One of the starting points of Nacera Belaza‘s latest artistic research is The Falling Man, the iconic photograph by Richard Drew linked to the attack on the Twin Towers. Although immortalized in the moment before his death, the man in the photo shows a strange and unexpected calm, he does not resist, he doesn’t scream, he doesn’t fight. And it is precisely by paying attention to the quiet acceptance of the inevitable that L’Envol invites us to welcome the sensation that the fall gives to the body. Setting in motion a composite emotional richness, Belaza and the performers create a body texture crossed by the sounds and the sensitive qualities of the light that fulfills and modifies the perception of each one. More like magnetic fields, presences match in differences for interlaced currents. The delicate geometries of reciprocity and the hard ones of rejection are articulated through the repetition of the gesture, its slowness, the expansion of time.
Nacera Belaza is a self-taught choreographer, dancer and performer. An Algerian, raised in France, her approach to dance is laced with the need to express herself and the complexity of her dual cultural background. In 1989 she founded her own dance company. In 2015, her work earned her the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and over the years she has received the Syndicat de la Critique and SACD awards. She is an associated artist with the Théâtre National de Chaillot in Paris and with the MC93 in Bobigny. Belaza regularly tours Europe, Africa, Asia and North America, performing at festivals such as the Avignon Festival or the Lyon Dance Biennial in France, the Kunsten festival des arts in Brussels and De Singel in Antwerp, the Vidy Theatre in Lausanne, the Crossing the Line festival in New York, and the Push festival in Vancouver. Nacera Belaza also works regularly in Algeria, developing training, residency and touring programmes.
choreography, sound design and light design Nacera Belaza
performer Nacera Belaza, Dalila Belaza, Paulin Banc, Mohammed Ech Charquaouy
technical direction Christophe Renaud
production Compagnie Nacera Belaza
co-production Festival Montpellier Danse, MC93 – Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis, Festival d’Automne à Paris, Singel Campus International des Arts, Points communs nouvelle scène nationale de Cergy / Val d’Oise, Theater Freiburg. In the frame of Accueil studio: CCN – Ballet de Lorraine, CCN2 Grenoble, CNDC – Angers
with the support of Fonds Transfabrik – Franco-German fund for the performing arts, King’s Fountain, Villa Albertine
sustained by Institut Français Italia, Fondazione Nuovi Mecenati
ph Laurent Philippe
