« Habitus », dance performance by Nidal Abdo
For Nidal Abdo “art is a way of subsistence. The core of a healing process.”
The “triple identity” of the dancer and choreographer Nidal Abdo – Palestinian of stateless father, born in Syria, and of Ukrainian mother – leads him to find interest in displaced, deterritorialized bodies, affected by exile. Once settled in France, he had to “bend to a new routine, adopt gestures that are not mine and fake a behavior that often harms me”. In 2018, he created the collective Nafass (“deep breath” in Arabic) supported by the agency of artists in exile, based in Paris. Habitus involves three performers who together circumscribe a series of gestures, routines, before gradually breaking away from them to explore new territories. Video projections shape the set as much as the bodies that are in it and evolve with a background of live music (voices and sound effects).
with and by Nidal Abdo (Palestine/Syria/Ukraine), Cynthia Dariane (Lebanon), Katell Ollier (France), musique Osloob (Lebanon/Palestine), scenography Khaled Alwarea (Syria), VFX Mohammad Hijazi (Syria), lights Philippe Gladieux (France), costume Rahmeh Zughaiar (Palestine), photography © Fadi Idrees
production the agency of artists in exile, coproduction Ramallah Contemporary Dance Festival
supported by fonds de dotation Porosus, la Caisse des Dépôts, Face Foudation (FUSED), La Pratique, Atelier de fabrique artistique, Vatan – région Centre-Val de Loire, Théâtre Romain Rolland of Villejuif, La Briqueterie- CDCN of the Val-de-Marne