"My Dance Unites": the contemporary fairy tale of Mehdi Kerkouche

The dance section of the first weekend of the Festival dei Due Mondi opens with the new work by the French choreographer of Algerian origin Mehdi Kerkouche: Portrait is on stage at the Festival dei Due Mondi Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 June at at 21 to Teatro Romano. to Only thirty-eight years old, since 2023 Mehdi Kerkouche has been director of the Centre Chorégraphique Nationale de Créteil et du Val-de-Marne, and his experience ranges from television programs in France and Europe to the world of musicals, cinema and fashion. A Story of Contemporary Redemption: Mehdi Discovered Dance from child copying videos of Michael Jackson Prince, Britney Spears that he saw on television. Then he signed up to a dance course but has never stopped paying attention to the dialogue between cultures, in particular between the Arab and the French.

Kerkouche says, "In my childhood there was much more tolerance for diversity than in today's fragmented, label-divided society. Before, it was easier to coexist in suburban neighborhoods where everything mixed: Jews and Arabs, blacks and whites, together without problems. I experienced this dual culture as a great richness that continues to to inspire my creations even in subtle ways. The differences have blended into me." And his dance speaks of this, thanks in part to to a company of dancers (founded in 2017), from twenty to sixty-seven years old, from the most diverse backgrounds - hip hop, street jazz, cabaret, contemporary circus. Human relationships are the focus of her new work Portrait. "I developed the idea of bringing together on stage a group of people who have not chosen each other, but who constitute a whole in which emotions are constantly evolving" - he says. "As in any family, you can harbor deep anger toward someone and the next day feel the need to hug them back, because that person remains your mother, your father, or a fundamental reference in your life. Then there is the "family of the heart," the one that each of us builds beyond blood ties. These two types of family cohabit in everyone's life." A quest that is also a celebration, danced to the pop music of Lucie Antunes. "Dancing belongs to the most beautiful moments in life: parties, weddings, celebrations. Therefore it can touch people, from the most informed spectators to those totally unfamiliar. from director of the National Choreographic Center in Créteil I take the challenge to create in France, where the dance system is very segmented, a bridge between contemporary and ballet, flamenco and street dance, and in the widest possible spectrum, from museums to contemporary circus."

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