JE DANSE ET JE VOUS EN DONNE A BOUFFER / Creation 2008

Performed by Radhouane El Maddeb

"In my family I have always carefully observed my mother and my aunts preparing couscous. Our national dish, served at every occasion: marriages, circumcisions, mourning… One same dish for the different events which punctuate the same existence.

One constant: the love of preparation, and the sensuality of the produce in a form of sacredness, of solemnity in this moment of sharing; independent of the circumstances which have brought this meal together.

Through this performance “Je danse et vous en donne à bouffer”, I'm immersed once more in the things I love: dancing and cooking. In handling vegetables, semolina, meat and spices; while giving free rein to my body to get back into dance.

The evocative title lets you easily imagine what this performance might be. Seated before my couscous maker, I prepare a couscous and I dance with all the grandeur, generosity and poetry of these two arts. Between tomato concentrate, courgettes, carrots and cinnamon: a leap, a glance, a suspension or a rupture. Between the semolina and a chassé croisé, the dish simmers.

“It smells good, there's singing, dancing… even eating!!!”

Close to the idea of synaesthesia, this choreographic offering evokes all the senses. Seated here and there across the performance area, spectators find themselves seized by the perfumes drifting through the air. The deployment of my body follows the slow diffusion of the food's perfumes; the length of the performance determined by the cooking time. Odour - something rarely approached in live shows for the most part – makes for a delightful confusion of the senses for all guests."

Radhouane El Meddeb

Source : www.lacompagniedesoi.com

Credits

Performance culinaire et dansée de Radhouane El Meddeb
Réalisation et montage Stéphane Caroff

Updating : June 2012

Trained at the Higher Institute of Dramatic Art of Tunis, he is recognized as “The young hopeful of the Tunisian theatre” in 1996 by the Tunisian Section of the International Theatre Institute. He is, then, recruited as an actor within the training and research workshop of the National Theatre of Toulouse under the direction of Jacques Rosner.

In Tunisia, he works with Fadhel Jaibi, Taoufik Jebali and Mohamed Driss, highly influential artists in the Arab world. In France, he works with the directors Jacques Rosner, Lotfi Achour and Catherine Boskowitz. As a movie actor, he appeared in two films by Férid Boughdir, « Un Eté à la Goulette » (A Summer at La Goulette) and « Halfaouine, l’Enfant des Terrasses » (Halfaouine, The child of Terrace Roofs). Being quite fond of dancing, he is equally nurtured by classes directed by Lisa Nelson and Jean Laurent Sasportès in Europe. Because he felt the need for an artistic experience other than the theatre, he signed for his first creation in 2005, a solo dance entitled « Pour en finir avec MOI » (To finish with MY SELF), as an intimate introspection and a vital experience.

In 2008 and 2009, Radhouane El Meddeb participated to « Corps produit, corps productif » (Produced body, producing body), held by the International Choreography Festival of Seine-Saint-Denis and to Mon corps, mon lieu / My body, my place, supported by the Fondation Culture et Diversité. These workshops attempt to raise awareness of contemporary dancing and to transmit choreographic composition to a large audience, bringing together young people coming from Zones d’ Education Prioritaire (Areas of Priority Education), women members of neighborhood associations and also elderly people.

In 2010, he created his first group show, at the CND, "Ce que nous sommes" (What we are), with five dancers, which has been on tour in France for two years.

In July 2012, at the Montpellier Danse Festival, he created and danced the solo dance "Sous leurs pieds, le paradis" (Under their feets, the heaven), whose choreographic composition is shared with Thomas Lebrun. In 2012, he is invited by Matias Pilet and Alexandre Fournier to choreograph the nouveau cirque duo "Nos limites" (Our limits), created in 2013 at the CENTQUATRE-PARIS.

In 2014, he created a new group show "Au temps où les Arabes dansaient" (In the days when the Arabs were dancing), a performance for 4 dancers, within the International Festival CDC Toulouse and région Midi-Pyrénées and at the CENTQUATRE-PARIS.

In 2015, with the support of the National Monuments Centre and in the frame of the first edition of the event Monuments en Mouvements / Monuments in Movements, Radhouane El Meddeb presented the premiere of Heroes, prelude, performance for 10 urban dancers, at Pantheon in Paris, which hosted contemporary dance for the first time. In June 2015, he’s invited by the College of Dance Biennale in Venice, he choreographed « Nous sommes tous étrangers » (We are all Foreigners) at Campo San Trovaso, with Italian interpreters.

In 2016, Radhouane El Meddeb continues the work with interpreters of « Heroes prelude ». The premiere of this new creation called « Heroes » is presented at the Festival of Marseille -Dance and Arts Multiples 2016. He also creates the solo « A mon père, une dernière danse et un premier baiser » (To my father, one last dance and a first kiss) that is presented at Montpellier Danse 2016.

Source : Compagnie de Soi 's website

More information

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