Fouad Boussouf brings together contemporary hip hop expressions, the new circus and traditional North African dance. Difficult to pin a label on, at Rovereto the French-Moroccan choreographer will showcase the most recent part of his trilogy on the Arab World, in which once again he merges artistic styles, genres and disciplines. Indeed, music, dance, song and poetry intertwine in Oüm, an imaginary encounter between the famous contemporary Egyptian singer Oum Kalthoum and the 11th century Persian poet Omar Khayyam, to whom the choreographer pays an emotional tribute.
Oum Kalthoum's songs are the soundtrack of his childhood, her voice, her lyrics – from the most personal to the most violent – have accompanied Boussouf for as long as he can remember. Later on he discovered the Rubaiyat, the classical poem celebrating trance and the ecstasy of living in the present, by the Persian poet Omar Khayyam, whose verses the diva also sang.
On stage, six performers accompanied by live music interpret Boussouf's melting pot approach, presenting his and our landscapes, his and our origins. And in an atmosphere of contemporary confusion they invite us to stay in the here and now.
Overlapping ground dances and vertical lines of great finesse, chains of bodies and weight games, explosions of radical and almost violent movements. The dancers and musicians invite us to an enlightened trance. Transported by the forcefulness of a contemporary ritual, Oüm could become a cult piece.
