"(…) everything’s tricky when you become a teen,
You need money, and I’m stuck between two hot lamps.
Everything’s faster now, and I got problems at school,
Not ‘cause I’m dumb, but ‘cause I need the cash.
France is a place where the ambitious die,
My teacher said, “You’re an Arab who’ll never make it.”
So I smoke, so I drink,
I hang out in the hall, my mama’s worried.
Fuck school! Alcohol and weed!
I waste time and get drunk at the local motel."
Taken from Allo Maman bobo by L’Algérino

The words to the song, “Allo Maman Bobo” by l'Algérino, a Marseille-based rapper, sums up part of Heddy Salem’s life: a young man , in his twenties who grew up in the rough, northern neighbourhoods of Marseille.
While Heddy had just discovered theatre, we met during a workshop I gave to young actors in January 2016. I was overwhelmed by his raw and sensitive personality. This solo choreographic portrait was born out of the desire to deepen this encounter.
Among other things, it is the opportunity to address the relationship he has with his roots and his family. It is also the chance to face a composite path of life, where the army has been an important turning point. His relationship to movement is shaped from this, nurturing a rigorous, energetic and uncompromising physicality. A physicality that is even more energetic since Heddy also has a great practice of boxing, which intrinsically feeds his relationship to choreography. The writing of the piece is also composed by other biographical elements, such as his passion, as an eternal teenager, for Dragon Ball Z or his experience as a supporter of the Olympique de Marseille whose slogans are unequivocal.
The complexity of this personality offers a range of what constitutes this new portrait.

• Mickaël Phelippeau

The premiere took place on march 28th 2019 at LE ZEF, scène nationale de Marseille