In “It’s only a question of balance”, the versatile artists Ludmilla Dabo, Blade AliMbaye and Ashtar Muallem seek their balance: each for himself and all together. A text and a staging by Ludmilla Dabo, presented in the form of a very inspiring performance, deliberately unbalanced and in a free style, presented as part of “Vive le sujet! at the Avignon Festival. A triple encounter.
There is the actress (and singer, director, author and follower of Afro-Americanism) Ludmilla Dabo. She is accompanied on stage by the beat boxer (and rapper, singer, actor, dancer and Franco-Senegalese poet) Blade AliMBaye. And the tightrope walker (and actress, contortionist, specialist in aerial fabric and multidisciplinary Franco-Palestinian artist) Ashtar Muallem completes this trio marked by counterpoint.
RFI : What form of balance do you stage in the show It’s just a matter of balance ?
Ludmilla Dabo : We talk about inner balances, balances that we have in the body, balances that we don’t always manage to balance inside ourselves. Scales which are confronted with other external scales, with the scales of others. And how to confront or welcome them? And then balances of sounds, of voices. How three voices resonate and meet? How do three bodies attempt together to form a whole? How do you find uniqueness or unity in a place where you often feel pushed around? How to try to find meaning in our bodies, our voices, together.
As a rapper, beat boxer, singer, comedian, dancer and poet, what balance do you evoke on stage? ?
Blade AliMBaye : The balance of the search for bodies, of balance, of such internal questioning, of the discernment that we can have vis-à-vis ourselves and that of others. Balances that respond to and seek each other confirm that, together, we inevitably manage to find a semblance of balance.
The particularity of the show consists for me in creating music in a spontaneous, natural way, with looper systems [pour répéter en boucle et en direct une séquence musicale, NDLR], and essentially by voice. This allows you to create instability with something that is not premeditated or pre-programmed, thus creating an instant that can give rise to an imbalance.
In the play, you practice aerial fabric, contortion, but you are also a dancer, actress and author. What was for you the stake of this history of scales ?
Ashtar Muallem : We talk about balance in our life, in our lives. Everyone brings the balance and imbalance they feel into their life. In this proposal, we are three. So I talk about the imbalance I feel between my life in France and in Palestine where my parents live, where I was born and I grew up. I talk about the imbalance that I feel or the balance that I find, traveling between these two places, these two cultures, these two languages, between solitude and being surrounded by people and playing in front of people, and then being alone a long time later.
The specificity of this show is that there was a real sharing in the creation. I come from the world of circus and dance. I have always worked with my body and I was able to share that with Ludmilla and Blade. Ludmilla shared vocal and singing exercises with us, Blade shared rhythm exercises with us. So everyone brought something out of their luggage and put it on the table. We were really able to taste different elements and share our knowledge and put this together so that it really shows the exchange and the crossing that we made together.
► It’s just a matter of scales, text and direction by Ludmilla Dabo, with Blade AliMBaye and Ashtar Muallem, presented as part of “Long live the subject! », proposal of the SACD at the Festival d’Avignon.