Fampitaha, fampita, fampitàna means “comparison, transmission, rivalry” in Malagasy. On stage, four bodies defy one another, choose each other and purge themselves of the layers of violence that constitute them. Presented as a line of rediscovered dialogue between the children of diasporas and their places of origin, Fampitaha, fampita, fampitána formulates a plural narrative in which the fragmentation of these experiences is as vibrant as their reappropriation. In this quartet, choreographer Soa Ratsifandrihana seeks a vocabulary between bodies and history to better understand what links and separates them. Together with her team, guitarist Joël Rabesolo and performers Audrey Merilus and Stanley Ollivier, Ratsifandrihana constructs a new otherness in which bodies emerge from their muteness, offering themselves the possibility of language. Written out before us is a story of bodies that would never have left their islands and together shape a parade of exiles.

Soa Ratsifandrihana is a Franco-Malagasy dancer and choreographer based in Brussels. After studying at the CNSMD in Paris, Soa worked with James Thierrée, Salia Sanou and Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker. In 2021, she presented her first solo, g r oo v e in Brussels. The show has been performed more than 60 times and continues to tour in Europe, Canada, Asia and soon in Madagascar.  In spring 2024, Soa presented a diptych comprising a radio creation, Rouge cratère, and the performance Fampitaha, fampita, fampitàna. Following on from her first solo, she explores the possible intersections between different media, from radio storytelling to choreographic and musical composition. Her practice reminds us that our bodies, like our words, are the bearers of stories which, however we choose to communicate them, must be told. Soa is artist-in-residence at the Kaaitheater in Belgium.