For his 17e edition, the Festival TransAmériques (FTA) unveils, in its dance category, several proposals related to the history of Aboriginal peoples. The public will notably be able to discover the Sami choreographer Elle Sofe Sara, who amplifies the voices of her people with Vastádus eana, the opening show of the festival. The choreographer Radouan Mriziga will present Libyawhich is rooted in his Amazigh heritage.
“It does not speak directly of the Amazigh people, I did not want to fall into an anthropological vision, it is not my role. But the origin of this piece comes from me, from my childhood, from my ancestors”, explains Radouan Mriziga. Indeed, he was born and raised in Marrakech, Morocco, then studied dance there before settling, in 2008, in Brussels, where he attended the recognized PARTS school.
After a first solo, 55, he worked on trilogies. With Libya, he is interested in his own history. “I am Amazigh, my identity is Amazigh, and North African, and Arab too. My parents, my grandparents, are also Imazighen [pluriel de “Amazigh”]. When I go to Morocco, even today, I go to the countryside, to the Imazighen and our language is spoken there,” he says.
The starting point of the piece was the observation for the choreographer of the absence of Imazighen writings. “The Imazighen exist, still live and have always existed. They have crossed the ages and yet they have never written their history. It is always other civilizations, the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Arabs, etc., who have spoken of them. I wanted to talk about this story from a personal and therefore Amazigh perspective,” he continues.
The choreographer found it inspiring that such an ancient people managed to survive through the years, without having a “monumental” history. “Most North Africans are Imazighen, they know their own history, but not other people,” he says. Moreover, in the West, it is more often the term “Berber” which is used for the Imazighen. However, this is pejorative according to the choreographer.
Same observation on the side of Elle Sofe Sara, who believes that in Norway, where she lives, schools teach little about the Sami people. “What they [les écoles] learn is quite stereotyped and not at all nuanced, which is unfortunate because it keeps misinformation in society,” she laments.
For meme Sofe Sara, the joik, traditional Sami song, was the starting point for its creation Vastádus eana. “It’s music I’ve heard since I was a child and contemporary dance is a discipline I was trained in in London. I think it’s a big contrast, but it’s been very interesting and stimulating to combine the two,” she says. The Earth and climate change have also guided his research. “As human beings, we are all connected to the Earth we find ourselves on, and also to people,” she adds.
In terms of inspiration, Mr. Mriziga also drew on memories of dance and music from his childhood. “We listen to a lot of music, we watch a lot of dance, I was inspired by deep memories in me that come from North Africa,” he says.
For his gestures, he also worked a lot on the notion of coordination and polyrhythm. He also had discussions with the dancers, but also the new generation of Imazighen, thinkers and writers. Finally, rock paintings and engravings like that of Tassili also served as inspiration. “It’s prehistoric, but it shows local people dancing, hunting, etc. It’s very clear, very well done. I used it to create movement,” he recalls. Finally, in the company of the dancers, Mr. Mriziga also wrote poems, which then served as the basis for the development of the choreography.
dance to stay
For Radouan Mriziga, choreography is “a time that adapts to talk about history, but not only. Dance allows us to rethink time”. “I wanted to work on time, in general, but also in our bodies, in our memories…” says the man who has worked on space before.
With Libya, the artist hopes to bring an experience to the public. “I would like to invite them to experiment, to enter into a different way of thinking about history. In addition to the big story, there are also all the little stories,” he explains.
For Elle Sofe Sara, it is also a question of talking about memory when she talks about dance. “Dance is the memory of the body, it is also intuitive and does not use language to understand things rationally. What I find great with dance is that it is possible to understand without anyone explaining with words or facts. You understand because you feel, you pierce the presence, the mood, the transitions, the colors…” she thinks.
According to Radouan Mrizigan, dance does not preserve a collective memory, but rather makes it last. “Dancing, choreography, it is not learned at school, like classical history. Dance is about keeping things alive and letting yourself travel to humans,” he says.
When asked if he considers his work to be also political, he remains ambivalent. ” Yes and no. For me, my work is poetic in the first place. Moreover, I don’t want to appropriate the commitment of activists, who inspire me, like cinema or others, but that’s not what I do, he explains. My art is open to all these questions and if it leads to discussions, I think that’s fine, but that’s not really my goal. But I can be a voice for causes, yes. »
Nor does Elle Sofe Sara view her art as activism or political engagement. “If my main objective was to preserve traditional culture, I would work in Sami communities, with children and young people, and not on international tours,” she thinks.
However, she believes that dance, music and art “are excellent ways to express the intangible, immaterial elements of her culture”. “I don’t define myself as someone who works to preserve the Sami culture, even if my art can be considered as such. I see myself as someone who questions the traditional with great respect. »
However, the choreographer sees a boom in Sami art, cinema and music today. “It goes a long way to ‘teaching’ the majority of society about Sami life, thinking and culture. So it’s something very powerful, she concludes. But, of course, we also need structures in schools and in society in general so that the Sami culture is equal to the majority and included as a natural element in all sectors of society. »