International Festival of Contemporary Theatre

Programme

Sculpting in Time

Compagnie Nacera Belaza

8, 9 November 20.00, Ģertrūdes ielas teātris | 10 and 7 Eur

French-Algerian choreographer Nacera Belaza has been creating works for her critically acclaimed company since 1989, developing a singular form of meditative minimalism which creates a wealth of striking images. Sculpting in Time immerses us in Belaza’s evocative world: the choreography has a mesmerising quality which commands our attention with its disciplined simplicity and focused intensity, at times erupting into frenzied bursts of energy. Light and darkness, time and space, mysticism and spirituality, are all woven together with an acute sense of the now.

“An abstract and minimal dance, but sensual and extremely captivating… A poetry of nothingness in order to better tell the absolute.” Le Figaro

Conversation with Nacera Belaza on slow-words.com.

Double bill offers 55 by Radouan Mriziga and Sculpting in Time by Cie Nacera Belaza on the same night for 15 Eur (reduced price – 10 Eur). Both venues are close by and there is enough time to walk from one venue to another between the performances. The duration of the whole evening is 2h 15min.

About artist

Born in Algeria, Nacera Belaza moved to France at the age of five where she studied French literature, before focusing on dance and establishing her own company in 1989. Belaza’s works have been presented internationally. She received the Prix de la Revelation Choregraphique by the French Critics Syndicate in 2008 and the Award La Danse in Quebec in 2009. In 2015 she was named a Chevalier de l’ordre des arts et des lettres by the Ministry of Culture in France. Nacera Belaza’s choreographic work is characterised by repeated gestures and slow stretching of time, unusual beauty and fragility filled with extraordinary power and sense of liberty.

Credits

Choreography: Nacera Belaza
With: Dalila Belaza, Nacera Belaza
Sound and light design: Nacera Belaza
Lightning: Christophe Renaud
Co-produced by: SACD / Festival d’Avignon, Biennale de la danse de Lyon, Le Forum scène conventionnée de Blanc-Mesnil, ARCADI, Centre chorégraphique national de Nantes (accueil studio), Espace 1789 de Saint-Ouen, les Halles de Schaerbeek.