“Listen to the voice of the water, the voice of the fire, listen to the sobbing bush in the wind: it is the breathing of the ancestors”. The words of a poem at the Teatro Verdi in Sassari mark the rhythm of an ancestral dance. The voice is that of Germaine Acogny , 84 years old, Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 2021 Venice Biennale, mother of African modern and contemporary dance. A unique and unrepeatable show, “ Hommage aux ancetres ” (homage to the ancestors), the one proposed as an absolute European premiere.
A magic powder has drawn a circle to delimit the space of contact between the spiritual and material worlds, and to represent the dimension of dance, which in Africa, just like in Sardinia, has found its maximum expression in the group round dance. A pillow depicts a newborn, a symbol of rebirth and reincarnation, and everything is covered with a carpet of red and white rose petals. Finally comes the last element, the most disturbing, the mask: it is death, which never prevails because reincarnation repeats the life cycle endlessly.
At the end of the performance, the great French-Senegalese teacher and choreographer received a commemorative plaque on behalf of the City of Sassari from the hands of the Councilor for Culture Nicoletta Puggioni, alongside the effervescent presenter Monica Lubinu and the director of Danzeventi, Lucia Cau.
The evening continued with a lively talk in which Germaine entertained herself by talking with Lubinu and by comparing notes with the choreographer from Sassari Livia Lepri, on stage representing the Italian dance world. Then she answered questions from the audience.