Fascinated as a youth by the agility and bodily mastery of Bruce Lee, the choreographer decided to approach the Shaolin monks and put them on stage in a show where dance and martial arts are combined and complete each other, eventually becoming inseparable. On stage, 17 Buddhist monks from the Shaolin temple brilliantly showcase elements of t'ai chi, kung fu and contemporary dance. Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui is exploring new ground. He designed this piece as the dream of a child fascinated by martial arts. He has joined forces with the sculptor Antony Gormley, who has designed an astonishing set decoration for the occasion. This dance piece, which is at once profoundly hypnotic, entertaining and athletic, presents a stunning confrontation of East and West and questions both the conflict of generations and cultures and our view of the world and 

of others.

'Sutra' is a form of travel journal which led Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui to one of the sources of his inspiration: the Shaolin temple in China, the birthplace of kung fu. In this mythical place, we come across the ghost of Bruce Lee and one of the most elaborate forms of bodily thought in the world, monastic spirituality and the practice of martial arts.

Working on-site at the Henan monastery, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui sought a dual initiation: he learnt the movements, rituals, rhythms and intuitions of the monks of the Shaolin temple, while offering them a contemporary choreographic framework made up of other capacities of the body, other speeds and musicalities. This exchange, made into a show on stage, resembles the learning process of a new language, written between East and West, that respects the tradition of kung fu and gives it an original point of view. It is as though we are being taken to the very origins of an art form that is also a lifestyle. The body and its energy – mastered, liberated, vital, animal – bring the stage alive in 'Sutra', where seventeen Shaolin monks surround Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui in a choreography that avoids folkloric reconstitution in order to better reinvent a philosophy of life through its paces and pauses, its bursts and withdrawals, its apparent vivacity and its internal relaxation, its animal inspiration and its spiritual desires. British artist Antony Gormley has composed the visual and scenographic aspect of this world, while the Polish musician Szymon Brzóska has created his most intimate, revelatory piece, between impulsive rhythm and melancholic wisdom. In this strange area, where bodies draw on all available means while conserving the soothing powers of meditation, a physical language is written, made up of tradition and modernity, substance and the imaginary, that aims to build a bridge between a civilisation and the eyes discovering it; a maiden voyage that leads to the beauty of movement.

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

Born in 1977, Fabien Plasson is a video director specialized in the field of performing arts (dance , music, etc).

During his studies at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts de Lyon (joined in 1995) Fabien discovered video art. He was trained by various video artists (Joel Bartoloméo Pascal Nottoli , Eric Duyckaerts , etc).
He first experimented with the creation of installations and cinematic objects.

From 2001 to 2011, he was in charge of Ginger & Fred video Bar’s programming at La Maison de la Danse in Lyon. He discovered the choreographic field and the importance of this medium in the dissemination, mediation and pedagogical approach to dance alongside Charles Picq, who was a brilliant video director and the director of the video department at that time.

Today, Fabien Plasson is the video director at La Maison de la Danse and in charge of the video section of Numeridanse.tv, an online international  video library, and continues his creative activities, making videos of concerts, performances and also creating video sets for live performances.

Sources: Maison de la Danse ; Fabien Plasson website

More information: fabione.fr