Julie Iarisao is a Madagascan choreographer who has forged her path with great determination and talent, which she now puts at the service of the very young. With her company Anjorombala, based in Antananarivo, Madagascar, she launched a generous initiative in 2024 to support the first steps of young companies: Dance your dreams. 

After creating Dance for all in Madagascar in 2015, a program of workshops and courses for amateurs and professionals, and the Évasion danse international festival in 2022, Julie Iarisoa has come to the conclusion that nothing is being done to support choreographic creation in Madagascar.
Madagascar is ranked as the world's poorest country. And while the country is rich in natural resources (fertile land, minerals, gold, precious stones, etc.) and human resources, very little of this wealth is returned to the people, who are left to their fate.

It was against this backdrop of a total absence of cultural support for choreographic creation that Julie Iarisoa set about seeking funding outside the island from theAfrican Culture Fund, via SOFACO, a Solidarity Fund for Artists and Cultural Organizations in Africa, to create Dance your dreams a support program for young choreographers, which she co-directs with choreographer Harivola Rakotondraso(Projet DIHY).

This first edition of Dance your dreams, which began in September 2024 and will run until the end of March 2025, will have provided the selected artists with residency venues, organizational support for end-of-residency shows, and training in communication and production. But equally important, Dance your dreams aims to be "an opportunity to surpass oneself, to set no barriers and to assert a great freedom of exploration and creativity".

Seven companies, each with between 4 and 20 dancers, were selected. Five from Antananarivo, one from Antsirabe (170 km south of the capital) and one from Tamatave (a coastal port to the west). The winning companies are : Poly-D, LeMainty, Litefeet, Street Squad, Labibliotekroz, 2sans3 (Tamatave), Master Jah (Antsirabe).
Street Squad seized the momentum of this program and presented Out the box in December 2024, "which shakes up codes and helps to rethink conventions and celebrate diversity".

As part of a rapprochement with theInstitut Français de Madagascar, which kindly welcomed us in January 2025, and following our enthusiastic meeting with Julie Iarisoa, Paysages Humains has committed to supporting the second edition of Dance your dreams 2025-2026.

Sandrine Maricot Despretz