"No one was doing the work I was doing," Linyekula said. "Nobody was telling stories of the Congo the way I wanted to tell them, primarily [with] bodies on the center of the stage."
After being driven out of Zaire in 1997 when all the universities were shut down, Linyekula traveled to Kenya and co-founded Gaara, Kenya's first contemporary dance company, marking his first experience as a choreographer. He then traveled to France for four years, taking up residency with multiple other choreographers and honing his dance skills.
In 2001, when Linyekula returned to Congo, he was met with resistance from his friends and family, who believed he should have stayed in the safety of France.
"It's important for me to be here [in Congo]," Linyekula said. "I'm an artist. I had something to prove here, to myself, to my family. I wanted to prove that it was possible for someone to imagine a project in the Congo that would make sense."
Linyekula joined four other dancers to found the Studios Kabako a company and art center dedicated to contemporary dance and visual theater in the capital city of Kinshasa.
Linyekula started Studios Kabako to "create a space where [he could] share his work and bring in the voices of others," Linyekula said.
Upon Linyekula's return to a country with an entirely different name and identity, he became "obsessed with the history of the country" and wanted to use his movement to explore what it means to be Congolese. Linyekula also wanted his art to convey a message of hope to his people, many of whom are destitute and see no way out of their desperate situation, he said.
"We needed to create a mental space that it's possible to be here, that it's possible to live in the Congo," Linyekula said.
In 2006, after the end of the Second Congo War, Linyekula relocated Studios Kabako to his hometown of Kisangani. Because Kisangani is less populated than Kinshasa, Linyekula believed that he would be able to more effectively engage with the community. His goal in Kisangani is to operate a studio that is an "acupuncture point a point around which energy flows freely."
Linyekula bought two plots of land and began the building process of his studios roughly a year ago. If he continues touring with his company, he estimates that it will take him 10 to 15 years to have enough funding to complete his project, but said he is not daunted whatsoever.
"It's a lifetime project," he said. "It keeps us going."
Linkekula's newest production, which has been performed at various theatres across the United States, is called "more more more future." This show incorporates guitarist Flamme Kapaya's Congolese pop music music that "is typically only used to party to" with his dancers' passionate movement, according to Linyekula.
"Is it possible to play this music, not to forget our reality, but to embrace it?" Linyekula said.
Linyekula has received many honors for his choreography, most notably the 2007 Principal Award of the Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development. The award honored his innovative choreography and his bold decision to return to Congo. Linyekula said he plans to keep choreographing, touring and developing his studios over the next many years with his ultimate goal to "combine the pessimism of knowledge with the optimism of willpower."
