When listening to Maria sing or watching
her dance, you realize that music is as natural and as essential to
Maria as the water she drinks and the air she breathes...
Her sensibility and the intensity she releases in song and dance
reflect her cultural inheritance, given to her as a child, a joyous
mixture of Eastern and Western traditions.
From Rajasthan to the Mediterranean shores, Maria's route is profoundly
moving, evolving, as Maria herself continues to grow with each exciting
new event.
Maria Robin has been singing and dancing
since she was a child... Daughter of musician and composer Titi Robin,
she has grown up surrounded by rhythms and songs coming from gypsy,
oriental and Central Asia traditions.
At home Maria sings and dances easily,
accompanied by her father on the guitar and the
bouzouk and her sister on percussions. Music is a family business...
As a child she would watch her father's performances and admire the
gypsy dancer Gulabi Sapera, better known as Gulabo in India.
Maria appears transported by the force
and the intensity of kalbeliya dancing. She has found her guide...
Since childhood Maria Robin has travelled between France and Rajasthan, between gypsy and gadji* ways of life...At the same time as she was learning to dance the Kalbeliya with Gulabi and the gypsy women of the community, she was actively collecting traditional rajasthani melodies.
In 2003 she started the musical group
Dùnya, in Montpellier, playing traditional gypsy music
originating in places from Rajasthan to Andalusia. Maria's own first
compositions began amongst this group.
In 2005 Maria joined the show « Famille », with
Titi Robin and Gulabi Sapera. The show was on the road for two years
before heading the festival « Les Orientales » in
St-Florent le Vieil.
Since 2008, Maria sings and dances in
Titi Robin's show « Kali Sultana, l'ombre du ghazal
».
In 2010 Maria created with the Jeunesses Musicales de France«
Sur le route des gitans», a
musical tale for young audiences. This show was in tour during two
years and did more than one hundred representations in all the
France.
In 2012 Maria created her new musical tale "Le voyage de Mehmet" in duet with the iranian musician Shadi Fathi about the silk road. This show is currently touring France with the JMF*.
Maria Robin made several recordings
during these years; among them « Kali Sultana »,
« Ces vagues que l'amour soulève » and
« Alezane » by Titi Robin, the soundtrack to Manuel
Boursignac's film « La mentale » as well as
« La musique des Gitans » the last opus from
Gallimard Jeunesse.
Maria has already performed in the
auditorium of the Lyon Opera, at the Théâtre des
Bouffes du Nord, at the Institut du Monde Arabe, at the Cabaret sauvage
and at the Folies Bergères (Paris), at the Literary Festival
of Jaipur, at Kalashetra in Chennai and at the Blue Frog in Bombay
(India), the Gnawa Festival in Essaouira (Morocco), the Womad Festival
in Reading (UK),...
Alongside of her stage career, Maria has
continued to teach Rajasthani gypsy dancing in France and abroad.
Profoundly anchored in kalbeliya
culture, Maria's dancing also finds its inspiration in the sufi,
eastern and gypsy dances and thrives through improvisation.
Maria Robin is one of those rare
singer-dancers on today's artistic front.
Between her loyality to her nourishing roots and her desire to act as a
trailblazer for her artform, Maria has succeded in developing her own
identity as a singer andchoreographer...
gadji*: non-gypsy
JMF*: Jeunesses Musicales de France (Musical French Youth)