There are dreams that stir longing. Like wind scattering seeds, they lift images and feelings from the belly into the head. Is that part of the diasporic experience? Benin, [beˈnɛ̃] – the sound of the word merged with the first notes of the music her father played on weekends. It became intertwined with the story of the Agojie, with the rare and delicious scent in the kitchen, or with the words heard over the phone.

In her portrait performance, dancer and choreographer Camille Badirou follows the longing for her identity and her relationship to her Blackness – her inner self, stored within her body, whirling poetically and defiantly.

She didn’t know what she was referring too,
Not yet,
Until she set foot,
Awakened and whole,
On the land where wonder slept.

Camille Badirou is searching for connections. For her, the land is a puzzle with pieces that have faded or gone missing. Step by step, she develops her own techniques of imagination and reconstruction; she discovers and invents movement. She finds her echo in the land. In a new choreography, she weaves together sounds and images from across the sea. Through a powerful echo, she creates both an I and a we – the soundtrack to a new sense of self.
Step-step-kick – the steps through the not-yet-known form self-determined patterns.

Portrait performances are risky: here, it’s not about the role profile, about what one has always done, because directors and producers see it “in” you, but rather it’s about what one wants to tell. PORTRAIT is an invitation to artists to showcase themselves and what matters to them. It’s an invitation to the audience to encounter artists in a complexity not seen before.