Ahidous dances: moving to and fro between Morocco and France, the Middle Atlas and the Ariège

The trajectories of migration have meant that migrant families who travel from North Africa to France face a challenge when it comes to transmitting to the younger generation cultural gestures and languages, a challenge which may be resolved by identity strategies as diverse as they are fluid. These families, who regularly repeat the journey between the two shores of the Mediterranean, are concerned to bridge the gap between the two places, to convey between them ideas, gestures, words, objects, and dances from their source culture. It is the dances, accompanied by remembered songs, music and gestures and reflecting either connection or separation, that most interest me. Starting from an inquiry into the development, the meeting, but also the questioning of gendered identities through the learning and performance of migrant Berber ahidous dances,I suggest it may be possible to propose a diachronic and dialogical approach to the movements of these dances, shared by men and women and brought with them by those who migrate. The dances may contribute to expressing loyalty towards the place of origin, and the legitimacy of retaining links with it, or alternatively a more marginal stance in relation to practices current at the moment of departure from the source culture, when faced with a new life situation, with different aesthetic models.