A man in a white shirt and black pants collapsed on painfully green grass, with a misleading logo reading "CHRONIC(S) - street wear": such is the poster for Hamid Ben Mahi's one-man show, presented outside France for the first time thanks to the efforts of the Centre Culturel Fran?ais. Hamid Ben Mahi, whom we recognize as the young man in the poster, admits to a little nervousness before the first representation: "We've had to adapt a bit, since there's all this talk in French. The story is also rather proper to France, so I have no idea how the public is going to react."
Yet the audience that watched in wonder Ben Mahi's complete mastery of his art, as well as his obvious creativity in a genre with an unlikely background, did not feel displaced in the least. A combination of dancing, speaking and projection, Chronic(s) spoke to all present – just like he had intended it, as this revolutionary approach to hip-hop was the fruit of a long process.
Hamid Ben Mahi was born in France, of Algerian parents. In his youth he became intimately acquainted with what being a child of immigration implied. "We were young people with a difference, and as children it was very difficult for us to understand why this difference created so many problems for us," he shares. When hip-hop crossed the ocean from the States in the 80's to hit the streets of France like a tidal wave, it became the rallying flag of youths that wanted expression and recognition, even though nowadays its early subscribers have grown and gained a maturity and experience that they now inject back into the genre. Ben Mahi, who had found his calling then and there, explains how providential hip hop was for people like him: "In the dance there is no colour, everybody has the same level. We were able to find ourselves and each other in it. At first it was to forget who we were and where we had come from, because we couldn't admit how tough reality was. Eventually though we were able to retrace our steps and look for our roots, our parents' stories..."
Ben Mahi's self-teaching and perseverance bore fruit when he was finally granted scholarships for the school of Rosella Hightower in Cannes and then Alvin Ailey in New York, "dreams come true for me," he says. There he learned every possible dancing style he could get his hands on, from classical to African. Being on stage enabled him to learn through observation how to put together a show, which eventually led him to merge acting and dancing. This was an advance in itself, but Chronic(s) revolutionizes the genre in more ways than one. He explains: "Usually a hip-hop show involves a lot of performance and surprising the public; we come in with an attitude of 'Look at us, we rock'. But here it's the contrary: it's reality, the story of a young boy of Algerian parents who lives in France. It's my story but it's meant to reflect their own stories to the audience; many people have gone similar difficulties and the story will speak to all." Ben Mahi thus brings us a show to make us think, even though taking the microphone is so new for him, he confesses to stage fright. He also wishes to make sure there is no misunderstanding: "The story doesn't mean France is racist. It simply means there's a whole complicated history there." The bottom line of the message? "In France when your name is Hamid Ben Mahi and you live in the suburb, doors are not opened for you. But when you become conscious of reality, you adapt and you start living like everybody else. Everybody has difficulties, not just immigrant kids from the suburb."
Contents aside, a word must be said of the phenomenal fluidity Ben Mahi managed to inject in his hip-hop in some passages, as if his body was made of water, and inversely the completely destructured movements he uses at other times. The dancing feats alternate with monologues that look more like a dialogue he is having with the public, on which he fixes such an intense gaze we wonder whether the show is on the stage or on the seats. His desire to communicate with the public is confirmed by the ample time reserved after the show for conversation with the audience. The process of reciprocal questions ending with freestyle dancing where anyone present is welcome to join him on stage, Ben Mahi describes as "a meeting and creation of bonds that we can share back home when we return to France. It allows us to grow. Dancing let us to build bridges. We arrive in another country and we have exchanges. The show is a pretext for these..."
His mind already on a future project that will take him years to prepare, Ben Mahi shares his positive expectations for the future of his work and hip-hop in general. "We still have a lot of possibilities to explore in this new uncategorizable direction. As for hip-hop, it has only just begun to enter the stage. The Festival d'Avignon for instance has no hip-hop troop, but I can see it happening ten or fifteen years from now. We are already being copied, so things are moving! "
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Article by Joumana Medlej |