[Superstrat[ explores the relationship between the ancestral roots of dance and music and the inheritance of the Afro-American diaspora. Part initiatory journey part migratory experience, this solo by an urban and traditional African dancer tells the story of the body’s memory. Through dance and song, it takes us across the ages through rhythms and gestures, back to the ancestral language of the body, its capacity for constant reinvention and its universal symbolism. Was a dance or a music ever “invented”? Why do we identify with some influences, but not others? In a cosmopolitan world built on migrations, both voluntary and enforced, how do cultures travel with populations and individuals? How do our roots inhabit our bodies?

In [Superstrat[, the creolized memories of displaced populations reflect the contemporary reality of migratory phenomena and the tensions generated by cultural globalization, between cosmopolitanism and multiculturalism.

The term “superstrat” refers to the traces left in one language by another. By emphasizing the strong links between Africa and America that gave birth to the hip-hop culture, and by connecting them to the contemporary journey of an urban and traditional African dancer, [Superstrat[ invites us to examine our relationship to cultures coming from immigration and to explore different possible harmonies between tradition and modernity. By offering an African interpretation of the Afro-American heritage, it dives into how the ancestral social practices of dance re-emerge, how they are transformed and disseminated.

[Superstrat[ forms part of Anne Nguyen’s continuing research into the origins of urban dances and the vital functions of dance in society. It investigates the links between culture and identity in our contemporary society.