bio marek dhaou

Aïcha M’Barek (*1974) grew up in a family of artists and was trained to be dancer at the age of five. While she was studying at the Conservatory for Music and Dance in Tunis, she spent several years with the traditional Sybel Dance Theatre. After a brief spell at the Film Academy, she became the first Tunisian women to receive a scholarship for the National Centre for Contemporary Dance Angers/France, where her teachers included Dominique Dupuy, Angelin Preljocaj and Koffi Kôkô, among others. In 2002 she composed her first choreography, Essanai, a piece for four dancers. She now lives and works in Lyons.

Hafiz Dhaou (*1976) began in 1989 as a HipHop dancer. In 1999 he visited the Film Academy in Tunis. He also won a scholarship to study at the National Centre for Contemporary Dance Angers, France, where he composed his first choreography, Inta Omri, in 2001. After he finished studying in 2002 he made a number of short films, and worked with Mathilde Monnier in Montpellier and Abou Lagraa from the La Baraka Company. He has also written his own pieces. He, too, lives and works in Lyons.