Within La Francia in Scena, artistic season of Institut français Italy, realized on the iniziative of the French Embassy in Italia, with the support of Institut français and Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication

In my dream, I was alone, in a very large space, facing one particular person: my father.
At that moment, I confessed.

My father died seven years ago, without prior notice, alone, in the morning. He left us all of a sudden. No time to bid him farewell… And yet, I still would have liked to tell him so many things, I would have liked to tell him about my life, far away from him, confessing secrets and dancing in front of him… Now he is gone, and will never return.

To my father, I wished to tell him all that I could have never been able to say to him, what I had never taken time to tell and what I had never dared tell him.
Fear, and our own culture, the way in which we used to live together had always hindered this need to say things, and when I felt the need to do it, I had a lack of courage and strength, maybe even conviction, because, in the end, what was the point of it all?

Today, I know that speaking to him, who is absent and far from me, as if I were confessing myself, telling him all my tenderness, revealing to him how burdensome and bitter the secret and the silence were, and revealing to him, how much dancing has allowed me to exorcize myself.

I will write my confessions with gestures, like words, and with movements, like sentences. I will tell him my life story. I will also express, through dancing, the hesitation of a sentence that begins, and that is resumed elsewhere, that does not know where to begin with, like the Variations that brush the theme though the pianist’s fingers and give a variety of approaches. Stronger, softer, different, piano, pianissimo.
Radhouane El Meddeb

Educated at the Institut supérieur d’art dramatique (ISAD) of Tunis, choreographer Radhouane El Meddeb created his first dance solo, performing himself, Pour en finir avec MOI in 2005, followed by a creation for Montpellier Danse in 2006, Huwa, ce lui. In 2008 he created Quelqu’un va danser…, commissioned by the festival Rencontres Chorégraphiques de Seine-Saint-Denis. That same year, invited by choreographer Salia Sanou, he conceived a culinary dance performance entitled Je danse et je vous en donne à bouffer. In 2010 he created his first group piece, Ce que nous sommes, premiering as well at the Centre National de la Danse. Au temps où les Arabes dansaient… (2014) premiered at Festival du CDC Toulouse. The year 2016 gave birth to 3 new creations: a solo, A mon père, une dernière danse et un premier baiser (To my father, one last dance and a first kiss), that premiered in July 2016 at the Festival Montpellier Danse, immediately followed by a full evening version of a 2015 piece with 10 urban dancers, called Heroes, and a creation for American dancers, O Solitude, My Sweetest Choice, commissioned by Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE). In July 2017, Radhouane had his first appearance at the Festival d’Avignon, with the creation of Face à la mer, pour que les larmes deviennent des éclats de rire (Facing the Sea, for Tears to Turn into Laughter), in which he invited 7 dancers, 1 actor and 2 musicians from Tunisia to reflect on the current state of the country.

concept and choreography: Radhouane El Meddeb
performed by Radhouane El Meddeb
artistic collaboration: Moustapha Ziane
artwork: Malek Gnaoui
scenography: Annie Tolleter
lighting design: Xavier Lazarini
sound design: Olivier Renouf
costume: Cidalia Da Costa
technical direction: Bruno Moinard
sound engineer: Christophe Zurfluh
plaster: Christophe Zurfluh
management, production: Bruno Viguier
bookings, production: Gerco de Vroeg
production: La Compagnie de SOI
co-production: Festival Montpellier Danse 2016, La Briqueterie Centre de Développement Chorégraphique du Val de Marne à Vitry- sur-Seine, Pôle Sud – Centre de Développement Chorégraphique de Strasbourg
with the support of CND, national art center for dance, artist residency