|
Leila Haddad is a pioneer. Like Isadora Duncan who extols free dance or Argentina who introduces flamenco on stage, Leila Haddad wants to get Oriental dance out of family celebrations and "cabarets where it was losing its soul" to impose it on theatre stages. A struggle that starts with a change of terminology to which corresponds a change of mentality. It is no more about what used to be called with much ignorance and some contempt "belly dance", but on the contrary the recovery and the evolution of a thousand-year-old art, heir to the Egyptian or Mesopotamian sacred dances, to impose it while avoiding ethno-dance and lend it its credibility. The choreographer of Tunisian origin has developed a technique and works everywhere, training dancers and creating shows.
Zikrayat, choreography for nine female dancers and one male dancer, is a self-evident demonstration that Oriental dance is an art in its own right, much beyond the folklore in which it remained confined for so long. To Oum Kalsoum’s voice and a music close to trance, Haddad builds a long danced poem in homage to the song diva.
With Zikrayat, the name of a poem written for Oum Kalsoum, Haddad succeeds in creating a dreamlike atmosphere sometimes close to ecstasy, where the sparkling colours of the costumes, the intoxicating music and the serpentine movement answer each other mysteriously as in secret correspondences. It is a pleasure to the eyes and ears, a bath of vitality. The audience was not mistaken by giving her an ovation.
Sonia Schoonejans
Download all the articles in PDF printable format, in english and french |
