Photographs: Tafukt © Estelle Valente, 2020. Courtesy of São Luiz Teatro Municipal, Alkantara Festival 2020.
Tafukt
What do we retain from history and what are the mechanisms involved in determining what is kept or discarded? Various stories were rewritten during the 19th century while others fell into oblivion: two forms of negation that generate considerable disparities in power in our present system of producing and reproducing knowledge.
Tafukt is a dance solo created by Radouan Mriziga, a dancer and choreographer born in Marrakesh and based in Brussels. It is the first part of a trilogy focusing on the Imazighen's semantics and mythologies, a distinctive group of several nations mostly indigenous to the Maghreb and some northern parts of West Africa, preexisting the Arabization of North Africa.
Each part of this new trilogy by Radouan Mriziga is devised for one dancer and centres on female figures who are guardians of the transmission of Amazigh knowledge. The goddess Athena, linking the cultures and histories on either side of the Mediterranean basin, lies at the heart of Tafukt. Lake Tritonis, located in Libya, was Athena's birthplace before she was adopted by the Greeks on the other side of the Mediterranean. While history books essentially focus on the Greeks, Egyptians and Arabs, the Imazighen are primarily ignored and marginalised, despite the fundamental role in the region.
Can performance art become a tool of resistance to rethink the current model and imagine a more inclusive future?
Tafukt is a dance solo created by Radouan Mriziga, a dancer and choreographer born in Marrakesh and based in Brussels. It is the first part of a trilogy focusing on the Imazighen's semantics and mythologies, a distinctive group of several nations mostly indigenous to the Maghreb and some northern parts of West Africa, preexisting the Arabization of North Africa.
Each part of this new trilogy by Radouan Mriziga is devised for one dancer and centres on female figures who are guardians of the transmission of Amazigh knowledge. The goddess Athena, linking the cultures and histories on either side of the Mediterranean basin, lies at the heart of Tafukt. Lake Tritonis, located in Libya, was Athena's birthplace before she was adopted by the Greeks on the other side of the Mediterranean. While history books essentially focus on the Greeks, Egyptians and Arabs, the Imazighen are primarily ignored and marginalised, despite the fundamental role in the region.
Can performance art become a tool of resistance to rethink the current model and imagine a more inclusive future?
CREDITS
Concept & choreography
Radouan Mriziga
Scenography
Radouan Mriziga & Estelle Gautier
Dance & performance
Maïté Jeannolin
Artistic assistant
Sondos Belhassen
Costume design
Lila John
Poems and songs
Nisrine Mbarki, Dorothée Munyaneza, Hindi Zahra & Popytirz
Music
El Hit by Dj VAN, Pain by Krtas Nssa & Awache N-haha
Light design
Estelle Gautier
Dramaturgical support and text editing
Esther Severi
Research support
Hajar Ibnouthen & Esther Severi
Text references
Manifesto for Good Living/Buen Viver by Boaventura de Sousa Santos
Production
A7LA5
Distribution
Something Great
Co-production
Kaaitheater, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Moussem Nomadisch Kunstencentrum, PACT Zollverein, Alkantara, deSingel & Parallèle / L’Officina and Kanuti Gildi SAAL/ SAAL Biennaal festival within the frame of MORE THAN THIS – Creative Europe
With the support of
De Vlaamse Overheid
Thanks to
Kunstencentrum BUDA