JOSE’ BERTOGAL - Choreographer and composer
Founder of the CHOREAM company in 1993, he trained many dancers and future choreographers. He is one of the precursors of the Hip Hop movement in France and is particularly recognized as one of the pioneers of Hip Hop choreographic creation. He has built a school of movement from which many dancers have drawn inspiration and has contributed to the elaboration of a deep and mixed choreographic style, fed by all forms of dance. José Bertogal has followed workshops with contemporary choreographers such as Josef Nadj or Pierre Doussaint. He has given workshops and classes throughout France, Switzerland, Germany, the United States, Latin America and Africa. The National Choreographic Center of La Rochelle has recognized in 2015 one of his choreographies "Epsilon" as one of the 3 major pieces of hip hop creation, it is now in the repertoire of the French dance. Between 1997 and 2015, he composed 5 pieces with partners such as l'Artchipel, the Chelles Scènes Theater, the Galion Dance Center, which were performed in festivals such as Hip Hop Tanz, H2O Festival, Renc'Arts Danse, the Rencontres de la Villette, the Hivernales d'Avignon, Suresnes Cité Danse, His pieces have also toured abroad supported by the AFAA (Central Africa, Latin America and West Africa, Alvin Alley Theater in New York Transmission) He was a teacher at the school "Just standing".
In 2017 he created the Company MOUNKA, the result of the meeting with Michael Larifla. In 2018 the creation "Biosphere" is the first creation carried by the company.
Mounka is the meeting of two artists: one choreographer (José Bertogal) with the experience on the international scene and inventor of a school of movement allowing the soul to express itself through the body, and the other dancer (Michaël Larifla), driven by his commitment to the local territory in a process of building a Caribbean hip hop identity.
A single and unique coherence: no limits to the imagination and the inspiration of each one.... that could resume the spirit of the company.
In 2018, Biosphere was born. The first part of a saga relating the genesis of the earth until the appearance of man.
After performances on the stages of Guadeloupe and Martinique, the show evolves, stretches, grows...
In 2019, the company is chosen to represent Guadeloupe at the 2nd edition of the "TOUT MONDE Festival" in MIAMI.
The festival brings together a group of artists from the Caribbean and Florida and on March 17, 2019, Mounka officially saw its first coronation : The company won the first prize in the category live shows and two weeks of residency in Miami.
Febuary 2020 Mounka took part to the Umbrella Festival in Kingston Jamaica with the show Biosphere. A huge welcoming and achievement!
March 2022 Biosphere is performed in Abidjan (Ivory Coast) at the MASA festival, the biggest western african show market and gets a true and big hit among the African public too.
In Febuary 2022 Mounka presented the first show of “SAPIENS”, the second part of the Bertogal’s trilogy….success is a must! TO BE CONTINUED....