September 2022, in residency in the US, I attend the Mendota Pow Wow, not far from Minneapolis. For several hours, men and women from different Dakota indigenous communities, young, old and children, join or leave the circle freely, each bringing their own dance and their own story. So many singular lives, lineages and bodies, rhythms digging into the earth and history, in search of what could constitute a common meaning, a core, a chorus, an essential link.
Suddenly, before my very eyes, two fundamental elements of my work, which I had never dared to confront, the circle and rhythm, were responding naturally, so different did the imaginary worlds and states they generated seem to me. On the one hand, the force of the circle in space, tracing its own orbit around an unchanging centre and giving the impression of organising the disorder of disparate lives; on the other, the rhythm that digs into time, lifting up bodies to give them dazzling freedom…
Nacera Belaza
Artistic team
Choreography, sound and lighting design Nacera Belaza
Interpretation Paulin Banc, Aurélie Berland, Bastien Gache, Magdalena Hylak, Loreta Juodkaite, Aimée Lagrange, Camille Marchand, Pierre Morillon, Alexandre Nodari, Eva Studzinski
Stage management Christophe Renaud
Sound Marco Parenti
Creation
Festival d’Automne à Paris / MC93-Bobigny, 5-8 november 2024
*for ten performers
Kunstenfestivaldesarts / Charleroi Danse, avant-première 10-13 mai 2024
*for seven performers
Production
Association Jazz Ame – Compagnie Nacera Belaza
Coproduction
Coproduction : Festival d’Automne à Paris; MC93-Bobigny; Chaillot – Théâtre National de la Danse; Kunstenfestivaldesarts; Charleroi Danse; Maison de la danse, Lyon – Pôle Européen de Création; Villa Albertine – Ambassade de France aux États-Unis; Compagnie DCA / La Chaufferie
With the support of Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels.
With the support of La Danse en grande forme (le Cndc-Angers, le CCN-Malandain Ballet Biarritz, La Manufacture – CDCN Nouvelle-Aquitaine Bordeaux · La Rochelle, le CCN de Caen en Normandie, Boom’Structur, la Comédie de Clermont-Ferrand, le Centre chorégraphique national de Grenoble, la MC2 : Maison de la Culture de Grenoble, Le Phare-CCN du Havre Normandie, le CCN – Ballet national de Marseille, le CCN d’Orléans, Le Gymnase CDCN Roubaix Hauts-de-France, La Place de La Danse – CDCN Toulouse / Occitanie, La Briqueterie CDCN du Val-de-Marne) ; avec le soutien de l’ACCN et de l’A-CDCN
Studio hosting : Chaillot – Théâtre de la danse ; La Ménagerie de Verre / StudioLab
Support
The company is supported by the Direction Régionale des Affaires Culturelles d’Ile-de-France – Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication as a compagnie conventionnée.
© Photo Luca Ianelli
