Nya, the first piece of the Contemporary Ballet of Algiers is the result of a work in binomial, that established with Nawal Aït Benalla-Lagraa, within the framework of the Mediterranean Cultural Bridge. It is indeed through an intense formation (classic, contemporary and yoga), that she knew how to give to these young dancers stemming from the street, a physical freedom and an intellectual opening to be available on my choreographic writing and on the process of creation himself, in all her complexity and her difficulties.

Thanks to this artistic opening, carrier of hope, and to their expressed enthusiasm, Nya, Arabic word expressing the fact of relying on the life, appeared to me here as an evident title of sense. Indeed, in Algeria, from our early childhood, our parents pass on to us this word which is directly connected to the divine and which is an integral part of the vocabulary of every day. If somebody carries in him this Nya, he is necessarily going to transform all the sufferings of the life to help him to exist, to bloom and thus to open to the world. It is very there that this Mediterranean Cultural Bridge also takes all its sense. Because he offers to this current youth, the means to imagine, to create and to give to the public a more just vision of the fact that she is.

This creation consists of two different parts, each was bathed by two representative musics of the French and Algerian collective memory: the Bolero of Maurice Ravel and the Singings of Houria Aïchi. And two choreographic universes show themselves there. For the first one, my choice is to highlight the peculiarity of every dancer in a writing hip-hop. For second, my desire is to speak about their culture and about their identity, made by tradition and by modernity. And so dances and musics allow the journey between both banks of this Mediterranean Bridge. The mesmerizing voices of Houria Aïchi and the Bolero of Ravel in the oriental melodies wrap the bodies of the dancers to take them until the trance. 

Source : Abou Lagraa

En savoir plus : https://www.aboulagraa.fr/ 

Born in Morocco of a Berber father and French mother, Nawal Aït Benalla Lagraa moved to France with her family when she was eight. She began ballet very young and completed her classical training, during which she tackled the repertoire’s great roles. Before long, Nawal broadened her dancing and became interested in contemporary and jazz styles. She took part in
productions with the Armstrong Jazz Ballet, where she had the opportunity to work with choreographers as contrasting as Wayne Barbaste and Géraldine Armstrong, Georges Momboye and Matt Mattox... 

An artist in the fullest sense, open to diverse forms of artistic expression, Nawal was soon approached by many other choreographers and directors.
As a result, she has performed in Jacques Weber’s Cyrano de Bergerac at the Théâtre du Châtelet, in Yannis Kokkos’ The Trojans and at Opéra Bastille with Blanca Li... She has also taken part in numerous audiovisual events. 

Passionately committed to exchanges and teaching, in 2005 she obtained her State Diploma as a dance teacher at the Centre National de la Danse, Pantin (Paris). 

She joined the La Baraka company in 2006 for Matri(k)is and became Abou Lagraa’s assistant for the Ballet Memphis (USA) commission in 2007. 

For the Lyon International Dance Biennial in 2008, Abou Lagraa devised the duet D Eux Sens for Nawal and himself. 

In 2009, she assisted Abou Lagraa for the Closing Ceremony of the Pan African Festival in Algiers. This was a revelation for her, and she decided to dedicate herself more fully to training young Algerian dancers, offering them professional status through an introduction to contemporary dance. 

In 2010, in addition to performing in Un monde en soi, a piece for seven dancers and the Debussy Quartet, she helped Abou Lagraa develop the Mediterranean Cultural Bridge project for which she took over the educational leadership. 

In her own words This intensive training is, in my opinion, the right way to convey to these young performers, committed in body and in soul, the appreciation for hard work and thought that you need to gain access to the state of dance, to freedom... 

She continues to teach while NYA is on tour, and shares her love of teaching in many workshops and masterclasses, particularly in France, the Netherlands, Spain, Poland, Russia, the USA... 

She assisted Abou Lagraa for his 2012 creation, Univers l Afrique, and helps the dancers of the Algiers Contemporary Ballet in their teaching mission to help a new generation of teacher/dancers bloom in Algeria. 

Source : La Baraka

En savoir plus : www.aboulagraa.fr