“Loin” was Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's world première for the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève. It explores the distance between beings, periods and cultures. The hands and arms of the dancers intertwine and these movements suggest new forms, new bodies. The limits of each body melt away and the dancers themselves lose their bearings. The choreographer also works with transposition to emphasise points of convergence and divergence. The dancers are asked to tell a story, then to isolate the movements of hands and arms that illustrate their idea, and to reproduce these as a group. Here again, the choreographer brings the individuals into contact with the stories of other individuals. He allows the encounter born of the variations between one another to emerge.



Source : Maison de la Danse programme

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s debut as a choreographer was in 1999 with Andrew Wale’s contemporary musical, Anonymous Society. Since  then he has made over 50 full-fledged choreographic pieces and picked  up a slew of awards, including two Olivier Awards, three Ballet Tanz  awards for best choreographer (2008, 2011, 2017) and the Kairos Prize  (2009) for his artistic vision and his quest for intercultural  dialogue. 

Cherkaoui’s initial pieces were made at les ballets C de la B – Rien de Rien (2000), Foi (2003) and Tempus Fugit (2004). He undertook parallel projects that both expanded and consolidated his artistic vision; d’avant (2002) with longstanding artistic partner Damien Jalet at Sasha Waltz & Guests company and zero degrees (2005)  with Akram Khan. He has worked with a variety of theatres, opera houses  and ballet companies. From 2004–2009 Cherkaoui was based in Antwerp as  artist in residence at Toneelhuis, which produced Myth (2007) and Origine (2008).

In 2008 Cherkaoui premiered Sutra at  Sadler’s Wells. This award-winning collaboration with artist Antony  Gormley and the Shaolin monks continues to tour the world to great  critical acclaim. After his first commissioned piece in North America, Orbo Novo (Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet) and a series of duets such as Faun (which premiered at Sadler’s Wells as part of In the Spirit of Diaghilev) and Dunas with  flamenco danseuse María Pagés (both 2009), he launched his own company  Eastman, resident at DE SINGEL International Arts Centre (Antwerp).

Spring 2010 saw him reunited with choreographer Damien Jalet and Antony Gormley to make Babel(words) which won an Olivier. That same year he created Rein, a duet featuring Guro Nagelhus Schia and Vebjørn Sundby, as well as Play, a duet with Kuchipudi danseuse Shantala Shivalingappa and Bound, a duet for Shanell Winlock and Gregory Maqoma as part of Southern Bound Comfort. In 2011 he created TeZukA and Labyrinth (for the Dutch National Ballet). In 2012 he created Puz/zle, gaining him a second Olivier. That year he also collaborated with Joe Wright on his film Anna Karenina, for which Cherkaoui helmed the choreography.

2013 saw the premiere of 4D and 生长genesis (Eastman), Boléro (co-created with Damien Jalet and Marina Abramović, for the Paris Opera Ballet), and m¡longa (Sadler’s Wells). He reunited with Joe Wright to co-direct A Season in the Congo at The Young Vic. In 2014, he created Noetic for the GöteborgsOperans Danskompani, Mercy (from Solo for Two) for Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev, which they performed at the London Coliseum and he directed his first opera, Shell Shock, for La Monnaie, with music by Nicholas Lens and text by Nick Cave.

In 2015, Cherkaoui directed his first full-length theatre production Pluto  based on the award-winning manga series by Naoki Urasawa and Takashi  Nagasaki at Bunkamura in Tokyo, bringing the beloved manga character  Astro Boy to life on stage, and was movement director for Lyndsey  Turner's Hamlet starring Benedict Cumberbatch at the Barbican Centre in London. He also made a trio Harbor Me commissioned by the L.A. Dance Project, and choreographed a new Firebird for Stuttgart Ballet. In the same year, Cherkaoui created a new production Fractus V for his company Eastman, in which he also performs.

Since 2015, Cherkaoui assumed the role of artistic director at the Royal Ballet Flanders, where he has created Fall (2015), Exhibition (2016) and Requiem  (2017). He combines this function with his title as artistic director  of Eastman and keeps creating new work along with the artistic entourage  of this company, for example Icon (2016) and Stoic (2018), completing his dance trilogy for GöteborgsOperans Danskompani, Session (2019) with Irish traditional dance-exponent Colin Dunne, Nomad (2019) and 3S (2020),  a suite of three solos for Kazutomi “Tsuki” Kozuki, Jean Michel  Sinisterra Munoz and Nicola Leahey commissioned by TorinoDanza Festival.  He directed the operas Les Indes galantes (2016) and Alceste (2019) for the Bayerische Staatsoper, Satyagraha (2017) for Theater Basel and Pelléas et Mélisande (2018) with Damien Jalet and Marina Abramović for Opera Vlaanderen. His most recent ballet commissions include Medusa (2019) with Natalia Osipova in the title role at The Royal Ballet in London, Exposure (2020) for the Paris Opera Ballet, and Laid in Earth (2020),  a piece for four dancers of English National Ballet. Between 2017 and  2021 he choreographed several feature films, including Lukas Dhont’s Girl and Marjane Satrapi’s Radioactive, but also the yet to be released Cyrano by Joe Wright and Rebel  by the Belgian-Moroccan directors duo Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah.  In 2019, Cherkaoui made his Broadway debut as choreographer for the  Alanis Morissette musical Jagged Little Pill,  directed by Diane Paulus and with a book by Diablo Cody. For this  production, he was nominated for a Tony Award in the category Best  Choreography. He is the first Belgian choreographer to be nominated in  this category. 

