Contacting
Bgirl Anne Nguyen aka A-Ko/cie par Terre/Graff It!
MySpace URL:
http://www.myspace.com/yougli
Bgirl Anne Nguyen aka A-Ko/cie par Terre/Graff It!'s Interests
General
JOURNALISTE POUR DANSER...
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CHOREGRAPHE de la Cie pa Terre...........Création Cie par Terre 2007 :KEEP IT FUNKY! (Locking group piece-30mn) / Trailer
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"Keep it Funky !", is a 30mn piece for six dancers. Locking is a clownish, energetic and original dance, danced to Funk music. The group of Lockers “Les Virtuoses de l’Instant”, whishing to put that underrated discipline on stage, called upon Anne Nguyen and the “par Terre” dance company in order to create this piece.....................................................
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“On a Jazz, Soul and Funk repertoire, six dancers dream of the 70s... From the burlesque opera scene to the cabaret, with a detour behind the scenes, they apply Locking to all the fantasies of their imagination. The Lockers make use of their many native languages to talk to each other and to the audience. They play, imagine, dream, argue and tease each other on a succession of scenes that each reveals their multiple facets. But in the end, they all share the same philosophy : Keep It Funky !”
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Keep it Funky! - cie par Terre 2007 - (pictures: Olivier Passerat)
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CHRONIQUEUSE POUR GRAFF IT! Mag
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FRANCO aka Funky Smile: my brother!.....................................
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NADJA HAREK: The Real Hip-Hop!
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--ZERILIPOP 3: en avant-première... T'étais où pendant 15 ans??? (Nadja, Karima, Julien, Magali, Laos, François, Franco, Anne, Andry...) Le vrai hip-hop!?
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CHRONIQUES pour GRAFF IT! Mag, tous les trimestres en kiosques (prochaine sortie Avril 2008)
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Music
A-Ko, like the echo... I have always been looking for a name that would define me to myself and others. One of my boyz from my original crew RedMask (Montreal) gave me that name, refering to gunshot echo in Jamaica. Whenever there has been gunshot in a neighborhood, word is spread that "there was echo". My boy said that I should take the name, because whenever I danced somewhere, word spread just the same.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- His name is ThunderBlast, and he's one of my strongest inspirations. His name is also related to sound, and I like to think that I am somehow an echo of his powerful thunder. In RedMask, B-boy names have strong meanings... RockIt rocks the beat, swift, powerful and light as a rocket. Dingo plays with the beat, he will kill you without pain, making it feel like a joke. OktoFoot..s multiple legs will hypnotize you as he swims through the air with animal grace. These guys are my heroes. They taught me so much by just being there and being themselves. I joined RedMask in 2001, when I..d only been dancing for a year: Back then my dance was too immature for me to find a proper name. With now almost seven years to look back upon, I chose to be A-Ko because fist of all, I represent for them. When you hear from me, it is also their voice that you will hear.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So this is where my name comes from. From Quebec, the western part of the world where freedom of expression is at its highest. From Haiti and Jamaica, because my boyz are Haitian and their roots reach down deep into the culture of the West Indies. And as hip-hop culture itself is closely related to Jamaica, it all comes down to it.
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Somehow, the idea of being the echo feels right. Just thinking about its deep meaning helps me find the right path. First, it reminds me to stay humble. Because wherever I might be, I have to remember that all I know is just part of a heritage. Hip-Hop was born before me, my generation is one of the echoes of the generation that created it. And if you think on it, even they are the echo of many other generations and cultures.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Now, why am I dancing today? Clearly, because of the music. I never watched much TV, and I come from an environment where Hip Hop did not exist. I became aware of it by listening to the radio, back in the mid-90s. I quickly became a rap addict : I would put my alarm-clock at 2 o'clock in the morning and listen to radio shows... Even though back then, I did not understand the lyrics very well, I realize I have always been drawn towards conscious lyrics. It seems even the instrumentals for that type of music had a special feeling to them. So I listened more and more carefully and learned from KRS-1, the Teacher, and from MCs like Rakim, Poor Righteous Teachers, Jeru the Damaja, Wu-Tang, Gangstarr, Nas, who are more or less into Five Percenter philosophy. Blackmoon, the Bootcamp. My own vision of things started to change, I made my own mental way into the world of hip-hop philosophy. Back then, I was studying physics and was destined to end up as a sort of researcher or engineer. But this echo that I was hearing through the radio told me that I could be something else, outside of the matrix that I was born into. So the first thing that I grabbed from hip-hop is the philosophy, through rap music.
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At one point it became unbearable not to be involved physically in the hip-hop community, whatever and wherever it might be, for I had no access to it. The music was what moved me, so I had to move by it. I started my search for B-boys, and it was a hard one, that ended up in Canada, in Montreal... Once I started dancing, the other aspects of my life started fading more and more into the background... Now here I am, I'm dancing everyday, representing for RedMask and now Def Dogz. I also created my own dance company "par Terre", with my solo "Square Root" and a Locking piece, "Keep it Funky! live". And all of it is because I listened to the echo...
