Le Cercle
+++ Performance cancelled +++
“Liberating the imagination is at the heart of my research, whatever form it takes.” — Nacera Belaza
Le Cercle invites us to a space between the detached rigour of Sufism, the circularity of break-dance battles, and the almost mathematical precision of a certain modernism. The movements of the dancers are transported by a force that is fluid, yet structured, as if borne from below by a deep and continuous breath. Bearing both the legacy of traditional forms and the abstraction of contemporary dance, the practice of Nacera Belaza, defies any attempt at classification and description. In Le Cercle she reinterprets the motif of a past choreography like a musician develops the theme of a symphony, by exposing buried variants. The choreography fills us with a sense of freedom, allowing the dancers to erase the individuality behind this movement in continuous variation. They stand like silhouettes at the edge of a circle of light, raising a political question about what it means to be visible.
born in Algeria, has been living in France since the age of five. After her studies in modern literature at the Université de Reims, she created her own dance company in 1989. She enters dance as a self-taught interpreter and develops a choreography that originates in an inner progress, a sensible awareness of the body, of space and of the emptiness inside herself. Each element of her pieces – light, space, time, body – respond to each other on stage and develop their own designs.
Nacera Belaza’s Company presents its pieces internationally with a regular presence in Europe, Africa, Asia and North America. In France, it is regularly invited by prestigious venues and festivals such as the Festival Montpellier Danse, the Rencontres Chorégraphiques Internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis, the Festival d’Avignon or the Biennale de la danse de Lyon, Festival de Marseille. Nacera Belaza’s path has continually maintained a coming and going between Algeria and France. Concurrently with her company’s activities in France, she has founded an artistic cooperative in Algeria. She offers training and outreach activities for audiences on the themes of contemporary art and of the danced gesture.
Credits
60 minutes, no intermission
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Nacera Belaza on Le Cercle
Artist Video
Interview by Anaïs Heluin with Nacera Belaza on Le Cercle
“Liberating the imagination is at the heart of my research”