TODAY IS A BEAUTIFUL DAY

Physical or psychological, real or symbolic, direct or 'televised', violence makes our bodies vibrate, from the pores of the skin to the depths of the soul. Sometimes bloodcurdling, other times igniting. What's the intensity needed to urge mankind to act and change the world? This is one of the questions asked in Today is a Beautiful Day, a performance on the edge of dance and performative installation art, where violence is rather evoked, not just bluntly shown.

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After having put his talents as a performer at the service of choreographers such as Olivier Dubois, Christian Rizzo, Radhouane El Meddeb and Alexandre Roccoli, Youness premiered this first solo in November 2019 at the Dancing on the Edge festival in The Netherlands (Utrecht, Rotterdam and Amsterdam).

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"A visual and physical transposition that carries away" Rosita Boisseau, Télérama

"An artist full of imagination who's able to make an entire audience dream." (...) 

"The choreographer, performer and musician breaks down the barriers between performative, visual and sound arts."

"This delicious and delicate form of artistic expression" (...)

"Enchanted by this stirring and singular piece, the audience leaves the room row by row and unfortunately cannot congratulate the artist since it is forbidden to stay in the hall of the theater." Sophie Lesort, Danser canal historique

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NOTE D'INTENTION

The body is a space of resonance. Surroundings resonate in bodies, and every body resonates with what it's surrounded by.

«Today is a Beautiful Day» searches to resonate in your bodies, long after having left the stage. In his solo Youness Aboulakoul investigates the impact of violence in our bodies and explores its movement in a never ending but ever beginning chain of actions of constant transformations. How violence stores itself in our bodies and keeps spiraling between its objects and vibrating in the very subject it subjects ? Memories are like invisible imprints, often keeping alive in embodied gestures and movement patterns. What is the matter that violence is made of and how can we grasp its ephemeral nature, precisely since it constantly changes its forms and ways of appearance?

In a dark room Aboulakoul experiments the possible contours of violence, articulating its shapes and forms. “Today is a Beautiful Day” is an eternal beginning, the movement of violence into our consciousness, a powerful and yet curiously fragile dispositive, a stage for its very own unraveling.

Production Cie Ayoun

Co-production ICI-Centre chorégraphique national de Montpellier - Occitanie (FR), Les Subsistances, Lyon (FR), Institut Français du Maroc (MA), Ballet du Nord - Centre chorégraphique national de Roubaix (FR), Viadanse - Centre chorégraphique national de Bourgogne Franche-Comté à Belfort (FR), and Dancing on the Edge, Amsterdam (NL)

Residencies ICI-Centre chorégraphique national de Montpellier - Occitanie (FR), Viadanse - Centre chorégraphique national de Bourgogne Franche-Comté à Belfort (FR), Charleroi Danse (BE) and L’Uzine Casablanca (MA)

With the support of DRAC Ile-de-France, Ministère de la culture et de la communication (FR) / Association Beaumarchais - SACD (Paris, FR)