Maloya Moshpit

“Maloya Moshpit collides an ancient Creole performance form of cultural resistance and social resilience – Maloya, with contemporary subcultures of resistance and street celebration to explore how we can delight in difference and live in common.” - Punctum Inc.

Maloya Moshpit brings together the 300 year-old Creole performance art-form Maloya with contemporary cultural influences of protest and dance parties. Maloya Moshpit is a participatory space where a mash up of dance, percussion and song bring audiences and performers together to create a new cultural language in a performance petri dish.

As the lighting, staging and costume designer for this project I explored theories of creolisation collaboratively with performers through their Reunion Island (Maloya) and Tamil heritage. Design influences included performance sub cultures of resistance and dance parties drawing from House music and No Wave. The design drew on creolisation concepts of adaptation, displacement and transformation in repurposing found objects to create ‘new languages’ and a space for creative expression.

Maloya Moshpit was produced by Punctum Inc and premiered at the Castlemaine State Festival 2023.

Collaborators

• Concept, Dramaturgy & Direction / Jude Anderson

• Lighting & Spacial Design, Production Management / Morwenna Schenck

• Composition / Justin Marshall

• Maloya Expert & Performer / Muriel Hillion Toulcanon

• Electronics & Sound Design / Thomas ‘Soup’ Campbell

• Percussion / Jeremy Goinden

• Performers / Deepa Mani, Joshinder Chaggar, Michaela Ottone & Carole Katz

Photos by Diana Domonkos.