Le sacre de Lila (2022), its U.S. premiere on September 29 at PS21 in Chatham, NY, is a contemporary dance based on the traditional Lila healing ritual of the Maghreb, an area that spans several North African countries. Moroccan-French-Quebecois choreographer, Ismaël Mouaraki explores trance through song, dance and music. His company Destins Croisés or Crossed Destinies, received the best choreography award at the Prix de la Danse de Montreal for Le sacre de Lila. The dance moves to New York Live Arts in N.Y.C. on November 8 and 9 as part of the Alliance Francais’ Crossing the Line Festival.
Lila, meaning ‘night’ in Arabic, is part of a ceremonial music form called Gnawa. Intended to cure physical and spiritual sickness, a Lila takes place in a person’s home among family and friends and lasts all night. Says Mouaraki, “Once the sun sets, the dancers connect with their ancestors and with spiritual beliefs.” The rousing music encourages the participant to reach ecstasy through movement. Le sacre de Lila is based on Mouaraki’s Lila experiences.
Six men dancers saunter onto PS21’s open-air stage and perch on colorful cushions that form a circle. One performer traces a large spiral with chalk in the center of the stage floor as another picks up his ‘cushion’ and from it pours bright blue pebbles on the lines of the spiral. More dancers add the blue pebble shapes to the spiral until the spiral is covered and glowing blue. As the daylight fades, recorded sounds of wind mix with the natural sounds from the surrounding hills. Nature enfolds the artistry on the stage.
A dancer falls on his side and slides across the stage displacing the blue pebbles and disrupting the spiral. The other dancers scatter the pebbles in a blend of street, contemporary and ritual dance. Two bearded men tenderly clasp forearms. One, with hair streaming down his back, sways his hips seductively and lifts his arms with palms skyward. Others watch from the perimeter as the dancer collapses his elbows and sharply exhales a ‘Sha’ sound. This sound builds as all join.
The 60 minutes of circling, falling and jumping reaches waves of crescendos, followed by quiet settling. Deep lunges, rippling spines and hips characterize the movement accompanied by the recorded sounds of strummed instruments. To vigorous percussion, the group moves ecstatically in unison until the music finally quiets. Reaching for each other’s hands, they slowly sit at the edge of the circle to consider their experience.
Mouaraki explains that Moroccan men show filial affection for one another; the affection is not sexual. It is common to see men walking down the street holding each other’s pinky fingers or with their arms wrapped around one another. Vulnerability, encouraged among men in Mouaraki’s culture, is a sign of weakness in Western society.
In happy conjunction with Le sacre de Lila, a series of Ecstatic Dance classes were offered this season at PS21. Led by master sound artists DJ Jobo-Boro and Keena Maya, founders of “being-sound”, the last class of the season was held in PS21’s Dance Barn on October 18. Attracting 14 adult movers who arrived and departed at will, an exuberant 26-month-old child and a golden retriever, all ages, genders and ethnicities are welcome.
Moving in any way the dancer wishes without judgment, noted as “Freeform Conscious Dance,” the two genial and expert “spinners” played for two hours. Unlike a DJ set there is no talking, no substances, no shoes, no phones, and a request to show respect for one another. “There is an emphasis on sobriety,” explains DJ Jobo-Boro. Guided by the DJ, “the music selection”, says Jobo, “and the way it is played often bring the participants to moments of intense collective energy release, which can be called ecstatic.” The DJs’ playlist included selections that played for up to 10 minutes, but most were merely two or three minutes, encouraging the mover to stay alert to new sounds. In a similar structure to Le sacre de Lila the sound peaks and subsides then peaks before the final meditation. A wind-down period and a closing circle solidifies the experience.
Ecstatic Dance, a worldwide movement found in nearly every city, is allied with several free-form dance groups such as 5Rhythms, Biodanza, Morning Gloryville, Barefoot Boogie and Daybreaker. The popularity of freestyle dance, akin to the Lila ceremony, explains DJ Jobo-Boro may be attributed to a desire for a deeper connection with our bodies, knowledge of the Sacred, shared emotion with a larger community, and a desire for spontaneity “where we can drop out of our heads into the body and into presence through music.”
Catherine Tharin danced with the Erick Hawkins Dance Company. She teaches dance studies and technique, is an independent dance and performance curator, choreographs, writes about dance for Side of Culture, and is a reviewer and editor for The Dance Enthusiast. She also writes for The Boston Globe. Catherine lives in Pine Plains, New York and New York City.
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