Mounia Nassangar: STUCK

Waacking, originally written “Whacking” has its roots in the 1970s in Los Angeles as a dance style of the LGBTQ disco scene. At a time when queer people were predominantly invisible and stigmatised, waacking offered them a platform for expression and visibility. The style developed from so-called punking, a reinterpretation of the pejorative term ‘punk’, and is characterised by dynamic, accentuated arm movements to the beat of the music. 

In STUCK, five dancers approach waacking in their own individual way, with the urgency of dance and expression that resists all oppression. In STUCK, dance becomes a means of transforming inner and outer constraints into freedom and self-determination and transcending language. 

“I can find myself flabbergasted when faced with certain situations that shock me. I can also find myself unable to express what I'm feeling, even if my brain wants to. My choreographic research is based on the states I went through before, during and after burnout. My research is also based on how we are perceived on the outside and how we feel on the inside.

Music is central to this piece. The choice of sounds is both a tribute to the French touch musical movement, inspired by disco, funk and electronic music. It's also a tribute to house and techno. Two musical trends that can be defined as the direct or indirect children of disco: the musical style on which whacking was born. Dj Frankie Knuckles once said that ‘house music is [...] the revenge of disco’. That's nice.

As a recent DJ, I also attach importance to the choice of sounds that will illustrate the acts. That's why I decided to collaborate with beatmaker Maclarnaque. We share the same musical tastes, which allows us to exchange ideas without misunderstandings. For STUCK, Mac created a sound with the sample of String of life, a techno classic that I chose for this piece.” 

 – Mounia Nassangar

Mounia Nassangar

A leading figure in whacking in France and internationally, Mounia Nassangar is a choreographer, dancer, actress, model, DJ, event producer and director of her own dance company. 

Dancing since the age of 5, she went through popping, locking, new style, house dance, dancehall and street jazz before specializing in whacking. In 2018, Mounia was revealed to the general public thanks to Jean-Paul Gaultier’s Fashion Freak Show at the Folies Bergère and Gaspar Noé’s film Climax, which won an award at the Directors’ Fortnight at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.

In 2019, she creates Oui, et vous? a whacking performance with Ma Dame Paris collective (created by Sonia Bel Hadj Brahim, Josepha Madoki and Mounia Nassangar). In 2022, she choreographed the SMS video for Aya Nakamura, in which she appeared, and acted as movement director for Kelela. In 2023, she can be seen dancing in Travis Scott’s MODERN JAM video. 

As an event producer, she organizes the Waack in Paris festival at Gaîté Lyrique, Carreau du Temple, Nuit Blanche Paris and Defected Croatia. She was also assistant choreographer on Lancôme’s Idôle campaign and has collaborated with brands such as Tommy Jeans (in social media) and Jaeger-Le Coultre (for the Master campaign).

As a model, Mounia Nassangar has embodied the Evian x Balmain, Jean Paul Gaultier's Scandal and MAC Cosmetics campaigns. She lends her face to Erborian, of which she is one of the muses, and has walked the catwalk for designer Burc Akyol. In 2023, she founded her own dance company, cie.nassangar, in which she is created STUCK in 2024. IG: @Mounia_Nassangar

Maclarnaque

Maclarnaque's musical journey began in the world of dance, leading her to the turntables and then to composition. She fuses emblematic rhythms with contemporary sounds, all mixed with finger drumming on the fly. Beyond the stage, Maclarnaque thrives at the intersection of hip-hop, dance and the moving image as a sound designer. IG: @maclarnaque