Looking back · Saison Méditerranée 2026
La Smala de Marseille
13 – 19 September 2026 · Friche la Belle de Mai, Marseille · Accrorap × La Society
©Damien Bourletsis
Three years of encounters, workshops and crossings. One week to bring it all together. Coming from Tunis, Cairo, Algiers, Casablanca, Athens and Limassol, dancers who barely knew one another learned to discover each other, to listen, and to invent a shared language together: the language of the body.
Initiated in 2023 by Compagnie Accrorap, La Smala de Marseille reached its culmination from 13 to 19 September 2026 at the Friche la Belle de Mai: eight days of collective residency, some twenty artists from the different Smala constellations, and two evenings open to the public to share what had been woven together. A week dedicated to the young generations of the Mediterranean, to cultural hybridity, to the diversity of paths and to dialogue between disciplines.
Coming together in the Mediterranean
On Friday 18 September, at the Place des Horizons, the Smala opened with Faire corps en Méditerranée (Coming Together in the Mediterranean), a danced conversation hosted by Maria Daïf with Kader Attou and artists from both shores. Videos, danced solos and stories revealed how much creation owes to circulation, to journeys back and forth, to the borders we cross.
A writing born of dialogue
Saturday 19 September was the high point. On the Petit Plateau, a brand-new choreographic performance, under the joint artistic direction of Kader Attou and Sophie Bulbulyan, gave body to the exchanges and experiments of the week.
It all begins in semi-darkness: a single body, almost invisible. Then the group joins in.
Carried by live music, the gestures answer one another, quicken, gather, with an urgency to speak, to dance, to share. Each dancer keeps their own singularity, and yet they all breathe together.
"This isn't a show, it's an encounter," Kader Attou had warned. In closing, the artists remind us in a video that "a gesture has no passport."
Into the night
At the Grandes Tables, the celebration continued with showcases by ApollonTheOne and Hakis (Algerian rap), followed by a Mediterranean ball led by DJ Jikay, Pan-J and Mohanad Smama. The after-party, hosted by La Society, Radio Grenouille and Room 95, welcomed the Tunisian hip-hop scene. Artists and audience then came together on the same dance floor.
Beforehand, two free workshops open to all, on 7 and 17 September at Studio Accrorap, had given the public the chance to learn the steps of the ball.
And next: Saint-Ouen
On 20 September, the Smala stopped in Saint-Ouen for a performance of Prélude, preceded by an opening act by artists from the Athens and Cyprus constellations and followed by a Mediterranean ball open to the public. This stage marks the start of a partnership with the City of Saint-Ouen, set to continue in the coming years around a project dedicated to memory.
Press · Zébuline
Réunir les rives (Bringing the Shores Together)
By Carla Lorang · 24 September 2026
"Throughout the performance, the dancers' gestures and steps answer one another, as if each needed the others. […] In a world that builds more and more borders, La Smala de Marseille chooses to move beyond them and create a common language." (translated from French)Read the full article (in French) →
Cast & partners
- Project lead and production
- Compagnie Accrorap, directed by Kader Attou
- Choreography
- Kader Attou, Sophie Bulbulyan
- Assistant choreographers
- Babacar Cissé, Damien Bourletsis
- Artists
-
TunisHazem Chabi, Jihed Khemiri, Aymen Trabelsi, Ahmed KhemiriCasablancaAli El Kihal, El Mahdi ReffouhCairoZiad Salem "Wallace", Nada Eid, Ahmed Yousef "Ghareeb"AthensNadia Tomazenko, Eirini Damianidou, Haris ChatziandreouCyprusNina PoulouzasviliAlgiersRachid Kahklifa, Laeticia Belkalem, Ben Youcef YesrefMarseilleMohanad Smama, Vanda Forte, Jikay, Alexia Lambert
- Cultural partners
- Al Badil – Tunis: Selim Ben Safia · Yalla Dance Studio – Cairo: Ezzat Ismail, Mohamed Ibrahim · AMI – Marseille: Elodie Le Breut · Kalamata International Dance Festival · Limassol Dance House · Casablanca: Maria Daïf · Friche la Belle de Mai – Marseille
- Accrorap team
- Kader Attou, Anne-Sophie Dupoux, Cathy Chahine, Denis Chapellon, Danielle Chaillot, Ludivine Leca, Hélène Caillé
- Financial partners
- Instituts français: Paris, Saison Méditerranée 2026 – Egypt, Greece, Cyprus, Tunisia, Algeria
City of Marseille · Région Sud · City of Saint-Ouen
Making the Mediterranean
Smala is the nomadic choreographic creation hub conceived by choreographer Kader Attou. For centuries, the Mediterranean has been a space of encounters, crossings and creations. This laboratory is rooted in that living heritage — circulating artists, ideas, sounds and gestures to where borders seem to take hold.
Smala is a word steeped in history. It evokes the mobile capital of Emir Abdelkader, that unified community where knowledge, arts and strategies of resistance intertwined. For four years, constellations of artists have been woven together across seven countries, united by a shared sea and common imaginaries.
To make the Mediterranean today is also to resist. It is to put forward words and acts that bring people together.
© Damien Bourletsis
Smala
Nomadic Choreographic Laboratories across the Mediterranean
Casablanca, Tunis, Cairo,
Kalamata, Cyprus and Algiers
In Casablanca, the adventure began with Casamémoire — a deep dive into the relationship between dance and heritage, which gave birth to a video capsule inhabiting the walls of the Assayag building. A second encounter followed with the AMME association, this time to explore the common ground between contemporary movement, Amazigh music and electronic sounds. As much a scouting ground as a creative space.
In Tunis in 2025, around fifteen artists joined Kader Attou and the Accrorap dancers as part of the Massari project. From this encounter lasting partnerships emerged — first with Hazem Chebbi, then with Selim Ben Safia, whose collaboration deepened during a residency at La Friche la Belle de Mai, leading to the beginnings of a new creation, Labes.
In Cairo in 2026, a choreographic laboratory led by Ezzat Ismaïl brought together Egyptian artists at the Ezzat Dance Studio — a step of research and transmission at the heart of a pulsing city.
In Greece and Cyprus, between Kalamata and Limassol, Greek and Cypriot dancers came together in 2025 and 2026 for open creative sessions, welcoming new artists through ongoing auditions.
© Damien Bourletsis
In Algiers, in late May 2026, Kader Attou met a new generation of Algerian dancers. From these auditions, one encounter stood out — a dancer joins the Smala constellation for the final gathering in Marseille.
Each of these stopovers, one after another, has traced the path toward September 2026 and the Saison Méditerranée.
