Abou Lagraa: a dance for celestial spheres
Of Algerian origin, born in France in Annonay in 1970, Abou Lagraa has dance in his blood. After spending years in Frankfurt, Germany, with Rui Horta's company, his return to France sparks the need to create his own group: he calls it La Baraka, which in Arabic means positive energy.
A lover of electronic music as well as hip-hop, classical as well as contemporary music, Abou Lagraa is an omnivorous artist, open to the exchange of experiences: it is no coincidence that, after having created several works for both his company and others, he becomes an associate artist at the Théâtre des Gémeaux in Sceaux at the age of 39. His first work presented in Sceaux is D’Eux Sens, a duo of particular beauty danced together with his partner Nawal. It is said that his dance is full of emotions, energetic in rhythm, fluid and generous in style.
Un monde en soi
Music by John Cage, Bach, and Webern performed live by the Quatuor Debussy, Un monde en soi has been defined by its creator, Abou Lagraa, as a celestial ballet. This creation, which involves seven dancers, presents itself as a journey into the destiny of man, about birth and its evolution. It also involves a vision of the cosmos, as if the stage represented the universe: “a space – writes the playwright of the show, Gérald Garutti – defined by the vibration of sixteen strings, seven celestial spheres, moving bodies, and emotional bodies,” a path that moves from the construction of individual identity to the constitution of community: “to the metamorphoses of being in perpetual becoming responds the proliferation of relational modalities: the miracle of encounter, the surprises of otherness, the explosion of desire, the experience of solitude…” Abou Lagraa echoes this: “The choreography rests on a principle of organicity. The first part develops our most animal side, the instinct for survival, while the second part evokes our spiritual thrust, our inner construction, the effort to become human.” Seven bodies, seven stories, seven collective memories entrusted to dancers from different parts of the world: Morocco, Peru, Senegal, Cameroon, France.
WHO IS ABOU LAGRAA
He began dancing at the age of sixteen but had the opportunity to work with numerous choreographers at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse in Lyon. He starts dancing as a performer with the S.O.A.P. Dance Theater Frankfurt under Rui Horta. In 1998, he won the second prize for performance at the Concours International de Danse in Paris. Eleven years later, he received the Prix du Meilleur Danseur International at the International Movimentos Dance Prize. In 1997, Abou Lagraa founded the company La Baraka. In 2006, the Opéra de Paris commissioned him to create Le Souffle du temps. Since 2008, Abou Lagraa has been working with La Baraka at the Pont Culturel Méditerranéen, a project focused on the dissemination of dance, devised in collaboration with the Algerian Ministry of Culture.
