Flaming Creatures

To activate these songs and extract the infra-dances they contain, she infuses the melodic bodies of memorable figures from her childhood, such as the singers Oum Khaltoum and Fairouz, with her own body. By creating collages in her imagination, inspired by the delicate creatures Jack Smith portrays in his film Flaming Creatures, Latifa Laâbissi gives form to these voices and the dreams that emerge from them. 

• Blending genres and redefining formats, Latifa Laâbissi’s creations bring a multitude of off-stage elements onto the stage, channelling a diversity of figures and voices. The staging of these voices (and of the face as medium for minority status) interweaves with the danced sequences in works such as Self Portrait Camouflage (2006) and Loredreamsong (2010). Made in 2016 in collaboration with set designer Nadia Lauro, Pourvu qu’on ait l’ivresse evoked visions, landscapes, and images that blend excess, monstrosity, beauty, chance, comedy, and fear. In 2018 she created the performance Consul et Meshie with Antonia Baehr. She has previously performed at Kaaitheater in, among others, Adieu & Merci (2022), La Nuit tombe quand elle veut (2023) with Marcelo Evelin, and Cavaliers impurs (2024) with Antonia Baehr (with set design by Nadia Lauro). 

• Walid Ben Selim, humanist singer and versatile composer, lover of poetry (to which he dedicates his artistic career), was born in Casablanca, in the old medina. At the age of 6, he began attending the Casablanca Conservatory before making a name for himself in rap music, in which he became one of the founders of the "Nayda" movement. In 2010, Walid was recognized by the Gowri Art Institute in India with his first creative residency, where he rediscovered Arabic poetry. Back in France, he laid the foundation for the sound identity of N3rdistan, which would be selected as Inouï de Printemps de Bourges two years later and receive the Visa For Music 2015 award. After more than 300 concerts with N3rdistan (at Jazz sous les pommiers, Oslo World Festival, L'Boulevard, Journées Musicales de Carthage, Beau Regard, Les Déferlantes, Liverpool World Festival, Montreal Arab Festival, etc.), in 2018 Walid composed the music for the Moroccan feature film Une urgence ordinaire, by Mohcine Besri. He was asked to create the Oratorio Le lanceur de dés (The Dice Thrower) based on the work of Mahmoud Darwish, a piece mixing theatre and music that he wrote and directed for the opera’s musicians.