Ayta

Ayta is a call to protest, a choreographic manifestation carried by six performers engaged in a profoundly collective movement.

Youness Aboulakoul drew inspiration from the ayta, a musical practice integrated into various celebrations, and from its history, to imagine their journey, made up of advances, folds and uprisings. Ayta (“cry” in Moroccan dialect Arabic) is a song of outer splendor and inner pain, a catalyst of emotions and social aspirations, exalting freedom and the quest for justice. The choreographer compares it with the “fold”, theorized by Gilles Deleuze, here represented as the constraint exerted on the individual’s body, which must therefore resist it in order to maintain its verticality. Working on the tension between the desire for elevation and the inevitable fold, and exploring this space-in-between, Youness Aboulakoul and his collaborators propose a dance that opposes any attempt at folding, and places Ayta in the continuity of a choreographic approach centered on violence. Attached to the question of the female body and the violence to which it bears witness, the piece closes a trilogy begun in 2019 with Today Is a Beautiful Day, followed by Mille Miles in 2022.

Credits
Conception, choreography: Youness Aboulakoul
With : Nefeli Asteriou, Marie-Laure Caradec, Sophie Lèbre, Cassandre Muñoz, Anna Vanneau, Léonore Zurflüh Artistic assistant: Pep Guarrigues
Sound creation: Youness Aboulakoul
Sound manager: Atbane ZouheirLighting: Jean François Desboeoufs & Jeronimo Roe Costume: Audrey Gendre

Production
Producer: Cie Ayoun
Coproduction : Klap Maison pour la danse à Marseille in co-production with Théâtre Joliette, scène conventionnée art et création-écritures contemporaines ; Pôle Sud-CDCN, Strasbourg, Le Gymnase-CDCN Roubaix ; Les Hivernales-CDCN Avignon ; CCN2, Grenoble ; CCN-Ballet de Lorraine ; CCN de Nantes ; La Place de la Danse-CDCN, Toulouse ; Espaces Pluriels, Pau ; Maison de la Danse de Lyon ; Pôle Arts de la scène – Friche La Belle de Mai ; Caisse des dépôts et consignation ; DRAC, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, ADAMI
Production and distribution : Kumquat/ performing arts
Administration: Saul Dovin
Booking: Jean-Baptiste Bosson