Nadia Beugré: Quartiers Libre Revisited
Nadia Beugré. Photo by Yi-Chun Wu. Courtesy the artist.
Set against a stage piled high with discarded plastic bottles, Beugré—joined by two performers from Côte d’Ivoire—explores the tension between the promise of personal freedom and the threat of environmental decay. This immersive experience blurs the lines between performer and audience, navigating spaces of restriction and possibility. Twelve years after the performance on the Walker stage, Beugré reimagines her iconic solo, inviting new voices to join her in this unrestrained journey.
Praised by the New York Times as “wild, like the wind,” Beugré’s presence promises to captivate and challenge viewers.
This performance is supported by FUSED, a grant program of Albertine Foundation in partnership with Villa Albertine.
About the artist
Nadia Beugré was born in Ivory Coast and began her career in 1995 with the Dante Theatre. She co-founded Béatrice Kombé’s groundbreaking all-female ensemble, TchéTché, touring internationally with them. After Kombé’s death, Beugré trained at Germaine Acogny’s École des Sables in Senegal and completed the ex.e.r.ce program at the Centre Chorégraphique National de Montpellier. Influenced by mentor Alain Buffard, her work explores themes of identity, marginalization, and the body’s complexities.
Beugré’s notable pieces include Quartiers libres (2012), Legacy (2015), Tapis Rouge (2017), Roukasskass Club (2019), L’Homme rare (2020), and two 2023 works focusing on Abidjan. Her collaborative projects span work with choreographers like Seydou Boro and Boris Charmatz, and she has directed pieces like Atem (2020) and Don Giovanni (2022). In 2020, Beugré co-founded her own dance company, Libr’Arts, in Montpellier, fostering ties between France and Ivory Coast. She is an associate artist at the Briqueterie (2021-2023) and ICI CCN de Montpellier (2023-2024), and in 2023, she won the SACD Prize for New Choreographic Talent.