Rehearsals in Rio with Mourad Merzouki and the Brazilian dancers of AGWA, who blend hip-hop, capoeira and contemporary dance with real virtuosity. There are ten dancers aged between 17 and 25 who come from the outskirts of Rio; some have lived in favelas. All struggle to survive and come to rehearse four evenings a week. Moving confessions and interviews with these young people, for whom dance is an escape route from their turbulent lives.

La source du projet, une rencontre : celle de Mourad Merzouki avec de jeunes danseurs de Rio de Janeiro lors de la Biennale de la Danse de Lyon en 2006.
Originaires du Brésil, les 11 danseurs cariocas ont des histoires aux cours sinueux qui plongent leurs racines dans les favelas et qui font resurgir des souvenirs de la même eau au chorégraphe de la Compagnie Käfig. Ayant grandi dans la marginalité, ils ont tous puisé dans leur passion pour la danse la rage de s'en sortir et d'aller vers l'autre.
Les interprètes diluent et mélangent sans aucun complexe hip-hop, capoeira, samba, musique électronique et bossa nova pour faire émerger une danse aux acrobaties époustouflantes, bourrée d'énergie et d'invention…
AGWA, un spectacle placé sous le signe de l'eau, à la fois composant essentiel de notre corps, ressource naturelle précieuse, vitale même, que l'on se doit d'économiser et de préserver, et symbole de renouveau.

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/

 In June 2009, Mourad Merzouki was appointed director of the CCN de   Créteil and Val-de-Marne (National Choreography Centre), where he has   developed his vision of dance as “an open window on the world”. Since   the creation of the Käfig Company in 1996, the choreographer has been able to expand the language of hip-hop by working at where multiple   disciplines intersect: circus, martial arts, contemporary dance and   more. His pieces are currently touring the world. Supported by the State and local authorities, the Centres chorégraphiques nationaux (CCN) promote the development of dance, both through the creative impulse of their directors-choreographers, but also by supporting choreographic artists of various styles, by presenting works and by raising public awareness of the art of dance.

Today there are 19 Centres chorégraphiques nationaux. The CCN de Créteil is one of the first to have been created, by Maguy Marin. Three of them are now run by hip-hop choreographers, in Créteil (Mourad Merzouki), La Rochelle (Kader Attou) and Rennes (FAIR-E collective).

Mourad Merzouki has been at the head of the Centre chorégraphique national de Créteil et du Val-de-Marne / Compagnie Käfig since 2009. He is developing an artistic project that is both open to the world and rooted in the territory, transcending aesthetic, cultural and social boundaries. Tours, workshops, residencies, the Kalypso festival : there are many opportunities to discover and celebrate hip-hop dance, an art form that has become, in over 30 years, a strong marker of the cultural identity of our heritage.