Sur le fil

Nacera Belaza

Show
Dancer on black background, arms backwards
Choreographer
Nacera Belaza
Duration
60 min

In 2023, Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels is supporting the Festival d’Automne à Paris to present Sur le fil by Nacera Belaza

Sur le fil is an attempt to escape from oneself, via an infinite acceptation and a going beyond of the frontiers of the body. The choreographer Nacera Belaza preceeds her emblematic piece with a reduction, for children from the Bobigny neighbourhood and Paris. From adult to child, professional to amateur, what do we see in this gesture?

While she was a child, Nacera Belaza felt an undying need to dance alone, in secret. Since then, the choreographer has never taken her eyes off "the shorelines of childhood", adjusting the conditions of each dazzling gesture with infinite exigency, and radical generosity. In returning to the piece she created in 2016, she continues, via the detour it provides her with, to trace and hollow this same line, and to search for "the means by which we can escape from ourselves". The resulting dance does not show itself, it is a state. A state which takes us to the edges of our being, anchored in the body and the imaginary, and to which the uninhibited gaze of childhood, close to the invisible, still has access. The choreographer shares this extreme receptivity with a handful of very special performers, in this instance Dalila Belaza and Aurélie Berland. In a dark space outlined by light, we might see children at the origins of dance, turning and spiraling until others, older than them, take their place and the emptiness persists.

Text : © Mélanie Jouen

Photo: © Claudia Pajewski

About the artist

Portrait of Nacera Belaza

Nacera Belaza

Nacera Belaza was born in Algeria and has lived in France since the age of five. After studying Modern Languages, she created her own company in 1989. It has held CERNI status (Compagnie et Ensemble à Rayonnement National et International) since 2017. Over twenty years, the self-taught choreographer has worked on dozens of shows. Her work, recognized and hailed by the Ministry of Culture, earned her the title of Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters in 2015. In 2008, Le Cri received the Syndicat de la Critique's best newcomer award. In 2017, the SACD honored her career, awarding her the Choreographer Prize.

Photo: © Romain Tissot