character info.

[corepower]

BASIC INFO NAME: Alizée Niang CANON: Original HOMEWORLD: Modern AGE: Mid-twenties GENDER: Female SPECIES: Human FIRST GLANCE APPEARANCE: Lupita Nyong'o HEIGHT: 169 cm BUILD: Lean and toned HAIR: Short EYES: Brown DRESS: Colourful SCENT: Vanilla VOICE: Smokey DEMEANOR: Friendly PERMISSIONS BACKTAGGING: ✔ 4TH-WALLING: ✘ THREADJACKING: ✘ MIND-READING: ✔ FIGHTING: ✘ ROMANCE: ✔ INJURY: ✘ KILLING: ✘

SUMMERTIME and the living is easy PERSONALITY x alizée means trade wind and that is basically what she is x literally dances in the rain x although it might not be a character trait exactly, it says a lot about her that she can do all those 1920's dances x the charleston is her jam x will rather laugh off a mistake than spend excessive energy getting angry or worrying x always the most easy come, easy go person in the group x gestures quite excessively x does friendly in the most intrusive ways you can imagine x doesn't talk past, doesn't dream future, stays squarely in the now x doesn't feel she belongs to one country specifically, but wants to see them all x in the same way, she just likes to dance, worrying about style and method secondarily x if you think you can't dance, she'll show you otherwise x writes a weekly column for the back page of the local English-language newspaper Metro EN over summer HISTORY Alizée's story begins long before Alizée, really, with a biracial mother, born to a Senegalese mother herself and a white, French father, growing up with a heart-wrenching longing to see her mother's home country that she'd left behind to marry. When she turned 18, Josette Leroy went on a homecoming trip to Senegal for six months, returning home to France not only with a greater understanding of her own background, but with a boyfriend, Mamadou Niang, soon to be her fiancé, soon to be her husband. It all happened very quickly. As did Alizée. Suddenly the happy couple just had a child to care for as well in their tiny flat in the Parisian suburbs. Their happiness was short-lived, already a couple of months after Alizée was born, their relationship experienced its first crisis, but Josette agreed to stay with Mamadou until he'd obtained his green card, hence it wasn't until Alizée was five years old that they finally separated, Josette obtaining full parental custody of their daughter. It was a tumultuous early childhood, to say the least, but Alizée was a happy child nonetheless and she grew robust, if early on becoming convinced she'd never marry a man. Besides being a happy child, Alizée was also a very active child and in an effort to spend all that energy of hers before bedtime, her mother enrolled her in ballet classes at a prestigious ballet school across town when she was six. Alizée loved to move her body and although not the most authoritarian of her classmates, she had a flair for dancing that was quickly discovered and nursed. Until the summer she turned 13, she truly imagined herself becoming a professional ballerina and worked towards that dream, often attending the Paris Opera Ballet's performances and collecting autographed shoes from her favourite dancers. Then, everything changed when Alvin Ailey Dance Company came on tour to Paris and she saw their show at the premiere night. Their dancing, although bearing somer resemblance to ballet in terms of movement range, has an entirely different energy and soul than ballet and Alizée was enchanted. She tried to get her mother to buy tickets for the show the next day, too, but when she wouldn't, Alizée sold three hard-earned tutus to one of her classmates and bought the ticket herself. It was a life-changing experience. Almost spiritual, even for a little girl who wasn't very religiously inclined. Getting her ballet teacher to talk to her mother about it and come with recommendations, her mother agreed to letting her get private tutoring by one of the great modern dancers working in Paris, Annemarie Deforest - a former Nederlands Dance Theatre who worked under star choreographer Jiri Kylian and now, after ending her career and marrying a Frenchman, taught modern technique to dancers in Paris, although mostly professional dancers. Her ballet teacher put in a good word for her and Annemarie agreed to meet with Alizée and they immediately shared a connection. So, Annemarie agreed to take her in as a private pupil, teaching her the more extended techniques of modern dance. Building up a close relationship with Annemarie, Alizée continued to be coached by her until she finished school and had to decide what to do with herself, career-wise. She had long since decided that dance was her future, since dancing was her way of connecting with the world, but actually landing a dance job on the European dance scene when you were a black woman wasn't easy. The classical companies wouldn't take her, because they thought her skin colour would ruin the symmetry or the corps and besides, classical dance wasn't what she truly wanted to do... Eventually, she found work at a small revue in the Latin Quarters where they danced the cancan and other classic 1920s dance routines. Alizée started out as a ensemble girl, only doing the cancan, but taking lessons from her new friend, Bianca, who was a dance historian and an expert in the 1920's dances like the charleston, she quickly picked up on more acts and was put to great use in the shows. She worked there for two seasons, before starting to travel around Europe and do freelance work wherever they'd use her. At age 24, after having worked odd dance jobs for two and a half years, she'd saved up enough money to buy a one-way ticket to New York, renting a run-down attic apartment for a month at first and then, she auditioned for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. By some small miracle, she was admitted into the company that she'd dreamed of dancing with since she was a teenager. Ten long years of hoping came to fruition. Alizée felt she'd found her right shelf, at least for a while. A month became two years during which Alizée dancing several seasons as one of Alvin Ailey's ensemble dancers, eventually taking on soloist parts across the repertory. During one of their tours, she found herself in a sunny, summer-basking Copenhagen, Denmark, and felt a strong attraction to the city. At this point, she was beginning to get restless, traveller's feet again and warning her artistic directors that it might soon be time for her to move on, she began scouring Copenhagen for modern dance companies, finding several, though one in particular had her interest. Musai Dance is a small, experimental, all-women's performance troupe specializing in on-the-spot improvisation, making pop-up performances all over Copenhagen and when they can get the means, the rest of Denmark, too. Wherever they can get access and be allowed to perform, they go. Alizée took contact to the artistic director, Rikke Sandberg and arranged for a meeting, flying in two days later and auditioning in the middle of a crowded side-street to Kongens Nytorv in pouring rain. It was then that Alizée knew she'd found home. Rikke agreed.

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