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The Arts Intel Report

A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler

L'Envol / Nacera Belaza

Nov 18–19, 2023
1 Pl. du Trocadéro et du 11 Novembre, 75116 Paris, France

The French-Algerian choreographer Nacera Belaza has been a regular presence on the French scene for two decades now. She favors entrancingly slow and repetitive movement, such as spinning or swaying as if in a ritual haze. The surprise comes with the sudden bouts of stillness—what she calls, with a typical French twist, a “void that fulfills all our expectations.” Belaza also organizes this recent quartet, L’Envol (Flight), around paradox. The principal motif is not her usual grounded movement but falling. She has had in mind the tragic, willful plummet of bodies from the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. After Paris, L’Envol tours Japan and Switzerland. It’s worth checking out if only to see how the choreographer finds flight in such unwavering descent. —Apollinaire Scherr