Épique ! (Pour Yikakou) by Nadia Buegré

An inspired performance about ancestry, memory, and identity

In Épique ! (Pour Yikakou) , choreographer and performer Nadia Beugré embarks on a poignant journey to her origins. She returns to Yikakou, the abandoned village of her ancestors in Ivory Coast – a place once considered cursed, which became depopulated and has slowly been reclaimed by the forest. Here, she goes in search of the stories of her ancestors.
During her quest, Beugré allows herself to be guided by two powerful female figures. The first is her grandmother, who gave her the name Gbahihonon , which means something like 'the woman who says what she sees'. The second is Dô Kamissa, a mythical woman who, after her brother had wronged her, transformed herself into a buffalo to devastate his land. Beugré invokes these ancestors, embodies their stories, and intertwines her own history with that of the women who live on within her.
Through music, voice, and movement, an inspired performance emerges about ancestry, memory, and identity. Drawing from a personal history , Épique! touches upon larger questions about land, heritage, and what we carry with us for generations.