Mitsangana is an in-situ dance solo, moving through the space of the exhibition A World of Tales at The Museum of Ethnography. Like a tale carried through the body, the work traces a journey where the body becomes both storyteller and story. Each attempt to rise holds tension and tenderness, fragility and strength: a quiet act of persistence that echoes the journeys of heroes, wanderers, and seekers found across cultures.
Drawing from the universal language of myths and folktales, Mitsangana approaches standing up as more than a physical act. It becomes a metaphor for resilience, belonging, and transformation — a gesture that transcends place and generation. Rather than using words, the solo unfolds as embodied storytelling within the exhibition space. In dialogue with the narrative around it, the performance transforms the museum into a shared ground where movement carries them further. Standing up shifts from an individual action to a collective image — one of connection, presence, and shared humanity.
Choreography and dance: Gwen Rakotovao
Music: Regis Gizavo, Hervé Rakotofiringa
Photo: Joaquim Edmilson
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Gwen Rakotovao is a choreographer, dancer, and artist-researcher whose work unfolds at the intersection of performance, ritual, and cultural inquiry. A PhD candidate at Stockholm University of the Arts, she approaches choreography as both embodied research and poetic practice. Her work explores cultural memory and diaspora, investigating how movement can carry ancestry, transform grief, and imagine futures. Through dance, music, and ritual, she creates choreographic landscapes where the body functions as both archive and horizon. Her choreographic and academic work engages deeply with cultural memory and diaspora, currently focusing on the Malagasy funeral ritual Famadihana as a site for choreographic thinking and embodied knowledge.
She trained at Alvin Ailey, founded her dance company in New York and has developed a body of solo and ensemble works that tour internationally. Initiation, L’amour. La liberté., Fitiavana, and Mitsangana have been presented at venues and festivals such as the Goethe-Institut (Madagascar), Tokyo Performing Arts Meeting, Biennale de la Danse en Afrique, and Fringe Manila. As a dancer, she has worked with Qudus Onikeku and artists across Europe, Africa, and the United States. Her work has received several distinctions, including the Trophée de l’Originalité at Théâtre de Chaillot, and she is an associate artist with SoaZara Arts et Partage in France.
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