Dancer and choreographer, deeply Guyanese, she imposes her body, her ideas and her emotions as well in the pieces she conceives as in the service of other creators. Johana Malédon turns everywhere – especially with “Le Banquet des Merveilles” by Sylvain Groud and with the show “(Provisional title)” that she created. She answers questions from the podcast “The ear is bold” with invigorating sincerity and energy.
First, by finding Johana Malbeta In the heart of Paris, sunny that day, we are picked up by the warm smile she addresses to her interlocutor. Then, when asked about his career, the said interlocutor is seized by the acuity of his responses both spontaneous and thoughtful, full of emotions and weighted.
Previously, it is in The Banquet of Wonders sorn Sylvain Groud what The ear … went to realize his formidable energy. A spectacle where the marvelous crosses the need to work for the collective: a utopia in which the choreographer wants to believe and which his performers translate on stage including Johana Malédon.
Dancer and choreographer herself “She is due to these two identities together -” Johana has a course already rich in artistic collaborations behind her, from her training to her own achievements. From his native Guyana to Paris, including more or less happy detours in the United States and Israel, this lover of human and cultural travel and discoveries forged her artist identity from her sensations, his questions and his deep convictions. Which makes her an interpreter and choreographer “anchored” with singular and undeniable talent … through her career and the substance of her shows, which she reveals and details in The ear is boldget more aware of Johana Malédon:
Born in Guyana, from a family of athletes, Johana Malédon could have experienced a completely different destiny than that which dance opened today. His father, a great lover of sport and tennis, would have liked to make his daughters the Williams sisters of Guyana! But Johana decided otherwise, she who from the age of 7 agreed to dance, thus tracing the way towards a whole bunch of challenges that she will take up the next twenty years.
First of these challenges, convincing her parents to let her go from Guyana from the age of 14 to continue her dream, definitively screwed in her: becoming a professional dancer. Departure for France and Paris in order to learn the foundations of his profession …
A path that will take him over the years, back and forth, at Paris Conservatoryto the Alvin Ailey School in the United States, at Upper pole Paris Boulogne Billancourt then – more unexpected – at Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company And Israel!
She gives herself up in The ear … On these important steps of his life. Some causing a little disappointment – such as meeting and then disillusionment with the prestigious Alvin Ailey school in New York notably forming black dancers.
Others will be a moment of grace – and there again obtained of high struggle with his parents and even his teachers who opposed his departure: her stay in community in Israel, with the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, from where she will leave a few months later with regret – in front of the tense political situation but also by the very strong religiosity of the country. Departure forced for lack of renewal of his visa …
She will come back with her first experiences in choreography, a show called Hafal (pronounce burst) Together 21 Israeli dancers as well as the material that will prefigure, back in France, its first “real” piece See you soon (which she choreographed and that she still plays).
Two other shows will follow under the leadership of the male company which she founded in 2017 and that she has been running since: the play 40 -Who will demand a lot of her, she admits and then recently her solo (Provisional title) that she will take to the Avignon Festival next July. Always with this very strong awareness of who she is, where she comes from – her Guyana in mind – And where she wants to go …
And discover with Johana Malédon a very strong personality, well determined since young people to embrace this career as a dancer and choreographer. It all started and many things presented themselves very early on, with well -marked choices that the Guyanaise was never afraid to make. Guyana rightly is pegged to her heart and body and she explains in the podcast how her territory which she left at 14 years old distills in her art of in and of choreography even in the very foundations of his body. A sports body which anchors it powerfully on the scenes of the shows she designs or in which she participates and which house a sensitivity and an emotion that are showing up in The ear is bold…
Beautiful meeting to listen to for a creator who fires any wood: by reflecting and questioning her own doubts, her certainties, her convictions, her apprehensions and her desires. A very personal way for Johana Malédon to move forward in her art and her life …
Find the dancer and choreographer Johana Malikon dans The ear is boldit’s here !
Or there:
The shows on tour of Johana Malédon with the male company – and in particular “(Provisional title)”, choreographed and performed by Johana Malédon from July 10 to 20, 2025 at the Théâtre L’Atelier, during the Avignon Festival.
