Last year, the Mahorais association Hip Hop Evolution and Réunionese choreographer Cédric Kenji Saïdou’s Montpellier-based company came up with the idea of this contemporary dance show. Through the overlapping narrative of their personal experiences, from Comoros immigration, to life as child waiting for immigration papers, French citizen rights, and the search for a national identity in mainland France, four young Mahorais dancers created Outoungou, subtitled [sou(f)france], a play on words combining “suffering” and “France”, with contagious choreographic energy rooted in the power and honesty of its lively street dance style.

Abdallah Haribou and his association, Hip Hop Evolution, worked for years to develop breakdance in Mayotte, a small French island département with a population of 227,000, lost in the middle of the Indian Ocean between Madagascar and the Comoro Islands. When the Mahorais from Lil’Stylz took home top prize from the Montpellier Battle of the Year (BOTY), the striking rise of hip-hop dance suddenly found itself under the spotlight.

Using the Réunionese choreography of Cédric Kenji Saïdou and his Montpellier-based dance company, the association created Outoungou [sou(f)france], drawing its subject matter and energy from the social, geopolitical and cultural controversies of the island. Four young Mahorais hip-hop dancers (Sasuké, Ankif, Seimoune and Yasser) recount their stories and experiences about locals demanding their French citizenship rights, immigration from the Comoro Islands, immigrant children waiting for papers, and the search for a national identity on the French mainland. The performance tells the honest story of their internal struggle through dance.

This lively street dance marked by allusions to African and Comorian culture, with circus acrobatics, rare intensity and highly contagious energy.