Ihsane, the new fable of Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui return to Barcelona with the Grand Théâtre of Genève —Company he has been running since 2022 – and his latest show Ihsane (2024). The Barcelona public knows their work very well, thanks to shows like Sutra, Dunas or Babel, Its lush eclecticism fascinates us, as well as its fluid body calligraphy, almost liquid, that characterizes it.

With Ihsane, The choreographer immerses himself in the loss of his father and his Moroccan legacy, a theme on the family roots he started with Vlaemsch (Chez Moi) In 2022, a show inspired by the figure of his mother and his flamenco roots. But as usual in Larbi Cherkaoui, the show has many more layers, so it is also a tribute to Ihsane Jarfia young Moroccan homosexual who was killed in Belgium in 2012. Ihsane, That in Arabic is a word that means kindness and compassion, it is a concept that also gives rise to a more universal discourse. And the reason is that with the twenty dancers of the Grand Théâtre of Geneve, the Flemish choreographer proposes a crusade to inner peace and the way to end conflicts that arise from the clash between different identities. Some ideas that inhabit and reverberate in the music composed by the Tunisian Jasser Haj Youssefthe set fromAmine amharech and the costume ofAmine bendriouich —This is inspired by traditional Berber clothing, – the lighting of Fabiana Piccioli and the video projections of Maxime Guislain.

Into Ihsane, Musicians and singer coexist on stage with the dancers who trace the calligraphic choreography of Larbi Cherkoui. Ihsane It is a multidisciplinary stage proposal, rich in craft and social and cultural themes under the thread of a fable on humanity.

The fabulist’s eclectic mood

“Larbi Cherkaoui’s puzzling eclecticism comes from his personal history, his vision of choreography as social art,” says the dance critic of The Guardian Sanjoy Roywho also wonders, “Is he the same person?” The fact is that it is not only a prolific choreographer, but also a polyhedral and unclassifiable by the wide range of endless styles, subjects and combinations of disciplines. This permeable amalgam that represents his work is explained through his life and professional career. Born in Antwerp in 1976, of a Moroccan father and a Flemish mother, Larbi Cherkaoui is a gay artist whom the double perspective / cultural experience during his childhood and youth has marked him as a creator.

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui has an insatiable set by the movement, but has never been married in a specific style. As a child he learned traditional dances at a school, as a teenager copied the choreographies of the video clips of Janet Jackson and Madonnadanced on a television program and soon started teaching classical and contemporary dance classes, studied at the famous Parts School in Brussels and then was part of the Dance-Theater Company. Ballets C of B to Ghent. All this broad and intense baggage was the basis for beginnings as creator marked by a meteoric success in the early 2000’s. Ballets C of B in Ghent (2000) It was his first long choreography and then a series of collaborations came Zero degrees (2005) with Akram Khan, Sutra (2008) with the monks of the temple of Xaolín and the designs of the sculptor Antony Gormley, Dunas (2009) with the choreographer and bailaora María Pagés. In 2010, Larbi Cherkaoui Funda Eastman The company with which she produces and creates shows like Babel (2010) or Play (2012), with the dancer of Kuchipudi Shantala ShivalingAppa. In parallel, Larbi Cherkaoui also creates for classical dance companies such as the Paris Opera Ballet along with Damien Jalet and Marina Abramovićor others of contemporary dance such as the Gothenburgsoperans danskompani. Beyond the dance field, the Flemish choreographer has also collaborated with Joe Wright In the movie Anna Karenine (2012), directed the production movement of Hamlet starring English actor Benedict Cumberbatch In 2015 and also his collaboration with the POP DIVA Beyoncé.

‘Dunas’ (2009)

What connects, then, all these projects and choreography with such different shapes and backgrounds? It is probably the attitude, the fact that what interests him most is to connect with other cultures and personalities, and the approach to choreography as a means of telling stories, delving into the curating of identities and feelings of belonging, and especially for creating dialogues that improve human connections. In 2015 he was appointed director of the Royal Ballet of Flandersa position he left when in 2022 he was offered to direct the Grand Théâtre of Geneve. The head of these companies, Larbi Cherkaoui, is building a repertoire of inspired ballets soaked in a very rich choreographic fabric and contemporary fables.

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