Ha!

Taking inspiration from the poetry of Jalal ad-Din Rumi, the great Persian poet and Sufi mystic, Ha!, the newest creation of Bouchra Ouizguen, explores madness.

But which madness? Genius, or wise? Ordinary, or bloodthirsty? Isolating, or liberating? Adoring, or despairing? Delirious, or unfeeling? In Europe, the mad are always locked up, but such is not the case in Arab culture, where they have their place in society. The words to categorize them are as numerous as the “remedies” – singing, dancing and mystical rituals, trance or shamanism. Following, with Fatéma El Hanna, Kabboura Aït Ben Hmad and Naïma Sahmoud, the process that led to the success of “Madame Plaza”, Bouchra Ouizguen has left again on a journey through Morocco to delve into the relationship that everyone maintains, body and soul, with their obsessions. She attempts to deepen her work in song, body and language through the people that she meets, in the mountains, schools, bars or even in the desert, and learning about others; those who frighten us and those who repel us; those who are strangers to all and even themselves; those whose silence troubles us and those whose silence reveals to us; those alien people whose voices reveal cracked beings; those whose bodies bend to reveal a weak soul or a pinched heart; those men and women who, by the intensity of their presence, show us a life lived against the current.

Running time: 50 min.

Choreography:
BOUCHRA OUIZGUEN

Singers and Dancers:
BOUCHRA OUIZGUEN
KABBOURA AÏT BEN HMAD
EL HANNA FATÉMA
NAÏMA SAHMOUD

Light Design:
JEAN GABRIEL VALOT

Researcher:
OTMAN EL MERNISSI

Photography:
HERVÉ VÉRONÈSE

Production:
COMPAGNIE 0

Coproduction:
FESTIVAL MONTPELLIER DANSE 2012 / LES SPECTACLES VIVANTS – CENTRE POMPIOU / KUNSTEN FESTIVAL OF ARTS / FABBRICA EUROPA INSTITUT FRANÇAIS / MINISTER OF FOREIGN AND EUROPEAN AFFAIRS (PARIS)