Casablanca artistic residency

The 4 Ex Nihilo dancers (Anne Le Batard, Jean Antoine Bigot, Corinne Pontana and Rolando Rocha) led a creation residency with the eight SHAPERS dancers from February 29th to March 8th at Espace Darja in Casablanca, Morocco.

A few weeks after the whole team gathered for the first time in Marseille, the squares and streets of Casablanca offered new atmospheres and spaces to observe, to react to, to dance in, and to create for.

Meryem Jazouli,  the choreographer and artistic Director of Espace Darja, chose to present the very first steps of the dance creation and the cooperation’s project at the core of the city center of Casablanca: The United Nations Square, right in front of the Medina (the old city). This space reflects the city itself and is crossed every day by thousands of people coming from and going everywhere…

“How do you make a gesture, your gesture, in a space like this?
How do you give it enough life to echo that architecture, this framework and in the public mind?

With generosity, sobriety and a lot of presence, the dancers learned to carry, transmit, question and even to react to the public around this choreographic object which they defended relentlessly.”

-Meryem Jazouli, Espace Darja


This public performance was made possible thanks to a partnership with the French Institute of Casablanca.

Espace Darja [Casablanca, Morocco] founded by choreographer Meryem Jazouli, is a place for artistic residencies and cultural experimentation, locally known as a platform for dialogue, encounters, and performances. Its aim is to develop contemporary dance in Morocco. www.espacedarja.com