Michel Kiyombo

Matchombe

Only yesterday I was just a little bundle weighing 1,1 kilos who came into the world too soon. Fed by drips and kept warm in an incubator. Overprotected so that nothing would hurt me, infect me or weaken me. Today I am a man who has left the scorn and derision of the past far behind. What is left of that frailty in me and around me? Only yesterday I was a baby; today I am a father myself. My loved ones still see me as a fragile person. So my dance has become an expression of my fight, a challenge to establish my maturity. I was born ‘matchombe’, but today I want to believe in the adult man I have become and inspire my child, banish my torments and all the voices in my head.

Michel Kiyombo is from Kisangani in the Congo. He took intensive dance training with Faustin Linyekula, and his solo Masu Kaino was supported by Linyekula’s arts centre: Les Studios Kabako. Michel has also danced in Toxu by Momar N’Diaye, Debout by Djino Alolo and Le manteau by Tchekpo Dan Agbetou. He has now lived in Belgium for a year. Michel danced in the Dance Day project Le Sacre du Printemps (les ballets C de la B), co-choreographed the reworking of Giselle by Akram Khan in partnership with Kunst-Z in Antwerp and leads dance workshops at De Grote Post and elsewhere. In June he will dance in Sur les traces de Dinozord by Faustin Linyekula.

choreography & dance: Michel Kiyombo