Hamdi Dridi

Hamdi Dridi - Acte(s) et sueurs(Accueil Studio 2020)

ACT(S) AND SWEATS marks the final stage of a trilogy exploring the gestures of labor within dance, initiated with TU MEUR(S) DE TERRE (solo, 2014–2015) and further developed with I LISTEN (YOU) SEE (trio, 2018–2019).

In this latest work, Hamdi Dridi draws on social and cultural references rooted in his own Arab identity: Tunis, his family, and the influences of the Middle East and Egypt the music, rhythms, and colors that shaped his childhood and adolescence. He composes this new solo in dialogue with four European artist-workers, expanding his inquiry into gestures of labor and technical actions within the space of live performance, which he has been exploring and shaping since 2014. He brings together these four artists/technicians along with their tools, environments, and individual backgrounds.

With ACT(S) AND SWEATS, Hamdi Dridi seeks to reveal his sources and reference points, his mediums and instruments, along a path that is distinctly his own situated between urban dance, contemporary dance, and hip-hop thus mapping out a multi-disciplinary territory of representation. The work re-examines the performative space, both in its nature and its form, continuing his pursuit of an abstraction that generates emotion, creating a direct connection between the piece and its audience through this dynamic exchange.

Music once again plays a central role in structuring the choreographic score, while also shaping a scenographic material through visible sound equipment placed on stage. Light, as a creator of space, is likewise conceived as scenographic material, through the spatial arrangement of lighting devices within the performance area. It participates in the genesis of the stage writing, acting as a revealer of this process of unveiling a joyful exhaustion that opens the work to perception.