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/ 

Abou Lagraa began dancing in Annonay, before entering the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Lyon. He began his career as a dancer-performer at the S.O.A.P. Dance Theater Frankfurt, working with Rui Horta, before becoming his assistant at the Gulbenkian Ballet in Lisbon.

In 1997, he founded the Compagnie La Baraka, with whom he was successively associate artist at Bonlieu, Scène Nationale d'Annecy (2004-2008) then at Les Gémeaux, Scène Nationale de Sceaux (2009-2013) and finally at the Maison de la Danse in Lyon (2015). The company's reputation quickly spread beyond France's borders, and it began touring all over Europe, as well as the United States, Algeria, Tunisia, Russia and Asia...

In 2010, with Nawal Aït Benalla, he created the first Ballet Contemporain d'Alger with ‘Nya’, a piece whose success led to several national and international tours. This return to his roots inspired his 2013 creation ‘El Djoudour’ (The Roots), the fruit of a fruitful partnership between his own French company and the Ballet Contemporain d'Alger. This creation opened the ‘Marseille-Provence 2013, European Capital of Culture’ event.

In February 2018, La Baraka moved to La Chapelle Sainte-Marie in Annonay. Abou Lagraa and Nawal Aït Benalla decided to co-direct La Baraka and La Chapelle together. This desacralised setting, a jewel of Baroque art, has been transformed into a choreographic studio and houses the company's administrative offices. La Chapelle became a creative residency for French and international dance companies. Like a small ‘Villa Medici’ for dance in the Ardèche.

Source : Cie La Baraka

More information : https://www.compagnielabaraka.com/