La Nuée

Presented at New York Live Arts, La Nuée, by Algerian-French. choreographer Nacera Belaza unfolds as a landscape of repetition, rhythm, and circular motion. Performed by an ensemble moving in near-continuous orbit, the piece builds slowly, layering patterns of spinning bodies and pulsing formations that swell and dissolve across the stage.

Belaza’s choreography seems to aim for something ritualistic, an atmosphere where movement becomes trance-like and collective energy overtakes individual gestures. Yet the work’s intentions remain somewhat opaque. While the dancers commit fully to the relentless momentum of the choreography, the piece offers few anchors for understanding what its accumulating patterns are meant to reveal. What emerges instead is a sustained field of motion: bodies circling, rhythms repeating, and formations shifting in ways that feel purposeful but never fully clarified.

As the piece continues, however, the reliance on repetition begins to wear thin. What first reads as hypnotic gradually becomes predictable, the circular pathways and pulsing rhythms returning again and again with little variation. The effect seems designed to produce a trance, but over time the momentum flattens rather than deepens. This is less a reflection of the dancers themselves, who perform with remarkable stamina and focus, than of the choreographic structure.

The ensemble, including Paulin Banc, Imani Butler, Viivi Forsman, Bastien Gash Magdalena Hylak, and Pierre Morillon, engage fully with the work’s demanding physicality. Because the repetition lingers a bit too long, the audience is left wishing the movement might evolve into something more.

The lighting design adds a striking visual frame, carving the stage into a stark, sculptural landscape. Pools of shadow create a cool, edgy atmosphere that complements the work’s austerity. Darkness is clearly intentional, reinforcing its sense of ritual and inward focus. At times, however, the stage becomes so dim that the dancers blur into the background, making it difficult to fully track the choreography. While the moody lighting initially heightens the mystery, it eventually feels as though it is compensating for movement that remains quite spare, obscuring details that might otherwise bring greater texture to the performance.

EYE ON THE ARTS, NY — Frankie Lehr

***ALL PHOTOS BY MARIA BARANOVA