Taliipot Theatre from Reunion Island, acclaimed for their works “The Water Carrier” and “Passage”, will present Mâ Ravan’ as part of Jomba ! Contemporary Dance Experience, the festival of the Centre for Creative Arts, during Reunion Island Season, before embarking on a South African tour. More than a show, the company’s latest creation is a dramatic and choreographic ritual which will awaken your emotions.

"This homage to ancestral spirits of the rebellious slaves (...) is nothing short of conceptual brilliance." Adrienne Sichel, The Star.

Inspired by the ravanne, a round drum found in all Indian Ocean islands, Eastern Africa, India and Sri Lanka (among others), Mâ Ravan’ is written to echo the memory and energy of these drums, used to call the ancestors those who stayed on the other side of the sea. Mâ Ravan’ draws on Indian Ocean rhythms, on travels, exiles, break ups and great crossings. It stages the urgent need – beyond the wounds of history – to resume links and filiations from one island, coast or world to another.

Between ritual and performance, through the evocation and invocation of the “Grands Marrons” – rebelled slaves who ran away from chains, resistance fighters and timeless heroes who opened the way to freedom – this show stages, in the “flesh”, the life forces found in everyone today. Performers sing, play and make the ravanne dance to revive the memories and alliances between nature and human kind, but also between human kind and their territory and long history. Mâ Ravan’ explores individual and collective stories written on everyone’s skin, echoing the secrets of the ravannes.

Tour dates supported by the Fonds de Coopération Régional, the Regional Council of Reunion Island, the French Embassy in South Africa and the French Institute of South Africa (IFAS) and the Alliance Française of Cape Town for the performances at Artscape.