Alen Nsambu (he/they, b. 1998) is Finnish-Angolan choreographer and performer based, influencing and working between Helsinki and Copenhagen. They pursued their interest towards dance and choreography at Den Danske Scenekunstskolen under Rasmus Ölme as head of department. Nsambu graduated with a BFA degree in Dance and Choreography in June 2022.
Artistically Nsambu is busy with questions related to identity, autofiction and joy (on stage). They use script writing as a tool to create fluctuating worlds and antagonists, to explore one’s potential as well as identity from a slight distance. Using a diverse array of performative registers and representations through interdisciplinary practices and playfulness is relevant to their work. They also just really love to dance to good music and sweat in the studio/stage/club/outside/anywhere.
Since graduating Nsambu has worked internationally with choreographers and directors such as Sonya Lindfors (FI), Marie Topp (DK), Miles Greenberg (US), Fallon Mayanja (FR), Renan Martins de Oliveira (BR), Ima Iduozee (FI), Sheena McGrandles (UK) and Jakob Höglund (FI). Nsambu was selected to be one of the Generation2023 artists for the triennial exhibition curated for Amos Rex museum in Helsinki. Together with Ritni Pieski they formed Nsambu&Pieski collective, and choreographed a site specific performative work titled “this is an invitation”. The well received work, that criticized western behavioral and structural norms within the museum institution, premiered in August 2023.
NEON BEIGE, which will premiere at Zodiak in April 2024, is Nsambu’s first full-length choreographic stagework.
NEON BEIGE is a stagework by choreographer Alen Nsambu and the working group, which centers a marginalized imagination and experience as a premise to create a performative collage.
The work is approaching imagination and dreaming as a technology, a secret superpower and a survival strategy of marginalized communities, to build alternative worlds to reflect upon identity in postcolonial structures as well as experience joy in a socio-political climate that doesn’t allow the display of any complexity outside of the stereotype.
What kind of ways of being and dreaming could there be if the imagination of the dominant wouldn't be the one shaping the known reality? By blending reality and fiction, NEON BEIGE becomes an autofictive voyage through speculative and fluctuating sceneries that unfold into joy, sweat and hope.
Alen Nsambu is a Finnish-Angolan choreographer and performer, who has graduated from the Danish National School of Performing Arts (Dance and Choreography). The rest of the working group consist of locale Helsinki artists, including Angel Emmanuel, Aino Kontinen, Nori Kin, Susi Siriya Orenius, Ritni Ráste Pieski and Titus Torniainen. NEON BEIGE is Nsambu’s first full-length choreographic stagework.
Premiere on April 26, 2024 at 19.00 | Zodiak Stage
