© photo: Steve Appel

The choregrapher Georges Momboye, whose company receives support from the BNP Paribas Foundation, presented the first part of his new production, “Entre Ciel et Terre”(“Between Heaven and Earth”) in the Teatro Olimpico in Rome, on the 3rd and 4th of December, with the help of BNL.

Founded in 1992, the Compagnie de Georges Momboye is made up of performers, artists, musicians and singers, the majority of whom are from the great national ballet companies of Africa.
Georges Momboye taught African dance in France at the Peter Goss Studio and was the founder of the Centre de Danse pluri africaines in Paris, a centre where a variety of African dances is taught.

This contemporary dance production is organized around two groups of four dancers, one female and three males, dancing to the music of Béla Bartók. The stay in Rome also made it possible for the Georges Momboye Company to showcase its most recent productions, “Prélude à l’Après-midi d’un Faune” (Prelude to a Faun’s Afternoon) and “Le Sacre du Printemps” (The Spring Consecration), to the music of Debussy and Stravinsky.

Most of Georges Momboye’s works are African in inspiration, both in terms of their subject matter and in their use of the tradition of subtle gesture and movement. With “Between Heaven and Earth”, he takes up the challenge of interpreting two historic masterpieces from the start of the 20th century by this great Hungarian composer.

After this sneak preview in Italy, the production will be shown in its entirety at the next Biennial Arts Festival of the Val-de-Marne in March 2009.