Compagnie Nacera Belaza: La Nuée

The title of this dance piece by Nacera Belaza holds two meanings in French: a dark cloud and a dense flock of birds. She developed the performance following a research visit to the First Nation Dakota tribes in North America; she was struck by the communal festive rituals, where participants from different communities danced individually and collectively to an ascending rhythm. For La Nuée, ten dancers move in a pitch-dark space in a performance that unfolds like a painting being drawn on a black canvas; the successive moving tableaux become visible under very precise jets of light that appear and disappear in tandem with the rhythm of a distinctive and singular soundtrack.

This performance is La Nuée‘s Arab world premiere; Belaza has seven professional dancers from her own company plus three SPAA students for this special version of the piece, which is part of Sharjah Art Foundation’s Perform Sharjah programme.