In Épique ! (Pour Yikakou), choreographer and performer Nadia Beugré embarks on a profound journey back to her origins. She returns to Yikakou, the abandoned village of her ancestors in Côte d’Ivoire - a place once believed to be cursed, deserted over time and slowly reclaimed by the forest. Here, she searches for the stories of her ancestors.
During her search, Beugré is guided by two powerful female figures. The first is her grandmother, who gave her the name Gbahihonon, meaning ‘the woman who says what she sees’. The second is Dô Kamissa, a mythical woman who transformed herself into a buffalo after suffering injustice at the hands of her brother in order to destroy his land. Beugré summons these ancestors, embodies their stories and intertwines her own history with that of the women who live on through her.
Through music, voice and movement, Épique ! unfolds as a powerful reflection on ancestry, memory and identity. Rooted in a personal history, the performance raises larger questions about land, heritage and what we carry across generations.
