Habibitch

Habibitch, whose real name is Lissia Benoufella, is a Franco-Algerian queer, feminist and decolonial artist, choreographer, performer and activist. Born in Algiers and having moved to France as a child, she developed a critical perspective from an early age on the power dynamics that permeate bodies, spaces and narratives.

Shaped as much by the humanities as by club culture, Habibitch has developed an artistic practice at the crossroads of whacking, voguing, performance and public speaking. After studying history, Spanish and gender studies at Sciences Po Toulouse, she fully embraced dance as a space for resistance and emancipation. Her career is rooted in the Parisian ballroom scene, where she has developed a deeply intersectional approach, blending research, knowledge-sharing and political engagement.

Through her performances, workshops and public speaking, Habibitch examines colonial legacies, mechanisms of domination and the possibilities for marginalised cultures to reclaim their heritage. Her work transforms the dancefloor into a space of memory, struggle and collective transformation.

In 2017, she created Décoloniser le dancefloor, a dance-based lecture conceived as a critical tool to challenge the systems of domination that permeate artistic and social practices. Drawing on her experience within ballroom cultures and her research in sociology, this piece combines autobiography, political analysis and dance performance in a form that is incisive, humorous and politically engaged. The piece continues to be performed in France and internationally.