It’s not always easy to recognize oneself in one’s own. By creating a fictional family tree, Saphir Belkheir reinvents his own lineage out of figures erased by history. Their summoning brings to light a colonial and patriarchal heritage that has been leaving aside the lives outside the norm. Why does Saphir Belkheir dance today the way he dances? What is to be learned from his gestures? The artist draws his strength from stories inhabited by imaginary ancestors and shaped by the queer experience. Like the sycamore tree, this immersive experience that mixes dance, video, sound and text, gives rise to new branches to call together and connect personal lives and what has been left behind.
Saphir Belkheir draws strength from a personal history shaped by imaginary ancestors and enriched by queer experiences.
His work explores a unique dance language—one where meaning is revealed through gesture and movement. At the heart of his performance is the sycomore, a fig tree known for sprouting multiple new branches when one is cut. These regenerative branches become symbolic projections into the future, forming an ever-expanding network of (re)created connections. Sycomore promises an intimate and immersive experience, blending dance, video, sound, and text to reveal or evoke personal discoveries and speculative futures.
ART DIRECTOR & PERFORMANCE Saphir Belkheir | OUTSIDE EYE Morgane Brien-Hamdane | LIGHT DESIGN My Bertin | MUSICAL CREATION AND LIVE MUSIC Syqlone | SHORT FILM: DIRECTOR Saphir Belkheir | WITH Saphir Belkheir and Maëlice Joyce Denis | DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY Makoto C. Friedmann | EDITING & COLORING Tomè-Manon Cotte | DIRECTOR ASSISTANCE Mélodie Preux | LIGHTING DESIGN Alice Brunnquell | PRODUCTION MC93 Maison de la Culture de Seine-Saint-Denis, in the framework of Common Stories, a Creative Europe program funded by the European Union | COPRODUCTION Alkantara Lisbon, africologneFESTIVAL, Riksteatern Stockholm, in the framework of Common Stories, a Creative Europe program funded by the European Union I Fonds Transfabrik – Franco-German Fund for the Performing Arts SUPPORT CommonMOB | SUPPORT FOR RESIDENCES RheinEnergieStiftung Kultur und Parallèle – International Emerging Artistic Practices | RESIDENCES ICI-CCN de Montpellier I La Briqueterie CDCN du Val-de-Marne I Point Éphémère I Les Ateliers Médicis I Théâtre Joliette, Scène Conventionnée d’intérêt national ” Art et Création ” pour la diversité des écritures contemporaines (Marseille)
Saphir Belkheir was a resident artist at CommonLAB 2023, part of the EU-funded Common Stories project (2023–2025), in which africologne participates alongside five other international partners. Common Stories comprises six complementary formats designed to explore questions of identity and cultural diversity with-in a rapidly changing European landscape. Within CommonLAB, eight Europe-based artists are supported annually to develop and share narratives that are too often absent from European stages. CommonPROD provides further support, including co-productions, production management, and individual residencies, as well as collaborative residencies spanning eight weeks in four different countries—helping artists advance their practices and bring underrepresented stories to life.