Habib Ben Tanfous (BE)

Ici je lègue ce qui ne m’appartient pas

dance
family
heritage
performance
Translated title: Here is my inheritance that is not mine

September 13th (19:30) & 14th (16:00), 2024 (50 min)

Habib Ben Tanfous is both funny and sensitive when he talks about the cultural heritage his body carries. With personal anecdotes and family photos, he shares his ambivalent feelings about his heritage. What do we do with our family heritage and how do we pass it on?

SPECIAL OFFER: K7 discount price 40 kr. for everyone between 18-25 years. Read further down the page

PRACTICAL INFO:
The performance will have spoken parts in French and English on both days – with English subtitles.

He trembles, mumbles, straightens up, looks forwards and sometimes backwards. He sheds his heavy heritage while also trying to rejoice in his cultural heritage and accept his melancholy. With his movements, he reacts to echoes of the past while living in the present.

Habib Ben Tanfous reminds us that we are not alone, but surrounded by our memories of yesterday and by imagined tomorrows. With music, dance and words, he asks us: What parts of our heritage do we want to pass on? From son to father and from father to daughter. And how do we follow the cycle of life so that we also find time to breathe, sing and whirl?

With the solo ‘Ici je lègue ce qui ne m’appartient pas’ (Here is my inheritance that is not mine), Brussels choreographer Habib Ben Tanfous explores his own history. Habib inherited his name from his great-grandfather, who was also called Habib, and with this name also its history. Now he is exploring what place these stories should have in his life and whether they are truly his.

Habib Ben Tanfous draws on family photos, childhood memories and current experiences to tell his story using his body as a medium. His choreographic language is delicate and unique. The performance translates the inner contradictions of his dominant heritage into an insightful and deeply moving dance.

“Ici je lègue ce qui ne m’appartien pas” is both a testament-like act and a declaration of love. The ambition to affirm one’s right to be oneself in the world creates a powerful force.

In 2023, the performance was specially selected as one of the 20 best new European dance performances by the dance theatre network Aerowaves, of which Bora Bora is a part.

The performance was developed through an artist residency at Bora Bora Residency Centre.

40 DKK - special price for young people between 18 and 25 years

Experience the performance for only DKK 40.

At theatres around the country, you can buy tickets for only DKK 40 for performances between the 9th and 15th of September if you are between 18 and 25 years old. This offer is valid at Bora Bora for “Ici je lègue ce qui ne m’appartient pas”.
Get your free K7 card here (from Monday 19 August) and then buy your K7 ticket for the performance here on this page.

40 DKK - special price for young people between 18 and 25 years

About Habib Ben Tanfous

Brussels-based artist Habib Ben Tanfous is 31 years old. A dancer, choreographer and actor, his career began at a very early age with hip hop. At 15, he spent much of his time dancing and participating in competitions that took him as far as New York.

2019 marked a turning point. Habib Ben Tanfous, who has never stopped dancing, was selected by the talent programme ‘tremplin hip hop #3’ to create Orchestre vide, a piece for six performers that combines hip hop and karaoke. Presented in Mons, Brussels and Liège, the piece was successful due to its hybrid of genres and focus on the complexity of belonging. At the same time, he started the one-year course ‘Dance and Choreographic Practices’ at Charleroi Danse.

Between 2019 and 2022, he continued his work on identity, masculinity, colonial, racial and patriarchal domination through a series of collaborations: He performed in Ether/after by Armel Roussel, Laboratoire Poison by Adeline Rosenstein, Phèdre by Pauline D’Ollone and danced in Débandade by Olivia Grandville. At the same time, he played on the big screen with Harpo Guit and Maximilien Delmelle, the memorable trio in the film Fils de Plouc.

Enriched by these experiences, Habib Ben Tanfous worked on his project “Ici je lègue ce qui ne m’appartient pas”, a solo show that premiered in Brussels in February 2023. Using a wide range of songs and family photos, he studied the postures of his parents, cousins and ancestors. His documentary, choreographic and vocal research was given a new layer when Habib Ben Tanfous became a father in July 2021.

Together with the members of RAVIE, he applied to direct the Théâtre de la Vie in Saint-Josse. They were chosen to lead the theatre from January 2023, the first time a collective has led a theatre in French-speaking Belgium.

About Habib Ben Tanfous

Concept, choreography, performance:
Habib Ben Tanfous

Sound Design:
Theo Rota

Costume Design:
Amandine Laval

Set and lighting design:
Aurore Leduc

Artistic collaborator:
Elisa Firouzfar

Dramaturgy:
Adeline Rosenstein

Dramaturgy collaborators
Arnaud Timmermans
Thomas Schaupp

Choreographic vision:
Mercedes Dassy

Production & Distribution:
ama brussels – France Morin
assisteret af Clara Schmitt

A show by
The FINEK company supported by Ravie asbl

Delegated Production:
Atelier 210, ama brussels

Co-production:
Atelier 210
Charleroi danse
Les SUBS – lieu vivant d’expériences artistiques Lyon
Théâtre Varia
Ravie asbl

Support and artist residencies:
Charleroi danse
Kunstencentrum BUDA
le BAMP
Iles/Artist Project
Les SUBS – lieu vivant d’expériences artistiques Lyon
La Bellone-Maison du Spectacle
CSC Centro per la Scena Contemporanea
Bora Bora – in the framework of the Dance & Dramaturgy European Network (D&D EU)

With the support of
Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles – Service général de la Création artistique
Taxshelter.be
d’ING – the tax-shelter of the Belgian federal government,

Wallonie-Bruxelles International

Presented in the framework of Aerowaves, co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union.

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