The Dance Center presents Didę by Marcel Gbeffa & Sarah trouche

The Midwest premiere of Didę by Marcel Gbeffa (Benin) and Sarah Trouche (France). Inspired by the Guèlèdè traditions whose ceremonies and masks pay homage to Ìyá Nlá, the Yoruba primordial spirit of all creation, Didę.

Inspired by the Guèlèdè traditions whose ceremonies and masks pay homage to Ìyá Nlá, the Yoruba primordial spirit of all creation, Didę is an evening-length work for five dancers and 21 mahogany masks. Didę invites us into a sincere and frank encounter with the place where the intimate and the political are entangled, where feelings are expressed and oppressions are incorporated, in whose folds lodge social conditions, confrontations between traditions, identity divisions, and emancipation—the human body. Founder and artistic director of the Multicorps Choreographic Center in Cotonou, Benin, Marcel Gbeffa campaigns for the accessibility and circulation of contemporary dance in Africa.

*General Admission ($30); Non-Columbia Student Ticket ($10); Free to Columbia College Chicago students.