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I think being the echo could be a perfect definition for dancing. Music comes first, you make it physical. A-Ko is echo, translated into hip-hop slang. Because it is not any kind of dance that would have felt right, only B-boying. Why do we cry for consciousness in our music, why do we use such challenging movements and energies in our dance, if not because what we experience in our everyday lives feels like a stuggle to fight something. It's like a game of war against cold buildings closing up around you. We try to build up the energy and ammunition to fight those walls. We cry at them and kick at them, and from the interaction, echo is created. When I enter a circle, I am not trying to decorate the space. I'm here to put all that I've got, soul and body, into one short moment. Like a Knock-Out. A-Ko is my definition of what I do, reflecting where I stand.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It took me a long time to figure out who I truly was as an individual, and to find a name that would sound like the key to my song. I started B-boying when I was 21. I am choosing a name now at 28. But then, A-Ko also reflects my character : when I play chess, I like to play black. Watch what happens when you're not trying to influence things, go with the flow, then when you've seen enough, cry out with all your heart, and let it echo until the end of the game...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A-Ko stands short for Gunshot A-Ko. I cut my name just like some Rastafari would cut their dreadlocks so as to be able to infiltrate Babylon. Wear black, leave no evidence. After all, what matters is not who drops under the bullet, but what comes after...
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Movies
"Fight Club", "Bamboozled"-Spike Lee, "Alice au Pays des Merveilles", "Le Voyage de Shihiro", "Bowling for Columbine"-M.Moore, "Being John Malkovich", "The Truman Show", David Lynch
Television
Dieudonné!, Les Robins des Bois (à l'ancienne), Kad et O, South Park et meme Bob l'Eponge!
Books
FICTION
"1984"-G.Orwell, "We"-E.Zamiatine, "Women in Love", "Lady Chatterley's Lover", "Sons and Lovers"-D.H. Lawrence, "Guerre et Paix"-L.Tolstoï, "Les Frères Karamazov", "Les Possédés"-F.Dostoïevski, "Ishmael"-D.Quinn, "Martian Chronicles"-R.Bradbury, "Brave New World"-A.Huxley, "Plume"-H.Michaux, "Le Château"-F.Kafka, "L'Herbe Rouge", "L'Arrache-Coeur"-B.Vian, "The Jungle Books"-Ruyard Kipling, R. Queneau "Le Dimanche de la Vie"...
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KNOWLEDGE
"Wu-Tang Manual"-The RZA, "Yoga and Ayurveda"-D.Frawley
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COMICS
Calvin & Hobbes
"1/4 de seconde pour vivre"-L.Trondheim
Snoopy & The Peanuts
Heroes
N.A.S. meaning Niggaz Against Society
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KRS-1 aka the Teacher
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Buckshot and the Bootcamp Click aka the Underground Kings
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RZA and the Wu-Tang aka the Invading Army
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Big L (RIP)
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Bgirl Anne Nguyen aka A-Ko/cie par Terre/Graff It!'s Details
Bgirl Anne Nguyen aka A-Ko/cie par Terre/Graff It!'s Blurbs
About me: UN GUERRIER DE LA VILLE...
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B-Girl Anne Nguyen
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Anne Nguyen, aka A-Ko, is a dancer, choreographer and writer. Born in 1978 in Paris, Anne is the choreographer of the par Terre company (2005). She is in the crew RedMask (Montreal) since 2001. She has been part of the crew Phase T (Chelles) from 2003 to 2005, and is now part of Créteil Style-Def Dogz (Paris) since 2005.
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Anne has won many battles, such as Fresh Jive 06, We B*Girlz 2006, 360 BPM 2005, BOTY France 2005, Euro Pro-AM 2004, IBE 2004, Pro-DAM 2004, Break-n-Enter 2004, St-Denis 2002.. . She has been a judge at Oduelo 2008, BC-One 2007, IBC Kazan 2007, BC-One France 2007, BOTY France Grand Sud 2007, Battle Danse Ultim’8 International 2007, International BOTY We B* Girlz Battle 2006, BOTY France 2006, Campeonato Andaluz de Danza 2005 and 2002, and many other competitions…
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Anne is also a stage performer, and likes to be seen as a dancer, rather than exclusively as a B-Girl. She has danced for hip-hop companies such as Black Blanc Beur and Rêvolution, and contemporary dance choreographers such as Faustin Linyekula and Salia Nï Seydou.
