Born in Algeria to an Arab father and French mother, Heddy Maalem immigrated with his family to France as a young boy in order to escape the Algerian revolution. There he trained as a boxer and in the Japanese martial art of Aikido before forming his company in 1990, based in Toulouse. A pivotal visit to Nigeria allowed him to witness the urban boom and devastation in Lagos, and this experience led him to create his Rite of Spring. Although Maalem recognizes that his identity as a white man working with black dancers is potentially problematic, he has said that he wants to “skew the Western view of the black body.” And in this piece, he worked with fourteen dancers from both traditional and contemporary backgrounds, hailing from Mali, Bénin, Senegal, Nigeria, and Guadeloupe.
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