The joy of dancing: Cie Amala Dianor in Munich

Muffathalle, Munich
June 19, 2025

Cie Amala Dianor’s Level up & M&M was one of these rare performances that made you dance all the way home. Ahead of their appearance at the Colours International Dance Festival in Stuttgart on June 27, they stopped off in Munich and two nights at Muffathalle, to the joy of the audience.

French-Senegalese choreographer Dianor started out as a hip-hop dancer, and in 2002 was invited as the first such to join the CNDC school of contemporary dance in Angers, France. Back then, he explained in an interview, it was two completely different worlds. One difference was that you danced on the music in hop-hop, whereas in contemporary dance you could do whatever you wanted to. When he started choreographing in 2011, his aim was to combine these two approaches. This new style has become the trademark of his own company, Compagnie Amala Dianor, which he founded in 2012.

The evening opened with M&M, a duet for Marion Alzieu and Mwendwa Marchand on a prop-less, dark stage. Although they never touch each other, their relationship felt very intimate, a sensation created entirely through movement. Sometimes they mirror each other, sometimes they do their own thing but, throughout, they are consciously aware of each other. The couple exuded an extremely high energy level, mixing all kinds of street dance movements and turning them into something else, and often something surprising. A rolling arm was stopped without losing the energy out of which a kick developed, for example.

The music is by French composer and DJ, Awir Léon, a long-time collaborator of Dianor. He also composed the music for Level Up, a condensed version of DUB, which had its premiere at the Internationales Festival Berlin in 2024.

For Level Up, Dianor travelled to USA, South Africa, India and in France, where he primarily works, visiting areas with street dance from waacking, dancehall, electro, pantsula, new style and krump. He said it was important for him to experience the pure joy and sharing of dancing without the dancers just showing off. He invited eleven performers, each with their own different style, and combined them into a performance; an explosion of joy in a space of acceptance and mutual respect.

Awir Léon appeared out of the fog on the black stage. Behind his mixing console he played the first beats, then the dancers appeared. Each presented themselves in a solo, displaying their particular style. Then, they took off in solos, duets and groups. It was a group united in their love for dance, representing all sorts of body shapes and hues of skin color. Everyone performed with tremendous control, and strong individual presence and expression.

Like at a street performance, the group watched their friends when they took the centre, cajoling and teasing them to show their special moves. One man in flowery pants (none of the individuals in solos and duets were identified in the programme) went in three times in a row to show an exceptional turn by putting a knee in the popliteal and then screwing himself down to a heap on the floor. Another clad in jeans, vest, flat cap and sneakers, jumped, spun and kicked with breakneck speed. One in khaki-colored pants and an orange polo shirt broke into a hip-hop routine making, as the others did too, his body look boneless.

One woman was wearing a T-shirt that made her torso look naked and fully tattooed. She often danced with another woman with black baggy pants and white beads in her hair. They grooved together or took off on their own, but were always constantly aware of where the other was. At one point, Awir Léon, who started out as a dancer, left his console and joined the dancers in a group piece, the soft beat hammering along on its own.

Léon returned to his console at the end and fired up for the exuberant finale. The dancers started clapping and unexpectedly ran up the aisles in the auditorium encouraging the audience to get up and dance. Two-thirds, from the youngest to the oldest, followed the call and joined the dancers on the stage. They danced with the dancers, with each other or alone and when the music stopped, they engaged in conversation with the performers.  

With this piece, Dianor truly achieved his goal to have people experience the pure joy and sharing of dancing, not just by watching but also, even if they didn’t have the dancers’ excellent technique, just by doing it.

All the dancers deserved to be mentioned. They were marvellous. As mentioned above, the programme was silent on who danced what, just this list: Slate Hemedi Dindangila, Romain Franco, Jordan John Hope, Enock Kalubi Kadima, Mwendwa Marchand, Kgotsofalang Joseph Mavundla, Sangram Mukhopadhyay, Tatiana Gueria Nade, Yanis Ramet, Germain Zambi, Asia Zonta.