On Friday, June 21, the day of La Fête de la Musique, the Memorial ACTe in Pointe-à-Pitre (Guadeloupe) proposed to the audience to dance traditional and contemporary sounds with dancer and choreographer Matthieu Plantier and the “Majestika” band.
On the occasion of La Fête de la Musique (The Festival of Music) celebrated on June 21 every year, many events were organized in Guadeloupe, Martinique and all French territories, that’s quite normal because this festival was created by Jack Lang, the French Minister of Culture in 1982. Although our island does not really need a special day to celebrate music as we live permanently with it, over the years, this appointment has become very important for musicians and music lovers.
This year, the Memorial ACTe and the Bleu Outremer Festival team offered the public, as part of the “Mémoires urbaines” (Urban Memories) program, a workshop led by Guadeloupean dancer and choreographer, Matthieu Plantier. From 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm, at the Hall of Congress and Living Arts, about fifty participants danced on traditional Caribbean rhythms (gwoka, biguine), modern Caribbean rhythms (zouk, kompa) with a little trip to African rhythms (koupé-décalé…) and European rhythms (polka…).
Music – the real star of the evening – was played by six musicians, four singers (3 women and 1 man) of “Majestika”; the dancer and the band had chosen in advance the different tracks to perform and dance, however, three participants chosen at random were invited to propose sounds that were played by the musicians and then danced…
As usual, Matthieu Plantier – that Kariculture.net already introduced to you during “Kalakaswé”, the introductory course in gwoka dance offered to the visitors on the last Sunday of the month by the Memorial ACTe – captured all the attention not only because of his great talent as a dancer, but also because of his sense of humor, which makes comfortable debutant dancers. It must be said that among the participants were fans of the artist who had already taken part in his classes… The two hours of good mood passed too quickly, according to all participants.
