GOUNOUJ

Between dunes, mangroves and hills, Léo Lérus composes an ode to fragile life. On the stage of the Ariana, the Guadeloupean artist, trained in dance and the rhythms of traditional gwoka, develops a hybrid practice rooted in both heritage and the present. Created for four dancers, Gounouj in situ—“frog” in Creole—grew out of an immersion in the protected site of Gros-Morne/Grande-Anse. There, choreographic language brings a world into being: a vibrant, teeming landscape threatened by ecological upheavals both present and to come.  

Half-human, half-amphibian, the performers move through a sensory landscape alive with birdsong, sea breeze and nocturnal croaks. Nourished by the rhythms of gwoka and the Creole notion of bousyè—a state of vulnerability necessary for transformation—Gounouj in situ explores the tensions between strength and fragility, melancholy and revolt. Physical, delicate and deeply inhabited, the piece transforms the stage into a shifting ecosystem and celebrates the possibility of a new equilibrium.