For this production, Bouba Landrille Tchouda, artistic director of Compagnie Malka, requested the involvement of choreographers Anne Nguyen and Farid Berki, remarkable figures on the hip-hop scene. In collaboration with them, Bouba created a new dialogue and artistic adventure, whereby together they devised a rather unique plan: each of the choreographers would choose two performers, then create a choreographic act with the cast of six dancers around the common theme of otherness.

In this piece, the choreographers were encouraged to share their quest for meaning and a sense of self in relation to the other or to the collective, with the dancers and audiences. Here, one's 'own' dance can fuel a vision, transcribe and transmit unique perceptions generated through encounters with these 'others'; exceptional humans, immense territories to survey through intimate journeys. It is an ode to the discovery of what is imperceptible and unique; of the other.

Act 1: 'Juste à l'entour' – Bouba Landrille Tchouda 
How can I share the world of this 'other' who I do not know, how do I move forward with him? Maybe by somehow trying to 'tame' this other who isn't me, this other who I also am, a part of me, just as erratic and unassimilated, on a quest for a personal identity. By attesting to some of these journeys in search of the other, believing we find them, attempting to circumscribe them in order to finally be able to dance with, and around them? Flows of force, movements of attraction, interactions between others and myself, myself and others, all of us interconnected?

Act 2: 'Ton pied, mon pied, enfin presque...' – Farid Berki 
One simple question: how can we find our place in someone else's space? By confronting each other, fleeing each other, coming together and testing each other to the point of exhaustion in order to better find out what is so essential about the other, in order to better discover the other and finding their humanity. ‘ton pied, mon pied’ is an African expression that represents the force that brings two beings together into a couple, a way of saying ‘I'll go wherever you go’. Berki aims to examine the question of the relational contract between two people.

Act 3: 'i' – Anne Nguyen 
The title 'i' is inspired by the 'K' of Kafka's characters, the initial of the name or surname of people who are seeking to find their place in an environment that is leaving them behind. 'i' is also the first letter of the words 'identity' and 'individual', perhaps because it resembles a human standing up, head high, whose arms and legs are not represented. 'i' is an affirmation, a confrontation with the stranger's gaze, but also an examination of the way in which we view the unique.

As with many hip-hop dancers, his learning begins in a self-taught way. In 1995, he decided to found the company Aca in Saint-Martin-d'Hères, with Habib Adel, dancer of the same generation. Their first creation, presented in 1996 as part of the Rencontres Danse Ville Danse in Paris, allows them to become a reference company in hip hop dance in the Rhône-Alpes region.

Influenced by urban and world culture, this artist enjoys many kinds of dance, including hip hop, capoeira and contemporary dance. For him, every genre of dance is a new world to tackle, to move in, to sweat in, to turn upside down, to help everyone find their humanity, to question the meaning of their future, their desires.
Like many hip-hop dancers, he was initially self-taught, but gradually began to explore other disciplines like capoeira and contemporary dance.
In 1995, he decided to found the dance company ACA in Saint-Martin-d'Hères, with one of his contemporaries, Habib Adel. Their first creation, presented in 1996 as part of the Rencontres Danse Ville Danse (Danse Ville Danse Encounters) in Paris, made their name as the urban dance company to be reckoned with in the Rhône-Alpes region.     
It was during this time that Bouba met the choreographer Jean-Claude Gallotta, director of the CCN in Grenoble (National Choreography Centre). This meeting resulted in a duet called SMH. Choreographed by Jean-Claude Gallotta, this duet forms an integral part of the piece La rue (“The street”), presented by the Emile Dubois group in January 1997 at Suresnes.

His national and international tours – with Aca and Accrorap – have allowed Bouba to establish his reputation as a choreographer both in France and abroad.
In 2001, with Eric Mézino, he founded the Malka Company whose first show was Paroles de sable, paroles de vent (“Words of sand, words of wind”).

Source : Malka Company 's website

More information : ciemalka.com