The Dance Center presents
Didę by Marcel Gbeffa & Sarah trouche
One night only! Friday, April 24, 2026 at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets: Benefit Ticket ($100); General Admission ($30); Non-Columbia Student Ticket ($10); Free to Columbia College Chicago students.
Benefit ticket holders receive a ticket to Didę and are invited to join us in welcoming the artists to Chicago’s incredible dance community at House of the Lorde at Mana Contemporary on Wednesday, April 22. ($60 of each Benefit Ticket is tax deductible.)
The Dance Center is proud to present the Midwest premiere of Didę by Marcel Gbeffa (Benin) and Sarah Trouche (France).
Inspired by the Guèlèdè traditions whose ceremonies and masks pay homage to Ìyá Nlá, the Yoruba primordial spirit of all creation, Didę is an evening-length work for five dancers and 21 iroko wood masks. Didę invites us into a sincere and frank encounter with the place where the intimate and the political are entangled, where feelings are expressed and oppressions are incorporated, in whose folds lodge social conditions, confrontations between traditions, identity divisions, and emancipation—the human body.
Read Dance Center Artistic Director Meredith Sutton’s conversation with Marcel Gbeffa about the genesis of Didę and about his collaboration with Sarah Trouche.
Co-Created by Marcel Gbeffa and Sarah Trouche
Choreography by Marcel Gbeffa
Sets by Sarah Trouche
Music by Viktor Benev
Light Design by Ivan Matis
Guèlèdè Masks Designed by Sarah Trouche, realisation by Sébastien Boko and Albert Sossa
Curtain Designed by Sarah Trouche, realisation by Mazoclet
Dancers - Orphée Georgah Ahéhéhinnou, Marcel Gbeffa, Bonaventure Sossou, Yetchennou Horace, Joseph Gbeffa
Production - Cie Multicorps /Marcel Gbeffa, Cie Winter Story in the Wild Jungle
Co-production - French Institute of Benin & The Center
Partners - Ateliers de Paris /CDCN - Institut Français de Paris (Résidanses 2019), Centre Chorégraphique National de Nantes, Centre de Développement Chorégraphique de Paris, Lieu Unique.
Founder and artistic director of the Multicorps Choreographic Center in Cotonou, Benin, Marcel Gbeffa campaigns for the accessibility and circulation of contemporary dance in Africa.
The Chicago premiere of Didę is supported by FUSED, a program of Villa Albertine and Albertine Foundation, and is part of a U.S. tour in partnership with Lehigh University’s Zoellner Arts Center, The Conservatory of Dance at Purchase College, State University of New York, and Princeton University.
The U. S. tour is one leg of a two month international tour underwritten in part by ANIKAYA. Following the performance at the Dance Center, the company travels to Toubab Dialaw, Senegal for the Biennale de la Danse en Afrique (April 29-May 3) and then to Bogotá, Columbia to perform at the Centro Nacional de las Artes Delia Zapata Olivella (June 5-6)
CLASSES & WORKSHOPS
Drop-In Company Class
Monday April 20 - 9-10:20am at the Dance Center (free with reservation)
Tuesday April 21 - 9-10:20am at the Dance Center (free with reservation)
Wednesday April 22 - 9-10:20am at the Dance Center (free with reservation)
Join Compagnie Multicorps for their signature company class each morning.
Contemporary Fusion: Cultural and Physical Synthesis
Monday April 20 - 10:30-11:50am at the Dance Center ($15)
Developed by Marcel Gbeffa, this hybrid movement style draws from urban dance forms, traditional African dances - particularly those rooted in the Vodoun culture of Benin, Butoh, and improvisational practices. This contemporary dance workshop introduces a movement vocabulary shaped by the fusion of these diverse influences. The class is structured around the use of the spine to generate grounded, wave-like movement; it explores the awareness of different parts of the body and the energies that flow through them, allowing for the creation of dynamic accents. Through guided set exercises as well as structured improvisations, participants investigate the body as a site of cultural and physical synthesis, generating a distinctive choreographic language unique to the artist.
African Urban Dance
Monday April 20 - 6-7:30pm with Ayodele Drum & Dance at Sherman Park
Tuesday April 21 - 12:30-1:50pm at the Dance Center ($15)
Wednesday April 22 - 6-7:30pm at House of the Lorde at Mana Contemporary
Thursday April 23 - 2-3:20pm at the Dance Center ($15)
Since 2000, musicians from Central, West, and Southern Africa have innovated with their choreographic creativity with each album release. Various dance styles have emerged and captivated the youth, whether during family celebrations, in the streets, or particularly in nightclubs. Many of these urban dance steps have now become part of a legacy that influences the choreographic vocabulary of contemporary dance for a new generation of choreographers across Africa.
Traditional Benin West African Dance
Tuesday April 21 - 10:30-11:50am at the Dance Center ($15)
Wednesday April 22 - 12:30-1:50pm at the Dance Center ($15)
The company’s dancers will immerse participants in different rhythms and dance styles from Benin, particularly those from the West African sub-region. These community dances, rooted in Vodoun culture, will allow participants to discover new sounds and other forms of traditional dance. The focus will be on working with traditional rhythms and musical counts, and then addressing the movements in their original intent. Dancers will learn to understand the different strong beats and the dynamics of each dance. Emphasis will be placed on the work of the legs, arms, head, and spine to enrich bodily expression and develop a better connection with music and movement. This workshop is a space to collectively share energy in order to create deeply individual and collective spiritual connections, and to understand the relationship between us and nature.
Support
Supported by Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts’ Caroline Hearst Choreographer-In-Residence Program and with the support of Villa Albertine.
Banner image courtesy of Marcel Gbeffa, photo by Maurine Tric
