Akal

Can choreography bridge the gaps in our historical memory? "Akal" (Tamazight for “earth”) is the third piece of a trilogy by Radouan Mriziga, in which he draws inspiration from the epistemologies of the Imazighen, the indigenous people of North Africa. Their oral culture has been disregarded for centuries, but Mriziga sees it as the source of a new future. Each piece of the trilogy is focused on mythological female figures, who embody and protect the Amazigh culture.  In "Akal", the muse is the ancient Egyptian goddess Neith, associated with birth and death, who guides the souls of the dead to the underworld. In this solo, Mriziga and Rwandan choreographer, dancer and singer Dorothée Munyaneza collaborate to celebrate Neith’s strength. Rituals, traditional dances, architecture, storytelling, song, poetry, rap: all come together in Akal in an intimate choreographic space. Here, a new view of a suppressed past allows us to envision a more inclusive future. An excerpt from the script of "Akal" will also be part of our Sahara anthology. Biography Radouan Mriziga is an artist from Marrakech based in Brussels. Fairly quickly, he began to focus on his work as a maker, creating his first solo 55 (2014), followed by 3600 (2016), 7 (2017) and 0. (2019), performances in which he addresses dance through the prism of architecture and that have been touring across the world. Since 2019, Radouan Mriziga is developing a new trilogy of works inspired by the culture and history of the Amazigh, the original inhabitants of North Africa. From 2017 until 2021, he is an artist-in-residence at the Kaaitheater in Brussels, and from 2021 until 2025 at deSingel in Antwerp. Website