natural sounds, intertwine with a physicality that draws on street dance forms. Solo passages reveal a mosaic of strong individual personalities—each performer distinctive in expression and movement, reflecting a diversity of dance backgrounds—before converging in powerful, synchronized sequences.
The music, carried by drum rhythms and a shamanic pulse, establishes a dialogue between human beings and their surroundings. The raw, earthy stage design—tree-trunk offcuts, sawdust, and the colors of soil—evokes both a site of woodwork and a landscape where the forest is slowly losing its voice.
In his work, Zora Snake explores relationships of dominance and power, reflecting acts of rebellion and a longing for justice, a desire to reclaim humanity. Through close collaboration with Baka communities in the equatorial forests, the performers have absorbed polyphonic rhythms and polyrhythmic movements of people whose living space is disappearing under the pressure of global forces.
Combat des lianes unfolds as a collective ritual—a space where the rawness and authenticity of movement can emerge without adornment. It reminds us that the fight to save the rainforest is also a fight for our own survival.
Zora Snake is a choreographer and dancer from Cameroon. In 2013, he founded Compagnie Zora Snake in Yaoundé, and in 2017 he launched the international festival MODAPERF. He is regarded as one of the most prominent figures of the contemporary African dance scene. His work brings together hip hop, contemporary dance, ritual performance, and artistic interventions in public space. For him, dance is not a style but a way of thinking - an active relationship with the world.
