Aleef - Taoufiq Izeddiou

Event: Aleef - Taoufiq Izeddiou
Date: 16-Dec-2011
Time: 21:30 - 22:15
Location: Korzo | The Hague

Aleef, Arabic, means I am turning and at the same time evokesaleph, the first letter of the alphabet. Taoufiq Izzediou thereby marks the moment of initiation and the uncertainty with which the ever new search for the self and the writing of one’s own history is always associated. “I am angry. My energy is crazy, clever, slow, controlled, tired, exhausted, restrained . . . Am I Moroccan? An African? From the Mediterranean area? An Arab? Or a citizen of the world?”, he describes the question of his own identity as an open wound. And he sketches out a solo that also reflects the struggle that is linked to a life in contemporary dance in Morocco; with the decision for an art form that in its inherent search for an “other” body confronts us with one’s own and official national and family history, between tradition and modernity. Together with the traditional Gwana musician Maâlem Adil Amimi and the sound designer Guy Raynaud, an atmospherically dense journey through memory develops in the attempt to be able to say ,I’ again.

Aleef has been performed in Beirut, Bucharest, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro, Brussels, Aix en Provence and elsewhere.

Taoufiq Izeddiou is regarded as one of the leading contemporary choreographers in Morocco and his works have been performed widely in Europe and the Arab world. He founded Compagnie Anania in 2003, together with two Moroccan dancers, Bouchra Ouizgen and Saïd Aït El Moumen. Taoufiq is also director of the ‘On Marche’ International choreographic festival in Marrakech and has initiated a wide variety of projects in the country, including professional training, choreographic workshops and dance education programs for children.

Performed by: Taoufiq Izeddiou, Adil Amimi.

http://onmarche5.over-blog.com

After talk with the artists moderated by Noortje Bijvoets (Le Grand Cru)