MALDONNE

In Maldonne, the first ensemble performance by French rising star Leïla Ka, a playful yet powerful portrait of femininity emerges. Five dancers in long floral dresses move in a controlled and synchronised way, their movements tuned to breaths and voices. But what begins as delicate synchronisation soon turns into a chaos of lip-syncs and movements that complement and repel each other. Vulnerability and rebellion become intertwined in an unruly, expressive choreography.

The dresses, forty items from second-hand shops, play a key role. They are not only worn but also transformed: knotted into phalluses, used as whips or as supports to cling on to while Leonard Cohen’s Dance Me to the End of Love plays. The dancers represent women hanging laundry, gossiping or being pregnant.

But nothing is what it seems. Leïla Ka questions female identity, by constantly turning it upside down. Each transition is marked by a costume change, creating a mosaic of images and stories.

The title Maldonne comes from card games and refers to an incorrectly dealt hand, forcing the game to start all over again. For Ka, it symbolises the position of women in society: much has been achieved, but inequality remains. At the same time, the title also refers to Madonna, the iconic pop star who embodies female strength and rebellion. The performance offers a poetic and sometimes ironic look at the roles and expectations imposed on women.

Maldonne quickly established itself as an international phenomenon, touring continuously for three years—from a sold-out Olympia in Paris to Colombia, and from the United States to Serbia