Creation 2008
El Firak
It was a trip to Palestine with the Accrorap Company that made him want to bear witness to the human absurdity generated by the separation wall between Israel and the West Bank. El Firak is not so much about this war as about all the tears linked to conflicts and their arbitrary political decisions.
El Firak. The separation. It also evokes waiting, distance. In a refined setting, these words, calligraphied by Hassan Massoudy and projected onto transparent veils, intimately reach the dancers, on whom the arbitrariness of a separation dictated by politics or society weighs. For they interpret their personal stories, in particular that of Brahim, who was confronted with the construction of the wall between Israel and the West Bank and was placed in a home as a child. Torn between two worlds, forced to choose when their hearts are on both sides, the two characters in El Firak come up against loneliness and the harshness of the struggle to reach the other despite their differences. This gap between them is also symbolized by their different ways of dancing: one is all power, the other all flexibility.
To make this border disappear, materialized by a line on the ground, they sublimate it. The fight is then carried beyond the wall, against all that resists the meeting of the beings. Then, the line of fracture breaks up, like divisions which multiply or, on the contrary, a wall which cracks, or even roots carrying life. An image both of insidious tears and of the vital force that, alone, can overcome them.
La danse exprime à fleur de peau la souffrance humaine et l’incompréhension face à une situation tragique. La virtuosité s’efface derrière l’interprétation sensible et engagée. Avec Brahim Bouchelaghem, la gestuelle émanant du hip hop est porteuse d’histoires…
Credits
Choreography Brahim Bouchelaghem
Interpretation Brahim Bouchelaghem, Hichem Serir Abdallah
Original music Manuel Wandji, Slam Karim Feddal
Lights Philippe Chambion
Calligraphies Hassan Massoudy
Costumes Aurélie Noble
Production Compagnie Zahrbat, Centre Chorégraphique National Roubaix Nord-Pas de Calais,
Initiatives d’Artistes en Danses Urbaines (Fondation de France – Parc de la Villette – Caisse des Dépôts – Acsé).
With the support of la région Nord-Pas de Calais et de l’Hippodrome, Scène Nationale de Douai
English 
French