WHY I DANCE

In 2018, French choreographer Louis Clément da Costa worked with a group of young dancers in Kigali, Rwanda, exploring “freedom”. With da Costa’s choreography acting as the continuous thread throughout the film, we see the dancers performing in various locations around Kigali. We are given a glimpse into everyday life in Rwanda, and we witness the young dancers’ passion and commitment to dance.

DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT

"Rwanda has a dark past, but is perceived at first glance as a surprisingly peaceful, clean
and friendly country. Not as one might expect when imagining the cliché about Africa. It is quickly understood, however, that it is impossible as a white European artist to convey atruth about a foreign country. In an attempt not to make the typical mistake we always make, where we start with the image we have as a starting point and thus only reinforce our European view of exotic places, I wanted to record the film in the beautiful, clean streets and in front of the large modern buildings. But little by little it turned out that behind the beautiful facade there was a strict regime of rules and control, and the clean parks that were at first so lovely to look at were changed into a symbol of how little freedom the people I got to know actually had. The reason the parks were so clean was because it was illegal to stay in them.

The biggest challenge with the recording turned out to be the most beautiful areas, and we were interrupted several times by the state's plainclothes informants with threats of imprisonment and confiscation of camera equipment. It was the dancers who risked the most. Thus, we ended up recording scenes in areas where we had to fear problems with the authorities as little as possible, and so the scenography was characterized by dilapidated houses and disused markets.

In the last period of the project, I was invited home to the dancers. That's when I really began to realize that Rwanda had many facades. The dancers I worked with were not part of the structure I had become acquainted with at first, and the art environment I had first been introduced to and impressed by I began to see as an elite of wealthy connoisseurs isolated from the hand-built mud huts by some of the dancers lived in.

Well back home in Norway I had to take many rounds on how to tell something about a place you do not understand. I was in conversation with Rwandans in Norway and held the dialogue with dancers and other acquaintances in Rwanda. What is the truth was not the same for all of them and I had to realize that it could not be my job to tell someone else's story.

The film is thus not an attempt to tell a truth, but to let a selection of what happened, what was there right there and then be presented. This is not a true picture of Rwanda, and the point is not to draw it either. But by chance in Rwanda, Louis and Ingrid and I met a group of dancers who, through their passion for dance, have something to convey to us, regardless of where we are in the world We should all dance and we have every reason to do so.”

– Andreas Strand Renberg