Nedjma Hadj Benchelabi

Nedjma Hadj Benchelabi is a curator and dramaturge from Algeria. Until 2013, she was a programmer at the European Cultural Centre, Les Halles, contributing to a program on Contemporary Literature and Performing arts of the Arab world. She was the guest curator in the ‘Arab Arts Focus’ at the Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival (D-CAF, Cairo, 2016-2018), and co-curator at the multidisciplinary festival, Tashweesh with the Goethe-Institut in Cairo and the Beursschouwburg in Brussels. From 2019 onwards, she has been the curator of the Mahmoud Darwish Legacy program, a multidisciplinary platform from Brussels and beyond. She has recently mentored Taklif at the Festival “On Marche” in Marrakech and Un|Controlled Gestures program for young performers and choreographers. She is actively involved in projects involving young Arab dancers focusing on the dramaturgy of performances, research, documentation, curatorship, and publications. She regularly contributes her specialized expertise to public debates and discussions, in Europe and the MENA region.