Choreography by Mourad Merzouki  

A choreographic extract remodelled by the group Teen-Eight (Créteil), responsible for the project Habib Benamar, as part of the “Danse en amateur et repertoire” programme (2014) (a programme created to assist and promote amateur dancing).

The group
The Teen-Eight came into being in early 2013 within a recreational club belonging to the socio-educational network of Créteil. Its members first created a piece in their own name, presented on several occasions in the town. This was in connection with many partners in the region, including the Centre chorégraphique national directed by Mourad Merzouki. In 2014, they participated in a version of his work Récita, for one hundred and fifty amateurs, on the forecourt of the town hall. For the current revival, they rehearse two hours every fortnight with a direct collaborator of the choreographer, in addition to their own regular work. The project, which started with seventeen participants, has now stabilised to involve six teenagers aged thirteen to seventeen including, as yet a rare event in hip-hop, as many girls as boys. 

The choreographer
Born in the suburbs of Lyon, Mourad Merzouki became a French leader of hip-hop, before whom theatre doors soon opened. First in tandem with Kader Attou, he went on to create his own company Käfig in 1996, and was named the director of the Centre chorégraphique national de Créteil in 2009, where he organised the Kalypso festival. His twenty-two works have been viewed in six hundred and fifty cities in sixty-one countries. Récital is a landmark along this journey. Created in 1998, this work plays on the symbolism of classical concerts, romanticising the hope, nursed at that time by urban dance artists, to perform on professional stages. Since 2014 Récital has experienced a new lease of life, with its revival for forty interpreters at the Biennale de Lyon, its transmission to dancers in India, and its treatment by Labanotation (for the first time ever in the history of hip-hop).

The artist
In the version of Récital with one hundred and fifty amateurs in 2014, the Teen-Eight performed only one tableau. They now work on four, under the watchful eye of Céline Tringali. Collaborating with Mourad Merzouki since 2005, she is specially charged with teaching and with dance practices for the Centre chorégraphique national de Créteil. She carefully followed the revival of Récital for forty dancers at the Biennale de Lyon last year. The adaptations of the work for the group of six dancers from the Teen-Eight consist of a few simplifications with respect to the technical level of the interpreters, and the focus is on the assimilation of figures, memorisation and mastery. 

A major figure on the hip-hop scene since the early 1990s, Merzouki works at the crossroads of many different disciplines: he adds circus, martial arts, fine arts, video and live music to his exploration of hip-hop dance. Without losing sight of the roots of hip-hop movement – of its social and geographical origins – this multidisciplinary approach opens new horizons and reveals original outlooks. Since 1996, 30 creations have been performed in 700 cities and 65 countries, with more than 3,000 performances given for 1.7 million people. Since 2009, Merzouki is director of the Centre chorégraphique national de Créteil et du Val-de-Marne, where he created the festival Kalypso, a Parisian twin of his festival Karavel in the region of Lyon. In 2016, he is also appointed artistic director of Pôle en Scènes in Bron.

More information : http://ccncreteil.com/

From live stage images to life in images, the  director and video artist Karim Zeriahen seems to have found the  shortest way. Since the beginning of the 90s, when he worked in close  relationship with choreographer Philippe Decouflé, he learned how to put  the art of stage in motion, contemporary dance most of the time. Karim  Zeriahen then starts a fruitful collaboration with Montpellier based  choreographer Mathilde Monnier. Stop, Videlilah, day of night, short  films adapted from her stage creations. Each time, Karim Zeriahen's   camera takes over the place with movement, the body language is not  frozen but magnified. Choreographer Herman Diephuis also joins this  gallery of dancing portraits. Documentaries on figures such like Albert  Maysles or Hubert de Givenchy and from Joe Dalessandro to Paul  Morrissey, he sets a signature, a camera always in action with  confidence.

Today the director goes further with a new  project and tracks the subtle movements of the body language beyond the  physical appearance. A collection of living portraits as unique pièces  reminding us of the master portraitists of renaissance. These living  natures consists in filming the subject in a certain amount of time,  almost still, with signs of respiration, eye blinks, as if it were  posing for a painting. They are then displayed on a flat screen with a  memory card. With this collection starting, Karim Zeriahen, with his  documentary and artist vision, interrogates himself about the virtual  world filled with images. By taking a pause, and his models with him, he  questions the way we look at things, the way we look at life.

Source: Philippe Noisette 

En savoir plus: www.karimzeriahen.com

Amateur Dance and Repertory is a companion program to amateur practice beyond the dance class and the technical learning phase. Intended for groups of amateur dancers, it opens a space of sharing for those who wish to deepen a practice and a knowledge of the dance in relation to its history.

Laurent Barré
 Head of Research and Choreographic Directories
Anne-Christine Waibel
 Research Assistant and Choreographic Directories
 +33 (0)1 41 83 43 96
danse-amateur-repertoire@cnd.fr

Source: CN D

More information: https://www.cnd.fr/en/page/323-danse-en-amateur-et-repertoire-grant-programme