Betty Tchomanga
I was born in 1989 in a French region of Charente-Maritime. My father is Cameroonian and my mother is French. At the age of 9 I started my first lessons in modern jazz dance and classical dance and from 2004 to 2006 I studied in the Conservatoire de Bordeaux as well as with Alain Gonotey Cie Lullaby.
In 2007 I turned, particularly, towards contemporary dance and joined the choreographic artists course in Centre National de Danse Contemporaine in Angers (CNDC) supervised by Emmanuelle Huynh. At the same time I kept on with my literary studies at Université Paris 3 Sorbonne Nouvelle until 2014, where I got my master’s degree in Modern Literature.
I finished my CNDC Angers courses in 2009 and at the same time started my performance career with Emmanuelle Huynh (Cribles, Augures) and Alain Buffard (Tout va bien). Afterwards, I expanded my performance experience with choreographers of varying aesthetics: Raphaëlle Delaunay (Bitter Sugar), Fanny de Chaillé (Passage à l’acte), Gaël Sesboüé (Grammes), Éléonore Didier (Moi, mes copines, à l’instant où ça s’arrête), Anne Collod (Le parlement des Invisibles), Herman Diephuis (Clan ; Mix), Nina Santès (Hymen Hymne ; République Zombie).
Nonetheless, this experience is mainly influenced by my encounter and collaboration with Marlene Monteiro Freitas. We started working together in 2014 and still do today (D’ivoire et chair, les statues souffrent aussi ; Bacchantes, prélude pour une purge ; Mal Embriaguez Divina). Other artistic experiences continue to nourish my performance practice. In particular, those with the plastic artist Alex Ceccetti and also my lead role in Secteur IX B, a film of Mathieu K. Abonnenc that he presented at Venice Biennale in 2015.
Since my graduation from CNDC in Angers 2009 I never dissociated the practice of the performer from that of the creator. The latter will take different forms: in 2012 I created –A– ou il a sûrement peur de l’eau le poisson in collaboration with musician Romain Mercier ; then in 2013, a show in situ called Le Rivage in collaboration with Oriane Déchery and Jérôme Andrieu.
In 2016, I joined l’Association Lola Gatt Productions chorégraphiques based in Brest, as an associate choreographer together with Gaël Sesboüé and Marie-Laure Caradec. The very same year I choreographed and directed a play for three performers called Madame. In the beginning of 2020, I created a solo titled Mascarades which I performed and choreographed. Today I’m working on a piece titled Lessons of Darkness, which is planned to premiere in 2022.