This original work by Xenia Koghilaki focuses critically on the production of easily consumed, highly commercialized and widely accepted choreographies like the ones that emerge within mass culture and the industry of spectacle.

Could we talk about a phenomenon of “junk dance”? asks the choreographer and investigates the cultural debris, the many kinds of moving and dancing litter that is being constantly (re)produced in social media, following the emaciation of the body of dance.

Three performers selectively transfer movements from a popular video clip’s choreography on stage. They thus strip them of meaning and endow them with a new state of indeterminacy and ambiguity, akin to the experience of the virtual. What is the value and importance of movement as a decorative and descriptive element of an audiovisual product? Is it possible that the removal of a foundational meaning facilitates the presence of newfound interpretations?

Concept, Choreography: Xenia Vlachou-Koghilaki
Performers, Co-creators: Nefeli Kadinopoulou Asteriou, Venetsiana Kalabaliki, Efthimios Moschopoulos
Sound design: Lambros Pigounis
Light Design: Nisos Vasilopoulos
Promo Photos: Giorgos Liamis

Duration: 20′

“I composed Näss like a breath, simultaneously physical and mystical, which reminds us how important it is to be firmly rooted in the ground and in one’s land in order to feel its vibrations,” says Moroccan choreographer, dancer and teacher Fouad Boussouf.

Born from rhythm, the unceasing and obsessive sounds of immemorial time, Näss unfolds as the communion of seven dancers, a fusion of energies and bodies, a celebration of the power of the community with its inherent violence and weaknesses. It traces its sources of inspiration in the regional dances of Morocco taskiwine and reggada, the mysticism of the Gnawa tradition, and the Moroccan band Nass el Ghiwane, whose 1970s lyrics strangely mirror anti-establishment rap and hip-hop content of the time in the USA.

Poised on the cusp between the sacred and the profane, between frenetic modernity and ancestral rituals, Näss dares challenge contradictory physical states and affirm the fusion between popular and urban aspects of hip-hop. As Fouad Boussouf explains, it is a more spiritual type of hip-hop, impregnated with ancestral traditions and strongly anchored in its tribal African roots.

Choreography: Fouad Boussouf
Assistant Choreographer: Bruno Domingues Torres
Performers: Elias Ardoin (or Yanice Djae), Sami Blond, Mathieu Bord, Maxime Cozic (or Teddy Verardo), Loïc Elice, Justin Gouin, Nicolas Grosclaude
Lighting design: Fabrice Sarcy
Costumes and Scenography: Camille Vallat
Music: Roman Bastion
Photos: Charlotte Audureau
Video: Floriane Pinard
Tour Producer: Petya Hristova
Tour Manager: Mathieu Morelle

Production: Massala Dance Company
Coproduction: Théâtre Jean Vilar – Vitry-sur-Seine; Le Prisme – Élancourt; Institut du Monde Arabe – Tourcoing; Fontenay-en-Scènes – Fontenay-sous-bois; Théâtre des Bergeries – Noisy-le-Sec; La Briqueterie – CDC du Val-de-Marne; Le FLOW – Pôle Culture Ville de Lille; ADAMI; Institut Français de Marrakech
Residencies: La Briqueterie – CDC du Val-de-Marne; POC d’Alfortville; Centre National de la Danse; Le FLOW – Pôle Culture Ville de Lille; Studios Diptyk – St-Etienne; Cirque Shems’y – Salé, Morocco

Financial Support: Conseil départemental du Val-de-Marne; Région Ile-de-France; ARCADI

Duration: 55′