Nacera Belaza

Nacera Belaza was born in Medea, Algeria, in 1969. Self-taught, she entered dancing out of vital necessity to express, to utter and to unravel the complexity of the double cultural belonging. It is during the childhood and teenage that, from the body constrained and confined by the choc of cultures, emerges spontaneously the language, drawing its raw material first of all in itself and then in all that literature will be able to offer. Nacera Belaza choreographes an internal path, space, the emptiness in oneself, the areas of shadow and light, the vertigo, the repetition. She transforms dance into a vertical, introspective diving. Her works explore movement in a peaceful, profound and continuous breath, confronting patience and rigor, stripping down to "the deafening noise of our existences" and rendering gesture its existential utility. Her work is recognized and appreciated by the ministry of culture, which has officially awarded her the title of Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. In 2017, the SACD also recognized her work with the Prix Chorégraphe.