By Nadia Chonville and Zanmi association

For one month, Palais de Tokyo is inviting Nadia Chonville and the Cabaret Z for a residency as part of La Friche — a creative research program in partnership with Chaillot – Théâtre National de la Danse.

Cabaret Z is an artistic project initiated by the Martinican feminist writer Nadia Chonville and supported by the Martinican association Zanmi. It will be a space for transformation, offering audiences a transgressive experience of gender in the Caribbean.

Its aim is to produce a bimonthly cabaret at the performing arts venue L’Arobase in Fort-de-France, showcasing Caribbean artists whose work expresses feminist and queer perspectives. This is an innovative project in a region where the entertainment industry is booming, but where no professional show has ever been established. And yet, the artistic and technical resources needed for such a production are indeed present on this French Caribbean Island.

“Cabaret Z will feature performances that articulate feminist and queer strategies for liberation, rooted in the Caribbean, in the visual and sonic languages of Martinique’s Carnival- its sacred and joyful rituals. The show will celebrate the dances, movements, colors, and sounds of our Caribbean women’s cultural innovations. When Caribbean women move, speak, dance, or sing, their expression is most often interpreted first and foremost as sexual provocation aimed at heterosexual men. But we assert – and personally experience – that the movements of Caribbean bodies have always primarily served their own liberation and pleasure. If pleasure is offered to the audience, it is not a hunter’s pleasure, but a shared one – an invitation to collective trance. This, in essence, is Carnival.”

– Nadia Chonville

Cabaret Z will consist of a troupe of four resident artists based in Martinique, along with around ten regular performers. Nadia Chonville, as a feminist author, will carry the guiding vision of the show. She will open each performance and introduce the artists, taking on the role of mistress of ceremonies—a position traditionally monopolised by men in what is a deeply feminine art form.

A residency showing will be presented at Chaillot – Théâtre National de la Danse in 2026.