Bouziane Bouteldja
Bouziane Bouteldja was born on September 3, 1980 in Tarbes (South West, France). He is the youngest in a family of 9 children. He grew up on a council estate on the outskirts of Tarbes. After a baccalaureate in science, he abandoned his studies in geography to devote himself to DANS6T, a non-profit dance organisation, which he founded in 2001. Dans6T works in deprived neighbourhoods, in close partnership with the Hautes-Pyrénées prefecture, the City of Tarbes and Drac Occitane (the Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs). Under Bouziane’s management, in 2007 DANS6T formed its own dance company.
Bouziane then undertook to realize his own artistic visions by reflecting and questioning the news. Over the years, his research has become increasingly focused: through his body, he seeks to bring to the stage, his commitments and convictions.
Through his experience of break dance Bouziane went on to discover hip hop dance in 1998. He trained under the tutelage of choreographers Tayeb Benamara, Kader Attou, Karim Amghar and Olé Khamchanla.
These encounters soon led him to take an interest in stage performances and to open himself up to the world of contemporary dance, without losing sight of the hip-hop battle scene (he is a member of the Zulu Nation).
Over time, thanks to his receptiveness and curiosity, encounters with artists from diverse backgrounds have multiplied.
In 2009, he created and performed his first play PAS SI COMPLIQUÉ(Not That Complicated), a duet with a musician.
This was followed, in 2010, by KIF L’ÉQUILIBRE(Dig your Balance), a group performance aimed at young audiences on themes of food and physical activity through the medium of dance. This project, which aims at promoting physical activity, nutritional balance and tolerance among people, has been awarded several national prizes. KIF L’ÉQUILIBRE is a playful piece, combining dance and theatre with each performance followed by an exchange with students, in the presence of teachers and either a school nurse or a dietitian.
In 2011, through the Scène Nationale de Tarbesinitiative, he met the artist Coraline Lamaison with whom he would train as an interpreter and choreographer. This encounter was a decisive moment.
In 2012, he approached Lamaison to co-write the play ALTERITÉ(Otherness), which was awarded the jury’s prize in the contemporary dance competition, (Re)connaissances. The play, which questions difference, has been performed 35 times.
In 2014, to create the playRÉVERSIBLE(Reversible), he joined forces with artist manager Gilles Rondot, to produce a reflection on the emancipation of individuals within the Arab-Muslim world, but also within the context of the French debates on secularism and freedom of conscience. This play has been performed more than 40 times, in several festivals in France and abroad. To reach out to audiences on the margins of the cultural production, RÉVERSIBLE also exists in a shorter version.
In 2016, with FAUX SEMBLANTS(False Pretence), Bouziane Bouteldja poses the question: “can we be ourselves, or must we play roles to be accepted or heard?” This play premiered at Parvis, Scène Nationale de Tarbeson November 10, 2016 and went on to be performed in several cities in France and Morocco.
The writing of this piece was shaped by numerous journeys back and forth between France and Morocco, during a training project for dance interpreters.
In 2016, Bouziane Bouteldja was appointed Chevalier des Arts et lettres, by the French Minister of Culture.
In 2018, he conceived FACE À TERRE(Face To Earth), a choreographic and musical play performed withBrazilian dancer Ana Pi andBastien Picot,a singer from the island of Reunion. This play was shapedby his readings and encounters, as well as two fieldtrips to South America: one to Mexico to attend El Día deMuertos (Day of the Dead) and the second to Brazil to familiarize himself with Candomblé, an Afro-Brazilian religious tradition. In Brazil, Bouziane immersed himself in a culture where the intense joy of living seems to make more bearable the presence of death related to urban violence.
In 2018 DANSE ET PENSÉE(Dance And Thought) was conceived as a dance forum device designed in partnership with the academic Thomas Branthôme and grassroots cultural activist Elsa Poissonet. In 2019, this forum received the endorsementof the Inter-ministerial Committee for the Prevention of Delinquency and Radicalisation.
In 2019, DANS6T launched a participatory project in Tarbes involving twenty women from all walks of life, who had never previously set a foot on stage. CHEFFE, the play born out of this experience, was performed on April 15, 2019 at the Parvis-Scène Nationalein Tarbes.
In 2019, Bouziane Bouteldja continued his mentoring work with young Moroccan dancers. Five of them joined two French dancers for the creation of the play TELLES QUELLES / TELS QUELS(As She / He Are), which was performed at the Kalypso festival in Créteil in November 2019, followed by the Suresnes Cités danse 2020 festival before going on tour in Morocco.
Numerous educational projects have allowed him to remain connected to the grassroots and through dance, enable him to carry on, his reflections on emancipation and French republican values.
