Julie Larisoa: “to discover new cultures and confront my ideas with other’s ideas”

ANT Tales is a series in which we catch up with past ANT Mobility Fund recipients to find out how this support impacted their work and professional pathway.

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Julie Larisoa is a choreographer and performing artist from Madagascar. She has been awarded ANT Mobility support to develop research and work in collaboration with artists and organisations in the region, including the Time2Dance festival organised by Nafasi Art Space. In addition to her own projects, Julie has been connected to other ANT Mobility-supported projects as mentor (as in the case of Tanzanian dancer Samwel Japhet’s ‘On the other side of being’ residency in Madagascar in 2019) and performer (as in the case of the ReRouting Arts Festival).

I have benefited from ANT Mobility funding support from Pro Helvetia in some of my artistic projects. Among them in 2015 with an artistic residency and performances that I carried out in Tanzania in partnership with ACEDEVA and Muda Africa Dance School, with which I was able to work with a Tanzanian poet and a Tanzanian musician. I was supported again in 2019 with a solo dance piece residency and workshop in Mauritius, hosted by Jean Renat Anamah’s dance company and in collaboration with the talented Mauritian musician and composer Norbert Planel who unfortunately has just left us recently, peace to his soul…

I think that the ANT Mobility fund is very important for artists. It helped me a lot to realise my artistic projects, to have quiet time for myself to create and also to meet new people from the artistic world. It allowed me to discover new culture, confront my idea with other’s ideas and to expand my professional network.

As a choreographer who works and lives in Madagascar, it is not often that I find financial support that allows me to carry out a project that takes place within the African continent and in collaboration with other African artists.