RayahzoneConception and production Ali Thabet, Hèdi Thabet

We can see an inner courtyard, deteriorated by time. A place for passing through,with bare walls, destitute, without frills. A strange place for an encounter? In fact,quite the contrary. Where could be better for the paths of figures of death, of reasonand of madness, these three characters dreamt up by Ali and Hèdi Thabet, to crossthan in this empty yet inhabited space, wide-open to every possibility.

The encounter is also one of Sufi music. Interpreted live by five singers, it exists notjust as a simple accompaniment to which steps and gestures graft themselves, butas a fully-fledged actor of the performance. It is the chants and the voices, interactingwith the characters' body language that provide the performance with its innernecessity.

In Sufi music, it is the state of trance provoked by the repetition of chanted and psalm-toned words that opens the doors to the spiritual and the divine. Similarly, inRayahzone, it is the movement of the bodies and their individual energy that createsthe sensations.

Beyond any narrative, Rayahzone is a performance to be embraced frankly anddirectly, that resonates in the sensitivity of each individual.

Production Théâtre de Suresnes Jean Vilar

Coproduction Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg

The production has received aid in the form of a residency at the Théâtre hou-

Mad'Art/Carthage, and from the Institut français in Tunis. It was organized with

assistance from the Institut français, the Ministère des Affaires étrangères et

européennes and the Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication.

With the collaboration of Hisashi Itoh.

Sofyann Ben YoussefMusical Director

With Lionel AboutAli Thabet Hèdi Thabet

and

Mehdi AyachiMourad Ben BrahimHassen SaadaNidhal Yahyaoui

Madjid HakimiLights

Mathieu DupontSounds

Julia IrribarriaStaging design

Duration : 1h15

Team on tour

11 persons

- 3 dancers, 2 departing fromand returning to Brusselsand 1 departing from and returning to Toulouse

- 1 musical director departing from and returning to Brussels

- 4 musicians departing from and returning to Tunis

- 2 technicians1 light technician1 sound technician

- 1 tour administrator

Minimum technical conditions

- Proscenium opening : 10 m- Wall to wall opening : 14 m- Depth : 10 m- Height under grid : 6 m

possible adaptations

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Quotes from the press

« With the dancer Lionel About, the Thabets allow themselves a powerful musical elixir thatdemolishes the barriers of the rational. Beyond the perpetually-accepted, a certain conceptof courage and exploit in dance”

Rosita Boisseau, LE MONDE, 9 March 2012

« Rayahzone is a long invitation to meditation. This spiritual journey transports the spectatorinto the reliefs and colours of existence. (...). Soothed by the deep embrace of Sufi chants,the performance interweaves a multitude of universal motifs. Through a production that isstripped bare, through the simplicity of their language, Ali and Hèdi Thabet touch on theessential. They invite the whole of humanity to join their fraternity for an ethereal celebrationof life “

Marie-Valentine Chaudon, LA CROIX, 7 April 2012

« Highly-sensitive, fraternal symbiosis : Rayahzone, first joint performance by the Thabetbrothers elevates emotion.”

Philippe Noisette, LES INROCKUPTIBLES, 18-24 April 2012

« A free-dive exploration, accompanied by five musicians on stage, that fits these outstandingmen to a tee.”

Rosita Boisseau, TELERAMA, 7-13 March 2012

Ali Thabet, choreographer, dancer

Ali Ben Lofti Thabet has had a rich career with a variety of artistic experiences. To start with, hiscuriosity led him to study photography at the Brussels school of photography between 1994 and1997. He then turned his attention to circus arts and, in 2000, joined the national centre of circusarts in Châlons-en-Champagne. Since then, he has been a dancer, circus performer, actor andsinger, by turns or all at the same time, and has worked under the direction of some of the biggestnames, such as Joseph Nadj (dancer-circus performer in Il n'y a plus de firmament - 2004) andPina Bausch (acting as her assistant in 2001), not forgetting Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui (Tempus Fugit -2005, Sutra - 2009, TeZukA, 2011) and Philippe Découflé (dancer - actor - singer in Cyrk 13 - 2002).

Hèdi Thabet, choreographer, dancer

Hèdi Thabet started at the Brussels circus school at a very young age as a talented juggler andacrobat. Due to an illness, he was forced to give up juggling and acrobatics for good and rethinkhis place on the stage. In 1997, he put on a show at the Tunisian National Theatre (TNT) with a graduate year from the Brussels circus school. This was followed by a long period of reflectionduring which he was always preoccupied with matters of the stage, then he formed the duo Aliwith Mathurin Bolze with whom he has toured in France and throughout the world.

Tour Shedule 2014-2015

Sept. 12 Spain - Madrid - La Casa EncendidaSept. 13 Spain - Madrid - La Casa Encendida Sept. 14 Spain - Madrid - La Casa Encendida

Nov. 12 Belgium - Brugge - Cultuurcentrum

March 10 France - Haute-Goulaine - Le QuatrainMarch 12 France - Pontchâteau - Le Carré d’ArgentMarch 13 France - Pontchâteau - Le Carré d’ArgentMarch 27 Sweden - Stockholm - Dansens HusMarch 28 Sweden - Stockholm - Dansens Hus

TourConditions

Théâtre de Suresnes Jean VilarArtistic director Olivier Meyer

Contact Anne-Laure Fleischel+33 (0)1 41 44 99 20 / diffusion@theatre-suresnes.frwww.theatre-suresnes.fr (En tournée)