• Photo: Samadoss Maïtoul

Taroo Bradford residency

Said Mouhssine (Company Zid)
Moroccan

Taroo  seeks to engage local communities and street cleaners to strengthen cultural understanding and foster creativity.

This project is a residency by performance artist Said Mouhssine (of Company Zid) and digital artist Thomas Buckley building on an initial R&D visit by Said Mouhssine to Bradford in 2023. The residency delves deeper into and builds on the association and engagement with Bradford street cleaners to digitally collect stories for a future project in 2025. Company Zid also showcased three performances of Taroo, a live outdoor Chinese pole and parkour show, as part of BD:Fest 2024.

Said Mouhssine invited Bradford’s working street cleaners to learn about his work, the origins of Taroo and to share their stories and experiences. Street cleaners worked directly with Said Mouhssine and digital artist Thomas Buckley at in-person sessions during this three-day Bradford residency period.

The collection of digital material during the 2024 project will lay the groundwork for the project to develop digitally in Bradford for 2025. Said also shared three performances of the Taroo  outdoor show as part of BD: Festival 2024.

In partnership with BD:Fest.

Taroo  the show is a Parkour and circus show telling the everyday story of what happens in streets across the world. With a fusion of acrobatics, Chinese pole and urban street moves, this show is not all that it seems. Performed and created by Moroccan circus artist Said Mouhssine – a free runner, stage director, actor and stuntman – expect Mouhssine’s distinctive brand of circus comedy and Parkour movement.

This project marked the start of an ambitious three-year program led by Crying Out Loud, focusing on strengthening community connections and shared cultural understanding through creativity, read more here.

  • Taroo Project History

    In 2023 versions of Taroo  were developed with community participants in London and Portsmouth, in partnership with the Babylon Migrants Project (London) and Funk Format (Portsmouth). Performances including the community participants added an exciting new live element to the show in multiple public squares and neighbourhoods in London and on the Isle of Wight.

    Supported by BD:Fest, Said visited Bradford for an initial two days in 2023, connecting with local street cleaners and shadowing them as they worked.

  • Company Zid Biography

    Said Mouhssine (Company Zid) – Artist

    Laure Ceccaldi (Company Zid) Company Manager

    Zid  translates as ‘move forward’ in the Moroccan dialect Darija.

    Company Zid, comprised of circus artist Said Mouhssine, combines circus and Parkour to create shows often inspired by the daily life of unemployed Moroccan youth, who may not envision a bright future. Moving forward is universal for every struggling youngster in the world and Company Zid has the strong urge to bear witness to their struggle but also to their creativity and constant ingenuity in finding solutions to keep moving. To try, miss, try again, not give up, bounce back and simply to live.

    With a Parkour background, Said is committed to spread its core values: to overcome walls, to push your limits, to jump and to move on.

    Said is a free runner, a stage director, an actor and stunt performer with a specialism in Chinese Pole. Since the beginning of his career, he has been developing circus arts and Parkour in Morocco. He began with acrobatics on the beach and started Parkour on the streets of Casablanca. With his friends, he created the first Moroccan Parkour Association in 2007 and went to the Moroccan National Circus School “Shems’y” in Salé for three years.

    Said is also a Chinese pole teacher in Balthazar’s circus school in Montpellier and le Salto in Ales and Metz.

  • Digital Artist Biography

    Thomas Buckley – Lead Digital Artist

    An alumni fellow of The Royal Shakespeare Company and currently associate artist at Portsmouth Guildhall, Thomas makes work exploring the potential of XR and emergent technologies in drawing out our humanity. Alongside leading projects that combine sensory practice and new media Thomas works with marginalised groups, putting their stories at the forefront of this new artform.

    Digital Project Assistant – tbc