With Au cœur (At the Heart), French-Algerian dancer and choreographer Dalila Belaza joins forces with the Aveyron folk dance group Lous Castelous to “explore the eruptive force of dance, whatever form it may take.”

It is 2019. The idea of a global pandemic still belongs to the realm of dystopian fiction. Contemporary dancer and choreographer Dalila Belaza has travelled to the Aveyron region to work with two glass artists. Through them, she meets the members of the folk dance group Lous Castelous, based in the village of Sénergues in the north of the department. The collaboration feels immediately and unmistakably right.

“I suggested creating a performance for them… without really knowing what I was going to write choreographically. I simply had the feeling that this encounter needed to happen, and that it should take place halfway between them and me between their dance and mine.”

This is not the first time Dalila Belaza has turned her attention to traditional dance. In the past, she explored vernacular dance practices from Algeria. This time, however, she wanted to go further, investigating what she calls “the place of permeability” between her own choreographic language and that of the Lous Castelous ensemble. Together, they worked in particular on the experience of time and its different rhythms.

“I sought to slow down, to an extreme degree, the momentum that carries these dances, so that each person’s own intimate gesture might surface and reveal another landscape: the one held between them and folklore.”

The project, entitled Au cœur (At the Heart), was first presented at the Musée Denys-Puech in Rodez. In 2020, it was selected for the Danse élargie competition, where Dalila Belaza reached the final of its sixth edition, organised by the Théâtre de la Ville. It was an exceptional edition, held during the global lockdown: the competition took place remotely, without any public performances.

“I long for a dance that has the power to heal and to honour life.”

That aspiration runs throughout Au cœur, and is echoed in the spirit of collaboration that led Dalila Belaza and Lous Castelous to create Rive at the Ballet national de Marseille. Conceived in dialogue with Au cœur, the work emerged from a week-long workshop with the company's dancers, held alongside the eleventh edition of the Festival Parallèle.