Botero en Orient

Taoufiq Izeddiou, Anania-Danses

11 > 14.12.2019

Dance – Troika

Botero en orient is an ode to the body and its curves. Freed from the diktat of thin shapes imposed in the world of dance, this body presents itself unvarnished, surprising the spectator with its opulence. Dance is no longer held hostage by a specific idea of performance. Here it is essentially poetic, sensual, authentic.

The painter Botero’s work is implicit but the show also invokes Picasso with the Cubist set elements that complement the dancers. And the journey doesn’t end there: it opens the doors to the Orient with the voice of Moroccan singer Fatima Ezzahra Nadifi, and the sublime words of Lebanese painter and poet Etel Adnan (To Be in a Time of War). Troubling words, that cut both ways. We think they are about food addiction, whereas they are really talking about war and chaos.

Confronting and confounding, Botero reminds us of the passage of time, that time does its job on the bodies of not only dancers, but everyone. Why fight the inevitable as long as our creative energy persists? At 43 Taoufiq Izeddiou accepts this corporeal transformation. In fact, he asserts it and uses it as a source of inspiration. “Live, dance” he seems to whisper to us, since there is yet still time.