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By: Brahim Zarkani*
As part of a tour of French institutes in Morocco, Saïd Haddaji, a young Moroccan choreographer, presented his fourth creation with the complicity of five dancers from Morocco, Senegal, Spain and France. A show which caught the attention of the public thirsty for a creation which places its artistic approach in the depths of Morocco.
“No time for time» is the intriguing title of the latest creation by young choreographer Saïd Haddaji. François Mitterrand said “Leave time to time”, but the time of creation is limited to a period of time. Artistic creation is doomed to the ephemeral. In other words, the timing of a performance in front of the public cannot guarantee that the show will be the same.
Time is very present in this choreographic piece carried by five women. Saïd Haddaji, the watchman of the gestures, chose this time to go to meet everyday life and these forgotten women. Deep in the Chtouka Aït Baha region, he took up his pilgrim’s staff to engage in a practice that is essential for him: the collection of gestures and postures without falling into voyeurism. He put the choreographer’s eye into action mode, which stores these movements which will subsequently serve as material to model and exploit in the choreographic writing of his show.
The question of time, mentioned in the preamble, is vital because the choreographer is concerned with establishing a temporality appropriate to all the daily activities that women must carry out throughout the day. The choreographer was led to resort to the development of several acts in the form of scenes giving rise to a succession of scenes.
Certainly, there is a common thread that connects these scenes, it is the action which establishes itself as a synonym for non-respite. However, relaxation is essential to regain energy and continue this permanent trance. Indeed, from the first moment, you have to lift a burden that resembles these shapes magnificently woven by the women of the mountains. It is the product par excellence of collecting dried wood that women must carry on their backs. Thus, this image of these women bent under the weight of the load reminds us of the stone of Sisyphus in Greek mythology. Because you have to go back every day to perform the same task. This walk – usually so slowly undertaken by the women of the mountains – is transformed on stage into a wavering movement inhabited by the desire to regain balance. The bodies are at the mercy of this foreign body which is so heavy to carry. This opening scene, accompanied by music announcing the color of what happens next, kicks off a rhythm where rest is almost absent. The shortness of breath is palpable because we hear this breathing of a body of five, which never stops squirming and manifests the desire to cross space and time.
No waiver is on the horizon. All the tasks unfold like these five screens projected onto the stage while arousing our curiosity. This process admirably created by the scenographer Aït Hammou Mohamed Amine to redouble the intensity and invite the spectator to leave the stage and participate through their gaze in this weaving which marks a moment where the women are delivered to their imagination. A kind of journey beyond the frame.
The music of Abdellah M. Hassak, a sound artist, DJ/music producer and artistic director, is not only part of the decor, it is not embedded as an accompaniment element: it is inscribed in the veins of these bodies in trance. Because this music is the result of research into Moroccan musical heritage. The latter is characterized by its musical diversity so rich in the south of Morocco. And it’s a way of revisiting these rhythms while giving it an emotional charge that dialogues with what’s happening on stage.
Saïd Haddaji, through this creation, gives us an atypical look at choreographic writing in Morocco. This show deserves to be presented elsewhere. And it’s time…
*Art Criticism
Said El Haddaji, bio express
Said El Haddaji is a Moroccan artist, very interested in everyday gestures, he will continue his artistic research in constant connection with what is happening within Moroccan society. His first contact with dance took place in 2005. Firstly, with hip-hop dance, before becoming interested in contemporary dance.
In 2018, he founded Cie Hna-ya, based in Morocco, and created his first solo “Obscurité”, presented at several international festivals in Morocco and abroad. The company’s second piece, entitled “Dans le vent”, is a duet produced between Morocco and France in collaboration with Manon de Matauco.
At the heart of its activity, the Company has developed transmission times which take place in Morocco, France, the Netherlands and Burkina Faso. The third choreographic creation “Sorakhe” (quartet) is the result of a series of residencies in partnership with the Goethe Institut (Rabat, Cairo, Tunis), the French Institute of Morocco, the CND of Lyon and the CCN of Roubaix . Sorakhe was presented at the African Dance Biennale (Marrakech) in November 2021 and continues on an international tour. Said was invited to the Shubbak professional program (UK) as well as to the 2021 Avignon Festival Seminars.
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