Dalila Belaza Residency

Looking to deepen the research aspect of her creative process, Dalila is experimenting with a new kind of residency integrated directly into the production phase. This residency brings together the development of the new piece and the exploration of local bodily and vocal practices rooted in the region’s history. Meeting these traditions creates a space for dialogue between cultures, sensations, and modes of perception. It enriches the work and broadens her choreographic language, grounded in listening and mutual exchange, allowing the piece to grow from shared experience rather than appropriation.

Un peu pour mon cœur…(2026) opens a new chapter in Dalila Belaza’s artistic journey, placing chorality at the center of the work. Beyond the voice, the piece explores how the body, sound, breath, and collective presence can shape a shared choral narrative. Drawing on Belaza’s long-standing exploration of ritual, memory, and vibration, the work seeks a common frequency where movement and sound merge into a single living organism. The performers generate a space of listening, resonance, and interdependence, where dance becomes both an inner and collective experience. Through this shared vibration, the piece opens new dimensions of perception and invites the audience into a communal, sensorial journey.

Dalila Belaza grew up in an environment where family tales and stories continually fed her imagination. She did not dance as a child, yet these narratives quietly laid the foundations of her artistic path, which she would later embody through the body on stage. Over nearly three decades, she has carved out a singular trajectory, refusing dance as a tool of seduction, a machine for spectacular images, or an emotional outlet. Instead, her dance, like a mystery in motion, investigates what escapes us, sculpting each gesture toward listening and a deep intimacy of the body. Rejecting fixed definitions, she explores the body’s availability, its posture, breath, and relationship to space. Her approach, guided by a search for meaning and elevation, becomes a quest to give shape to the invisible and the uncertain - an immersion into the inner life that moves within us.

She began her artistic journey alongside her sister, choreographer Nacera Belaza, with whom she developed a shared understanding of the body as a phenomenon constantly interacting with other phenomena. In 2020, Dalila Belaza founded her own company, hiya compagnie, following her encounter with the folkloric group Lous Castelous. This meeting marked a turning point in her work, leading her to explore the links between the memory of folkloric rituals and contemporary dance. From this exploration emerges a dance that feels both timeless and universal, embodied in works such as Au cœur, Figures, Rive, and Orage.

Since 2024, she has been an associate artist at La Briqueterie – CDCN du Val-de-Marne. In 2026, she will premiere her next creation, Un peu pour mon coeur.

Choreography, sound and light design Dalila Belaza,

Performers Paulin Banc, Dalila Belaza, Érica Bravini, Adam Chado, Élie Tremblay, Claudia Graziadei, Aïda Delpuech (upcoming distribution)
Collaboration on costume design Christine Sharmini-Tilleke

Light management Alexandre Barthélémy
Sound management Solal Mazeran

Production hiya compagnie - association Jour
Coproduction Maison de la danse de Lyon ; Théâtre de la Ville de Paris ; Chaillot Théâtre national de la Danse ; Festival d'Automne à Paris ; la briqueterie / CDCN du Val de Marne ; ÉCLAT - Centre National des Arts de la Rue et de l'Espace Public - Aurillac ; CCN-Ballet National de Marseile ; ÉTAPE DANSE, a residency program of Fabrik Potsdam, Institut Français Deutschland/Bureau du Théâtre et de la Danse, la briqueterie / CDCN du Val de Marne, and Mosaico Danza - Interplay Festival Turin ; Fondation Royaumont
Residencies Ménagerie de Verre ; la briqueterie - CDCN du Val-de-Marne* ; Centre National de la Danse, Pantin ; Potsdam Fabrik* ; Lavanderia A Vapore, Mosaico Danza - Interplay Festival* ; MC93 - Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis ; Cndc - Angers

*dans le cadre du dispositif Étape Danse 2025

Observation residencies IRA Institute; Dance Limerick; Dance Cork Firkin Crane
Sponsorship with the support of the Fonds Haplotès and with the support of Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels
Main Sponsor Caisse des Dépôts