COMPAGNIE NACERA BELAZA

11 november
Teatro Vascello

Nacera Belaza’s début performance in this year’s Romaeuropa Festival is the ideal opportunity for the Rome public to observe two highly original Franco-Algerian choreographies, “Le Temps Scellé” and “Les Sentinelles”. These works are the result of a fascinating research project in which art and existence appear to become one and which have earned Belaza much acclaim in the international dance scenario.

Belaza's choreography proposes pure, abstract dance, typical of an artist alien to narrative and representation but instilled with a strong spiritual vein which pervades her work. She describes her work as «restoring the body’s sacred dimension», calling to mind a fundamental concepts of her Islamic roots. Her works often commence in total darkness and gradually evolve to reveal a grave, ritualistic dimension veiled in mystery but with an underlying philosophical message. Rebellion against the world, pleasure of sheer dissolution, fascination for a mystical dimension and trance are the driving forces behind “Le Temps Scellé”, a trio performance featuring Nacera and her sister Dalila Belaza as the faithful interpreter of her sister’s work. Instead, “Les Sentinelles”, somewhat inspired by Dino Buzzati's work “The Tartar Steppe”, explores the slow, implacable flow of time depicted with audacity and rigour rarely seen on stage.

These absorbing choreographies have a twofold rapport with their creator: born in Algeria and moving to France with her family at the age of 5, she was drawn to dance at an early age. However, restrictions stemming from her family’s cultural roots obliged her to cultivate this passion in semi-secrecy. It was only at the age of 23 that she was able to enroll in a regular dance course, very late indeed for a professional career but not too late for Nacera who attributed dance a central role in her life. Alien to spectacular performances and more oriented towards intimacy and subjective expression, Belaza founded her dance group in 1989 and from that date she started her dogged creative research. She describes this period as «dancing almost immobile for years to finally conquer the art of movement». With a dozen choreographies to her name among which “Périr pour de bon” (1995), “Point de fuite” (1997), “Le pur Hasard” (2005) and “Paris-Alger” (2007), she was finally acclaimed by the international public with “Le Cri” chosen as “a choreographic revelation” by French theatre, dance and music critics.