Retour en Avant / Past Forward Biennale de la Danse Lyon - France

musicalité dans un spectacle plutôt burlesque,voilà l’enjeu.Infos +Compagnie invitée en 20002 représentations jeune publicwww.accrorap.comKader AttouAlthough the Accrorap collective was foundedin 1989 in Saint-Priest, near Lyon, by MouradMerzouki, Eric Mézino and Kader Attou, thecompany is now run by Attou and has becomeone of France’s premier hip-hop companies, witha record of accomplished projects. Kader wasborn in a Lyon suburb to Algerian immigrantparents. After a chaotic schooling, he becameinterested in circus arts... and quickly acquireda taste for the world of stage entertainment.Through his openness to others, he happenedto meet the right people at the right time. Henow has 10 shows under his belt. He likes to tellstories, prompt encounters, arouse emotions.Generosity is the hallmark of his dance; it is gearedto breaking down barriers and transcendingfrontiers. It rejects the “rough housing project”label and preaches dialogue between hip-hopand other forms of dance – a dialogue betweencultures as an alternative to war... Kader takeshis work on the road, and through his showsconveys “another image” of France whenabroad. From his first journey to Zagreb (1993)through to his journey to Ramallah in September2004, he has enjoyed powerful encounters. InJanuary 1996, he made Kelkemo, in homage tochild refugees; it was thanks to this piece thatthe company began to travel and discover theworld, and to experiment with the universaldimension of dance. Through foreign tours, hefurther explored the question of meaning: hiship-hop energy and rebellious streak becametools to reach out to others. The issue of culturalmixing and the world-citizen idea are centralto his work. In 1999, he began researching hisAlgerian origins. This first yielded Prière pour unfou, a cry triggered by his struggle to understandwhat is happening in Algeria, and a bidto restore dialogue. He then embarked on along project of exchanges and collaborationswith young hip-hop dancers in Algiers, whichproduced Douar. In 2000, he brought hip-hopdancers face to face with Indian classical dancers,creating Anokha - la danse des Dieux et desHommes. This show engenders a “peacefulness”that lends it a universal and timeless quality.Kader’s dance draws its originality and noveltyfrom the quest for identity that drives him – aquest that stems from all the wrenches, clashesand contradictions that dynamise his dance andwhich it expresses: assimilation and exclusion,the scholarly and the popular, modernity andtradition, Europe and Africa, East and West,spontaneity and rigour... He is one of the figureswho are giving contemporary dance a differentvocabulary, a fresh meaning, a new function.Petites histoires.com /2008 creation“I’ve always been interested by short films.What I like is their ability to tell stories in a veryshort timespan, cutting out what’s superfluousand getting straight to the point... and lookingto surprise. For the moment, these are ideas thatare feeding into my explorations – little storiesin sketch form, a bit like these little films. I seekand find things that are buried in me, in each ofus, then narrate them in a very short time...Awakening memories, words, painfulness;listening, getting on, expanding... When I was achild, I spent my time watching butterflies anddreaming that one day I would be able to dowhat they do. I spent my time catching them,one by one, and I collected on my fingers thepowder that their wings give off. I mademyself wings with cardboard and bitsof string, and sprinkled this magicpowder on them – I was sure itwould help me fly... But it neverdid.What we do is give voice,live our share of dreamsin movement, anddance three little noteswith our so-singularenergy, while treatingmatters of varyingseriousness withgreat levity.”Kader AttouHere, Kader Attouhas devised ashow of sketches.Some tell stories,others are moreabstract. They evokeburlesque cinema,and the choreographicflourishes are studdedwith deft humour in afree-wheeling, mercurial,poetic style that ignores thecodes of convention.Kader’s work has always been nourished by thestuff of life and by current events.His agenda? To skip from story to story, betweenvery different subjects, blending performance,emotion and musicality in a strongly burlesqueshow.Extra info:The company performed at the 2000Biennale2 matinees for young audiencewww.accrorap.com53