Ottof

Five women from Morocco fill the stage with their feminine presence, their voices and bewitching movements, their stories, freedom and vivacity. In this work, Bouchra Ouizguen’s contemporary creativity is crossed with the rare talents of a group of female performers. They belong to the Aitas tradition of women who dance and sing traditional songs at weddings and nightclubs in Morocco. Schooled in captivating the audience in even the most adverse conditions with the expressive means at their disposal, they have now brought their well-honed skills to theatre. Having joined forces with the choreographer, for nine years now the company has been leaving audiences speechless at venues around Europe while simultaneously debunking the clichés surrounding Eastern women.

“Ottof” is a production about liberation. Since Bouchra Ouizguen invited four wonderful women to join her who had spent their lives working away like ants (“ottof” means ‘ant’ in the Bedouin language), they simply haven’t stopped. On stage, their Mediterranean bodies express their motivations as they move on the cusp of realism and imagination, tranquillity and turbulence, tradition and the modern world. Transforming violence into explosive energy and shedding their veils one by one, they dance with a moving freedom to Nina Simone’s “My baby just cares for me”. Ouizguen has created a work about life itself and about women who love life, warts and all.