Mehdi Kerkouche
PORTRAIT
PORTRAIT, the new production by international dance talent Mehdi Kerkouche, explores intra-family relationships through highly expressive tableaux tinged with burlesque. After DABKEH, a work about group balance between broken bonds and reconciliation, and ET SI on the theme of survival and support among pack members, Kerkouche continues his research on group forms in a black-and-white family portrait.
Happy, uncomfortable, toxic, absent family. How does one escape it or, conversely, how is it possible to take refuge in it? How to assert one's individuality in a family one has not chosen?
Powerful, fluid and vibrant, Kerkouche's dance masterfully brings together young artists from from diverse backgrounds - hip hop, street jazz, cabaret, contemporary circus - and blends styles, abetted by a spellbinding electro-pop soundtrack by from Lucie Antunes.
On stage, a tribe of bodies coexist perfectly without ever touching, until, at times, to freezing like old family portraits. Bonds evolve, personalities emerge as the sequences unfold, in solo, duet or ensemble form. Then the picture comes to life, revealing the truth about the characters: behind the frame, they all experience the same ups and downs, joys, sorrows, losses and happiness.
Dancer, actor, singer, director, Mehdi Kerkouche works as a choreographer and director on numerous television programs in France and Europe. From film to fashion, he trains artists from all horizons and directs the staging of major cultural events. In 2017, he created the EMKA company, involving artists known from his previous projects for new creations that blend energy and poetry.
choreography Mehdi Kerkouche
choreography assistant Alexandra Trovato
music Lucie Antunes
lights Judith Leray
scenes Mehdi Kerkouche, Judith Leray
costumes Guillaume Boulez with Patrick Cavalié and Céline Frécon
makeup Sabine Leib
voice coaching Nathalie Dupuy
stage director / sound Frédéric Valtre
with (alternating) Micheline Desguin, Matteo Gheza, Jaouen Gouevic, Lisa Ingrand Loustau, Shirwann Jeammes, Matteo Lochu, Sacha Neel, Amy Swanson, Kilian Vernin, Anabelle Villechenoux, Titouan Wiener Durupt
production Centre chorégraphique national de Créteil et du Val-de-Marne | EMKA
co-production Festival Suresnes Cités Danse 2023
with the support of Cités Danse Connexions / Théâtre- Sénart, scène nationale / Chaillot - Théâtre national de la Danse / Visages du monde, Cergy / L'Archipel, Scène nationale de Perpignan
residencies Théâtre de Suresnes Jean Vilar / Visages du Monde - Cergy / l'Avant Seine - Théâtre de Colombes / Chaillot - Théâtre national de la Danse
PORTRAIT is subsidized by the DRAC of Île-de-France
Please be advised that dates and times may be subject to change.
See www.festivaldispoleto.com for updates.
After a childhood spent in television and pictures, a stage enthusiast especially of musicals, he began his career as a professional dancer before the age of eighteen. His experience as a performer confirmed his vocation as a choreographer. He shares this passion by teaching at Académie Internationale De La Danse (AID), Studio Harmonic, and Lax Studio in Paris. Since 2017 he has been expanding his company EMKA, a faithful mainstay of his projects, with the desire to "connect different bodies and styles through an energetic and poetic body language." During the first lockdown, his expressiveness and artistic strength earned him viral success on social media. In the fall of 2020, he is invited from Aurélie Dupont to to choreograph ET SI for the Ballet de'Opera in Paris, after which Chaillot - Théâtre national de la Danse hosted the third edition of its On Danse Chez Vous festival. from January 2023, Mehdi Kerkouche took over as director of the National Choreographic Center (CCN) in Créteil.
Dimitri Chamblas
Kim Gordon
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+ Marco Castelli Small Ensemble
Wayne McGregor
Il Posto / Wanda Moretti
+ Marco Castelli Small Ensemble