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Founder of the dance company par Terre (2005), she has choreographed for herself a 30mn solo, Square Root, which has been acclaimed as a novel form of hip-hop dance choreography. Questioning the frontiers between hip-hop and contemporary dance, Square Root has been performed in hip-hop festivals as well as exclusively contemporary festivals, such as La Biennale de Danse du Val-de-Marne (Biennale du Val-de-Marne 2009, SN Le Trident, Street Science 2008, KVS Bruxelles, SN du Petit Quevilly, Dschungel Wien, Plateaux de la Biennale du Val-de-Marne 2007, Trans’Urbaines 2007, Hip-Hop Tanz 2006 and 2007, Breakin’ Convention 07, Rencontres Chorégraphiques de Carthage 2007, Cap Danse 2007, 100 Dessus Dessous 2005…). Anne Nguyen has also choreographed Keep it Funky!, a theatrical and humoristic Locking piece for six dancers (Festival H2O 2007,Trans’Urbaines 2007, BOTY France 2007, Streetstar 2007…).
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Anne is currently working on a new piece for five dancers (including herself) and one actress, called Spirit of the Underground (Festival H2O 2008, Biennale du Val-de-Marne 2009). Investigating further into the art of choreographing hip-hop dance for the theater, Spirit of the Underground develops expression and contact inside hip-hop dance movements. Like in Square Root, the piece includes some of Anne's own writing.
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Anne Nguyen is a writer of poems, prose and articles. She writes reports in Graff it! magazine since 2006, and in mainstream magazine Danser since 2007. Her Manual of the City Warrior, a collection of poems on dance and hip hop culture, is published in Graff It! Magazine since 2004, and is designed to be published as a book. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
.................................................................Contact cie par Terre: cieparterre.diff@neuf.fr
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B-GIRL ANNE NGUYEN aka A-KO / Trailer......................
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RACINE CARREE/SQUARE ROOT : Anne Nguyen's solo (30mn). Cie par Terre 2006-2007....Trailer of the work-in-progress (DVD of the final piece available)............................................................................................................
"Square Root" is a 30 mn solo, mixing breakdance and contemporary dance, accompanied by cello and Anne Nguyen's poems.
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“Breakdance was born in circles, it has a circular approach of movement where one is not meant to be facing one specific direction. How can that dance’s energy be fully transmitted inside a square space, the stage, without being only transposed, or losing some of its movements and energy? Accompanied by cello and poems, Anne Nguyen draws the journey of a creature searching for roots: genealogic, urban, mathematical…”
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“The square root of the circle is nothing but the square.
In my solo, I start by bowing down to the Earth, and paying homage to the four corners of the stage. As soon as I lift my head up, I am faced with the choice of a direction. Going towards the square in order to belong to it, or going towards the circle in order to escape... I am using three cubes that I push, align or assemble into combinations... They sometimes symbolize chairs, where I can sit down to have a place at last. My dance is guided by the head at first, which drags itself on the ground. It goes through the domination of the foot, which cuts the rotation with angles. It becomes mathematical, then animal... I end up taking off my shoes to erase all, as I let the dance flow like the meanders of a river...”
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SQUARE ROOT (RACINE CARREE): Anne Nguyen's Solo. Cie par Terre 2006-2007. Pictures: Olivier Passerat...................................................
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L'ESPRIT SOUTERRAIN (SPIRIT OF THE UNDERGROUND) - Trailer (dance piece for 2008, cie par Terre) - Presentation of the dancers: David Phiphak (Laos), François Kaleka, Julien Kokou, Franck Guizonne (Franco), Magali Duclos, Anne Nguyen, Nadja Harek (filmmaker and actress).........................................................................................................................................
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L'ESPRIT SOUTERRAIN (SPIRIT OF THE UNDERGROUND)-cie par Terre 2008- pictures: Olivier Passerat.....................................................
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DEF DOGZ (Paris-Rotterdam) /Trailer...............................................................................................................
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REDMASK (Montreal) at Burn the Floor 2006 (Montreal)............................................................................................................
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A-Ko's gallery...............................................................................................................................................................................
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................................................................................................................................................................... CHECK OUT MY ARTICLES AND POEMS IN GRAFF IT! Magazine................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................................DANCE COMPANY PAR TERRE.................................................................................................................
The dance company par Terre was created in 2005, in the region of Paris, on the initiative of dancer Anne Nguyen, who wished to create her own choreographic universe. Anne Nguyen comes from hip-hop and contemporary dance, and has danced in several professionnal dance companies (Black Blanc Beur, Rêvolution, Salia Ni Seydou, Faustin Linyekula...) with whom she has performed in France and abroad, for many years. In 2005, she creates the dance company "par Terre" and starts to choreograph her solo "Square Root". In 2007, on the appeal of a group of dancers specialists of Locking, she creates the piece "Keep it Funky!". Anne is currently working on a new project : "Spirit of the Underground".
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Hey whats up?! I just wanted to let you know that I've been practicing my ass off! I finally found a style that works for me, though I am still practicing breakdancing. I picked up boogaloo; its SOOO fun and funky and like.. I just pick up the moves so easily! I'll have a video up when I get more comfortable with the moves and style!
I got practice tonight with a crew out in Dayton, OH; I am finally meeting people! So I'm really stoked to find myself apart of something I love to do again. <3 Peace out, lady!
