The trilogy THE WORLD IN TRANCE emerged in response to the shared experience of the pandemic, death, confinement, and a contracted world focused on basic survival. The trilogy, exploring the creative dimension of trance and a fundamental quest for transcendence, unfolds through three creations. The first installment, HMADCHA, a piece for nine dancers, draws inspiration from the trance rituals of the confraternity bearing the same name. This group employs music, dance, poetry, and celebration to evoke trance individually, beyond religion and words, solely through the expression of the body.
HMADCHA addresses the void created by the threat of the invisible, initially embodied by an unknown virus that simultaneously invaded every body worldwide. This unfamiliar force immobilized souls and bodies, inducing a collective lethargy. As a dancer and choreographer, I sought to extinguish lethargy’s flame, tearing down the wall it erected, facing the invisible and the void.
This wall, at times radiant, can illuminate us to the point of blindness, detaching us from our contingent existence and imbuing each person with personal meaning—a father, a power, an invisible ruling society, the Unknown. Dance, with its universality, shapes this unknown into form, meaning, and even soul. It is this soul that HMADCHA aims to convey.
Inspired by the Sufi brotherhood’s spiritual celebrations founded in 17th-century Morocco, the piece explores the universe of Hmadchasen, combining wind instruments, percussion, music, poetry, rhythm, and trance in individual and group spiritual quests. The creation process involved synthesizing influences from Zar, Dervishes, Voodoo, and the exhaustion of dance into a crescendo of trance.
HMADCHA, beyond being a choreographic masterpiece, symbolizes the “rescue” of contemporary dance in Morocco amid a pandemic-induced economic halt. Involving multiple generations of professional dancers, the piece serves as a testament to the resilience of contemporary dance worldwide, transcending economic challenges and showcasing its endurance despite the pandemic’s impact.
After this performance, there will be an Aftertalk moderated by Myriam Sahraoui.
Award
- Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres , France 2019.
