Ana Pi

For her first creation, The Divine Cypher, the Afro-Brazilian choreographer Ana Pi went to Haiti in the footsteps of the experimental American filmmaker Maya Deren, who took an avid interest in voodoo rituals in the 1950s. A few days before the premiere and accompanied by a Haitian guest, Pi invites us into the unseen, personal space of her piece.

For years, Ana Pi has recounted her dreams to Maya Deren, although the two have never met: the latter died before the former was born. But for years, like an imaginary childhood friend or a priestess, Maya has listened to Ana carefully, and perhaps even responded to her.

In 1946, with a grant from the Guggenheim (New York), Deren – a major figure of the American film avant-garde – funded her first trip to Haiti and devoted seven years of her life to observing Haitian culture, and particularly, the sacred dances that are part of voodoo heritage. Her research resulted in a book, Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti (1953), and four hours of fascinating rushes that she never finished editing – a posthumous documentary was released in 1985.

In 2020, with a grant from the MoMA (New York), Pi went to Haiti in the footsteps of Deren, guided both by the artist’s book and film, and by her own Afro-diasporic memory. Have the ordinary gestures and sacred dances filmed by Deren survived?

A few days before the premiere of her new piece, The Divine Cypher, Ana Pi is taking a step aside for this Nomadic Night, inviting the Haitian artist, traditional dancer and professor Marie-Ange Aurilin to join her onstage. From one century to the next, three dedicated women – Ana Pi, Maya Deren and Marie-Ange Aurilin – speak to us about Haiti, rituals and poetry.

Ana Pi

Ana Pi (Brazil/France) is a choreographer and visual artist, researcher in urban dance, extemporary dancer and educator. Her practice is situated among notions of transit, displacement, belonging, overlapping, memory, color and ordinary gestures.

In 2020, she created the structure NA MATA LAB. NoirBLUE—les déplacements d’une danse (2018 – 27 min) is her first documentary and VÓS (2011 – 5 min 30 sec) is her first video essay. In her pieces O BΔNQUETE, COROA, NoirBLUE, DRW2 and Le Tour du Monde des Danses Urbaines en 10 villes, she weaves together choreography, speech and installation. And with CORPO FIRME; danças periféricas, gestos sagrados, she collects and combines practices that she has shared in the form of dance workshops since 2010.

She is now finishing her new creation, The Divine Cypher, a project in Haiti for which she received a fellowship for arts in Latin America from the MoMA (New York) and Cisneros Institute. She is also associated choreographer with the Dancing Museums project in France, and associated artist with the Latitudes Contemporaines production office.

She is developing the choreographic exhibition WOMEN PART 3 in collaboration with Ghyslaine Gau and Annabel Guérédrat, and the installation Rádio Concha with the philosopher Maria Fernanda Novo. Lastly, for RACE, her latest essay combining dance and image, she is working with @FavelinhaDance and Chassol.