Starting from the season 2022-2023, Sidi Larbi  Cherkaoui will direct the Ballet of the Grand Théâtre de Genève. He is  also an associate artist at Sadler’s Wells, London and Théâtre National  de Bretagne, Rennes.

Source: Eastman⎜Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui

More information : east-man.be

Author, filmmaker and video artist Charles Picq (1952-2012) entered working life in the 70s through theatre and photography. A- fter resuming his studies (Maîtrise de Linguistique - Lyon ii, Maîtrise des sciences et Techniques de la Communication - grenoble iii), he then focused on video, first in the field of fine arts at the espace Lyonnais d'art Contemporain (ELAC) and with the group « Frigo », and then in dance.
   On creation of the Maison de la Danse in Lyon in 1980, he was asked to undertake a video documentation project that he has continued ever since. During the ‘80s, a decade marked in France by the explosion of contemporary dance and the development of video, he met numerous artists such as andy Degroat, Dominique Bagouet, Carolyn Carlson, régine Chopinot, susanne Linke, Joëlle Bouvier and regis Obadia, Michel Kelemenis. He worked in the creative field with installations and on-stage video, as well as in television with recorded shows, entertainment and documentaries.

His work with Dominique Bagouet (80-90) was a unique encounter. He documents his creativity, assisting with Le Crawl de Lucien and co-directing with his films Tant Mieux, Tant Mieux and 10 anges. in the 90s he became director of video development for the Maison de la Danse and worked, with the support of guy Darmet and his team, in the growing space of theatre video through several initiatives:
       - He founded a video library of dance films with free public access. This was a first for France. Continuing the video documentation of theatre performances, he organised their management and storage.
       - He promoted the creation of a video-bar and projection room, both dedicated to welcoming school pupils.
       - He started «présentations de saisons» in pictures.
       - He oversaw the DVD publication of Le tour du monde en 80 danses, a pocket video library produced by the Maison de la Danse for the educational sector.

       - He launched the series “scènes d'écran” for television and online. He undertook the video library's digital conversion and created Numeridanse.

His main documentaries are: enchaînement, Planète Bagouet, Montpellier le saut de l'ange, Carolyn Carlson, a woman of many faces, grand ecart, Mama africa, C'est pas facile, Lyon, le pas de deux d'une ville, Le Défilé, Un rêve de cirque.

He has also produced theatre films: Song, Vu d'ici (Carolyn Carlson), Tant Mieux, Tant Mieux, 10 anges, Necesito and So schnell, (Dominique Bagouet), Im bade wannen, Flut and Wandelung (Susanne Linke), Le Cabaret Latin (Karine Saporta), La danse du temps (Régine Chopinot), Nuit Blanche (Abou Lagraa), Le Témoin (Claude Brumachon), Corps est graphique (Käfig), Seule et WMD (Françoise et Dominique Dupuy), La Veillée des abysses (James Thiérrée), Agwa (Mourad Merzouki), Fuenteovejuna (Antonio Gades), Blue Lady revistied (Carolyn Carlson).

Source: Maison de la Danse de Lyon

Artistic direction: Philippe Cohen    

Creation: 1962

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the major ballet companies were invited to Geneva to perform on the Théâtre Neuve's stage, and notably Isadora Duncan and Nijinsky with the Ballets Russes. It was only when it reopened in 1962 that the theatre founded its own ballet company. Its direction has been entrusted successively to Janine Charrat, Serge Golovine, Patricia Neary, Peter van Dyck, Oscar Araiz, Gradimir Pankov, François Passard and Giorgio Mancini. From the outset, this company has aimed to explore the plurality of twentieth-century dance styles, which has led it to work with famous artists such as Georges Balanchine (artistic advisor from 1970 to 1978), Mikhaïl Baryshnikov, Rudolf Noureïev, Jiri Kylian, Ohad Naharin, William Forsythe and Lucinda Childs.    

Directed today by Philippe Cohen, the Ballet of the Grand Théâtre consists of 22 dancers of various nationalities. Classically-trained, they are all capable of performing neo-classical and modern choreographies. Each season, they generally offer two new works, revivals of pieces from repertoire, tours, schools projects and choreography workshops.  
Since Philippe Cohen’s nomination as the manager of the Grand Théâtre de Genève Ballet Company in 2003, the Geneva Ballet undertook a radical reshaping of its repertoire and image, based on two principles apparently worlds apart: tradition and creation. Tradition in the sense of claiming one’s part in a historical narrative; creation in the sense of actively taking part in writing that narrative for tomorrow.

By cleaving to these principles, the Grand Théâtre de Genève Ballet Company seeks not so much to cultivate the richness of its position as to position itself measuredly in a state of creative imbalance, of permanent questioning. This explains the Company’s original and daring artistic choices, resolutely modern and ambitious, and our preference for young choreographers who show the promise of great things in the years to come. By inviting these young choreographers to come and work with no restrictions in Geneva, we hope to establish a momentum of modernity that does not break with the past, but rather echoes its riches and creates a dynamic towards the future. The Grand Théâtre is proud to have served as a launching pad for artists destined to become the star choreographers of our time: Saburo Teshigawara, Benjamin Millepied, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Andonis Foniadakis, Emanuel Gat, Gilles Jobin, Ken Ossola...

Sources: Maison de la Danse show program ; the Grand Théâtre de Genève Ballet Company 's website

More information : geneveopera.com