Lissia Benoufella, known as Habibitch, is a non-binary artist of French-Algerian origin. A dancer, choreographer, lecturer, performer, DJ, and sociology researcher, she/they occupies a central place in queer, feminist, and anti-racist circles in France and internationally.

Trained in literary preparatory classes, she/they went on to complete a Master’s degree in gender studies at Sciences Po Toulouse before deciding, in 2012, to devote herself/themselves fully to dance. This shift was not an abandonment but a synthesis: critical thought and political engagement remain inseparable from her/their practice. She/they specialises in voguing and whacking—two dances rooted in queer and racialised spaces—and teaches them in contexts ranging from the Sorbonne to theatre stages, American universities, and Parisian squats.

In 2017, she/they created Décoloniser le dancefloor. The piece takes the form of a lecture—a PowerPoint in the colours of the Algerian flag, a table, a microphone—yet the format exceeds its own framework. Habibitch speaks, dances, and addresses the audience, making us laugh and think in the same movement. Drawing on her/their lived experience—Algerian, queer, dancer, activist—she/they deconstructs colonial, gender, and sexuality norms. The piece has toured widely in France and the United States, notably at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. It led to a book of the same name, published in 2026 by Les Liens qui Libèrent.

She/they is currently working on Back/Bridge, her/their next creation, co-produced by CCN de Rennes et de Bretagne, which explores colonial violence inscribed in bodies and diasporic memory.