São Paulo – The Moroccan choreographer Bouchra Ouizguen formed a contemporary dance group in her country, comprising singers and dancers from folk celebrations. Known as “aïtas,” they do not conform to the thin body type usually associated with the dancers; they perform at celebrations, weddings and nightclubs and are targeted by prejudice in Morocco. The group will be in São Paulo on October 29th and 30th to perform during the 8th Contemporary Dance Festival.
Their trip is sponsored by Fractal Produção Cultural, a culture production company that had been familiar with Bouchra’s work for a few years now. Alongside Taoufiq Izeddiou, the choreographer introduced contemporary dance in Morocco, according to the festival’s art director Adriana Grechi. The two Moroccans hold a contemporary dance festival in Morocco that Fractal Produção Cultural professionals participated in, and Izeddiou has shown her work in past editions of the event in São Paulo, according to Grechi.
The show Bouchra is bringing to the festival is titled Madame Plaza. It features the group of women singing traditional chants while performing contemporary dance moves. The event’s organizers describe the performance as “a fascinating conflation of voices and bodies that problematizes the formalistic approaches that separate contemporaneity from cultural tradition and folk practices.”
Bouchra had formal training in dance in France and Morocco. She was an Oriental dance soloist in Marrakech from 1995 to 2000, and a few years later she founded the Anania company with Izeddiou and Said Ait El Moumen. The Madame Plaza show lasts 55 minutes and the age rating is 10+. The performances will take place at 9pm on Thursday (29th) and Friday (30th) at the Sesc Santana Theater, with tickets going for BRL 20 (roughly USD 5).
The festival will be held from October 20th to November 15th also with artists from Bulgaria, Mexico, The Netherlands, France, Argentina and Brazilian cities. The theme is the affections and interaction, especially among the artists. “Nowadays, dance productions are done too quickly”, says Grechi. Groups with productions that took more time and with works with the same artists throughout the years were the ones chosen. “Those that demand time to do”, said the artistic director.
The goal is to offer a counterpoint to the hurried world and also to the quick and no-time-to-spare relationships of the contemporaneity. The result of these choices of guests for the festival is a mix of innovative and curious presentations. One of them is Blink, by artist Michelle Moura, from Curitiba, with all the presentation based on the movement of the eyes, eyelids, blinking. The purpose is to establish a paradox between control and surrender.
In addition to the artistic presentations, there will be workshops with some of the main choreographers invited. Some presentations take place at the Galeria Olido and others at Sesc Santana. The workshops at the Olido are scheduled from November 3rd to 6th.
Service:
Galeria Olido – Centro de Dança Umberto da Silva
Av. São João, 473 – Centro – São Paulo, SP – Sala Paissandu – 2nd floor / Phone: (+55 11) 3397 0171
Capacity: 136 people
Tickets must be picked up 1 hour before at the box office
Free admission
Sesc Santana – Theater
Av. Luiz Dumont Villares, 579 – Jd. São Paulo, São Paulo, SP / Phone: (+55 11) 2971 8700
Tickets: up to BRL 20 (roughly USD 5)
Capacity: 337 people – Access for people with disabilities – parking – air conditioning
Parking – BRL 7,00 for the duration of the performance (50% discount for Sesc members)
Dance Presentation Madame Plaza:
Bouchra Ouizguen (Morocco)
SESC Santana, October 29th and 30th, Thursday and Friday, 9 PM
Duration: 55 minutes
Age rating: 10 years old
Check out the festival’s full programme:
http://www.fcdsp.com.br/
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum and Sérgio Kakitani
