Betty Tchomanga
Born in 1989 from a Cameroonian father and a French mother, Betty Tchomanga began her artistic training in 2004 at the Conservatoire de Bordeaux and with Alain Gonotey of Cie Lullaby. She then trained at the Centre National de Danse Contemporaine d'Angers (CNDC) in 2007 head by Emmanuelle Huynh.She began her career as a performer in 2009, working with artists such as Emmanuelle Huynh, Alain Buffard, Fanny de Chaillé, Gaël Sesboüé, Herman Diephuis, Marlene Monteiro Freitas and Nina Santes. Alongside her artistic career, Betty is pursuing literary studies at the Université Paris 3 Sorbonne Nouvelle, graduating with a Master 2 in modern literature in 2014.From 2019, Betty Tchomanga will focus on her writing and research as a choreographer. Her pieces explore the notion of transgression in the sense of going beyond, crossing a limit, whether physical or aesthetic.
Betty Tchomanga likes to produce hybrid forms in which bodies transform and metamorphose. She works with practices that involve overcoming the limits of body and mind through intense engagement of breath, body and voice. Since the creation of her solo Mascarades in 2019, she has been researching on the voodoo cult and the representations associated with it. She is interested in the narratives that link the West and Africa, particularly through colonial history.
Betty Tchomanga choreographed and directed Madame (2016), Mascarades (2019) and Lessons of Darkness (2022) and the four-part choreographic series Decolonial (Hi)stories (2023-2024).Betty Tchomanga is an associated artist at Quartz, scène nationale de Brest and Théâtre de la Bastille in Paris.