Company Madoki | D.I.S.C.O. (Don’t Initiate Social Contact with Others)
A choreography by Josépha Madoki
A dance performance for 8 dancers and a female DJ
Creation 2022
Duration: 60 minutes
Suitable up from 12 y/o.
A site-specific version of 30 minutes, followed by a 30′ DJ set for the audience, is available.
“The creation of D.I.S.C.O. comes at a particular time in my life: the successive loss of loved ones, two confinements and the uncertain future after such a global pandemic.
Meeting the other, interacting, socializing, on the street, in a club or at home was no longer allowed. Gatherings to bury our dead in dignity were prohibited. The trauma from this troubled period is still present, but the will to live is stronger than anything. The vital need to party and reconnect with my Waacking community then became visceral.
Waacking in its original form appeared as the answer to quench my thirst to live: clubbing, social dancing, glitter, glamour and eccentricity .
It became crucial for me to bond once again with the nightlife in its warm and diverse places. The opportunity to live, just for one night, a total blow-off steam experience.
For me, this is the sort of revenge on the loss of our liberties, the huge feeling of imprisonment and helplessness that we all felt.
Today, clubs reopened with the hope of a revival. But in which way? With the burden of health restrictions, how can the collective energy of a club arise? How are we going to behave and grasp this new-found nightlife?
Through D.I.S.C.O., I try to find an answer to these questions and to imagine a new way of experiencing the dance floor and life as a whole”.
Josépha Madoki
After the performance Oui, et vous?, by Josepha Madoki and her collective Ma Dame Paris, featuring a contemporary form of Waacking, the choreographer is back with D.I.S.C.O.
In this new work, she returns to the essence of this art born in the gay clubs of Los Angeles: madness, social dancing, chic, flamboyance are at the forefront.
D.I.S.C.O. represents two totally ambivalent energies: the first is an acronym imagined by Josepha Madoki, “Don’t initiate social contact with others”. A reminder that the restrictions linked to the health crisis still rule our lives today.
The second is to honor disco music, a music style born in the 70’s incarnating freedom, human contact, liberated sexuality and optimism. What remains of these liberating spaces today, in the moral context of our society, and with the experience that “the other” can represent a health threat?
With D.I.S.C.O., Josépha Madoki celebrates life and imagines the world of post-Covid clubbing while looking at our contemporary society in the mirror of the 1970s.
Nine dancers progressively regain freedom on the dancefloor carried along by the music of a live DJ.
Will the night club, the ultimate place of conviviality, human contact and exchange, manage to regain their liberty of yesteryear?
By immersing both her dancers and the audience back into clubbing, Josépha Madoki is inviting us to live a crazy and unique D.I.S.C.O. experience.
The performance contains partial nudity and suggested sensuality. A mediation for specific audiences might be considered.
Upcoming tour dates
iiChoreography | Josépha Madoki aka Princess Madoki
Dance | Rémi Bajramie aka Waabee, Daniela Barbieri, Suzanne Degennaro, Célia Derrahi, Mario Dúran, Oumrata Konan, Paul Moscoso aka Paul de Saint Paul, Mathis Said
DJ | Naajet
Costume and set designer | Mario Faundez
Lighting design | Florent Ecrohart
Light manager | Marine Stroeher
Producer | Dirk Korell
Bookings | camin aktion
Production | Company Madoki
Executive production | camin aktion
Co-production | La Villette – Paris | Compagnie DCA (La Chaufferie) | La Place | Points communs – Nouvelle scène nationale de Cergy-Pontoise / Val d’Oise | Espace 1789 de Saint-Ouen, scène conventionnée de Saint-Ouen | Centre de la danse Pierre Doussaint, GPS&O, Les Mureaux | CCN de Créteil et du Val-de-Marne/Cie Käfig | Compagnie DYPTIK
Support SP.O.T – Support network for choreographic creation and dissemination of urban dance companies in the region of the Greater Paris
Residencies | Company DCA (La Chaufferie) | La Place | Company DYPTIK | Centre de la danse Pierre Doussaint, GPS&O, Les Mureaux | Théâtre de La Nacelle GPS&O, Aubergenville
Studio space | CND, Centre national de la danse
Photos 1-7 © Julie Cherki | 8-9 © Raphaël Labouré