From the age of 5 to 18, alongside martial arts, circus and then hip hop, the choreographer Mourad Merzouki practised boxing, a school of rigour and discipline that, in his words “greatly helped me as a dancer”. Some 20 years later, he remembers… and to highlight the poetry of the “noble art” and its many similarities with choreographic art, he created Boxe Boxe in September 2010 at the Maison de la Danse, Lyon.

Physically confronting boxing again, taking it on stage with the sole help of dancers, i.e. based on their hip hop and contemporary vocabulary, treating it in a light-hearted, quirky manner and, to do this, calling on the Quatuor Debussy, also present on stage, with musics ranging from Verdi and Schubert to Phil Glass, from Gorecki to Glen Miller: these are some of the challenges that Merzouki set himself for Boxe Boxe. The creation of the work in Lyon, followed by its performances at the Théâtre National de Chaillot provided an opportunity to paint this portrait and to trace an exemplary career. Effectively, since he started in 1994, the founder of the Käfig company, the initiator and director of the Pôle Pik center in Bron, and the director since June 2009 of the Centre Chorégraphique National de Créteil et du Val-de-Marne, has created some fifteen shows performed the world over, thereby contributing to the passage of hip hop from the street to the stage.

Mourad Merzouki

"La boxe, c'est déjà de la danse. C'est ce qui m'a frappé lorsqu'adolescent, j'ai découvert le hip-hop après de nombreuses années de pratique des arts martiaux. Si l'une est assimilée, à la violence, l'autre est synonyme de légèreté.
J'ai paradoxalement retrouvé ces deux états dans chacune de ces deux pratiques. Pour cette création, je joue sur ces contrastes, car à chaque élément de la boxe correspond une dimension de l'art chorégraphique.  Du ring à la scène, du gong au lever de rideau, de l'arbitre au regard des critiques, les similitudes me paraissent évidentes et nombreuses.  La danse tout comme la pratique d'un art martial nécessite labeur, sueur et efforts non comptés. Dans ces deux univers, l'« interprète » se met en jeu, il subit la même mise en abîme, face à son adversaire ou face au regard d'un public.
La mise en danger, ce regard de l'autre, le saut dans l'inconnu et finalement la bataille que chacun mène avec soi-même, sont moteurs. Se mêlent ainsi l'excitation du « combat » et le trac de l'artiste avant de jouer devant une salle comble. Peur au ventre, peur d'être battu, peur de prendre des coups et formidable sentiment de laisser-aller, de plénitude absolue dans cet instant si magique de la scène, qu'il soit plateau de danse ou ring de boxe. J'ai l'envie aujourd'hui de retrouver ces sensations, ces moments de lâcher prise.
De la boxe à la danse, comme une pirouette."

Mourad Merzouki

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.