The Jpyce will stream Olivier Tarpaga’s Declassified Memory Fragment followed by a live Q&A on July 2
Who: Olivier Tarpaga, Eva Yaa Asantewaa, Aaron Mattocks
What: Online premiere of prerecorded dance work with live Q&A
Where: JoyceStream
When: Thursday, July 2, free (donations accepted), 7:00 (performance can be streamed through July 31)
Why: During the pandemic lockdown, the Joyce Theater Foundation has been presenting limited-run streams of previously recorded works by Trisha Brown Dance Company, Batsheva — The Young Ensemble, Malpaso Dance Company, Stephen Petronio Company, Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE, and others, accompanied by live Q&As. On July 2 at 7:00, JoyceStream will feature the online premiere of Olivier Tarpaga’s Declassified Memory Fragment, followed by a live Q&A; the piece will be available through July 31, while the Q&A will be added to the growing archive you can watch here. Declassified Memory Fragment was directed and choreographed by dancer, choreographer, Princeton professor, and musician Tarpaga, exploring power, history, political corruption, and culture clashes in Kenya, Ivory Coast, Zimbabwe, and, primarily, his native country, Burkina Faso.
Tarpaga designed the costumes and also appears in the production, along with Ousséni Dabaré, Aziz Dermé, Jérôme Kaboré, and Adonis Nébié. The music was conceived of and composed by Tarpaga and his band, Dafra Kura Band, and is played by Flatié Dembelé, Boubacar Djiga, Daouda Guindo, and Tarpaga; the lighting is by Cyril Givort, with sets by Face-O-Sceno, props by Sahab Koanda, and dramaturgy by Esther Baker-Tarpaga, Olivier’s wife, who runs the Baker & Tarpaga Dance Project with him. (Previous works by the company include Whiteness Revisited and When Birds Refused to Fly.) Olivier Tarpaga will take part in the Q&A with Gibney Dance editorial director and senior director of artist development and curation Eva Yaa Asantewaa and Joyce director of programming Aaron Mattocks.