Azad – Lila Magnin – La Balsamine

“Azad was the name of my great-grandmother. It means “free” and today, it is the link I want to establish. In this solo, I explore complexities of femininity in a world that does not understand all the stakes at play. Could this body, which is constantly reflected at ourselves as a burden, be hiding a source of power? Could this source lie beyond the physical body? Could we find it in an in-between, between masculinity and femininity, where categories are blurred, unclear and referred to differently?

During this process, which is at the same time personal and universal, I realized that when we are looking for freedom, we tend to swing between fear of judgment and search for approval. A form of anger is emerging from this, a necessity to exist and to be allowed to express ourselves at a crossroad of gender, racial and social identities…

With this epiphany in mind, I tried my best to transmit my truth through this solo. As its name suggests, I gave myself the complete freedom to create, by including the multiple aspects of myself. Azad is made of a personal body movement that passes from one form to another, from one energy to another, from one state to another, from the voguing floor to the break/contemporary floor, from voguing arms to hip-hop, from stand up to street show, from seriousness to lightness… It is a human story that goes beyond gender.”