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Biographies
SIDI LARBI CHERKAOUI
Direction and Choreography
Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s debut as a choreographer was in 1999 with Andrew Wale’s
‘contemporary musical’, Anonymous Society. Since then the Belgian-Moroccan
choreographer has made more than 15 fully-fledged choreographic pieces and
picked up a slew of awards, including the Fringe First award in Edinburgh, the
special prize at the BITEF Festival in Belgrade, the promising choreographer prize at
the Nijinsky Awards in Monte Carlo, the Movimentos award in Germany and the
Helpmann award from Australia in 2007. In 2008 Sadler’s Wells named him an
Associate Artist and in 2009 the Alfred Toëpfer Stiftung conferred its Kairos prize to
him in recognition of his artistic philosophy and his quest for cultural dialogue. In
2008 and 2011 he was declared Choreographer of the Year by the dance magazine
Tanz.
While Cherkaoui’s initial pieces were made as a core member of the Belgian
collective, Les Ballets C. de la B. – Rien de Rien (2000), Foi (2003) and Tempus
Fugit (2004) – he also undertook parallel projects that both expanded and
consolidated his artistic vision. Ook (2000) was born from a workshop for mentally
disabled actors held by Theater Stap in Turnhout with choreographer Nienke
Reehorst; D’avant (2002) from an encounter with longstanding artistic partner
Damien Jalet, Juan Kruz Diaz de Garaio Esnaola and Luc Dunberry of Sasha Waltz
& Guests company; and zero degrees (2005) with friend and choreographer Akram
Khan. He has worked with a variety of theatres, opera houses and ballet companies,
but from 2004–2009 Cherkaoui was based in Antwerp where he is an artist in
residence at Toneelhuis, the theatre that produced Myth (2007) and Origine (2008).
In 2008 Cherkaoui premiered Sutra at Sadler’s Wells. This award-winning
collaboration with 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 (for 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 in October 2009), he launched
his new company Eastman, resident at deSingel International Arts Campus and
Toneelhuis in Antwerp.
Spring 2010 saw him reunited with co-choreographer Damien Jalet and Antony
Gormley to make Babel(words), the third part of a triptych that began with Foi and
Myth. 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. Babel(words) recently triumphed at the 2011 Laurence
Olivier Awards, winning best new dance production and outstanding achievement in
dance for Antony Gormley and also received a Benois de la danse at Bolshoi,
Moscow.
2011 saw the creation of TeZukA, a new piece for 15 performers about the works of
the master of Japanese manga, Osamu Tezuka. TeZuka has toured extensively
since its creation. Cherkaoui also created Labyrinth for Dutch National Ballet the
same year.
In 2012 he worked on Automaton for the American dance company Pilobolus. For
his own company he developed Puz/zle, premiering at the Festival d’Avignon in La
Carrière de Boulbon. This old stone quarry inspired him to take stone as a defining
element for the choreography. Together with eleven dancers, the Corsican men’s
choir A Filetta, Lebanese singer Fadia Tomb El-Hage and Japanese musician
Kazunari Abe he questioned the puzzles that lie behind human relationships. He has
also collaborated with Joe Wright on his movie Anna Karenina, for which he helmed
the choreography.
ANTONY GORMLEY
Visual creation and Design
In a career spanning nearly 40 years, Antony Gormley has made sculpture that
explores the relation of the human body to space at large, explicitly in large-scale
installations like Another Place, Domain Field and Inside Australia, and implicitly in
works such as Clearing, Breathing Room and Blind Light where the work becomes a
frame through which the viewer becomes the viewed. By using his own existence as
a test ground, Gormley’s work transforms a site of subjective experience into one of
collective projection. Increasingly, the artist has taken his practice beyond the
gallery, engaging the public in active participation, as in Clay and the Collective Body
(Helsinki) and the acclaimed One & Other commission in London’s Trafalgar Square.
Gormley’s work has been widely exhibited throughout the UK with solo shows at the
Whitechapel, Serpentine, Tate, Hayward Gallery, British Museum and White Cube.
His work has been exhibited internationally in one-man shows at museums including
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Denmark), Malmö Konsthall (Sweden), Kunsthalle
zu Kiel (Germany), Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso (Mexico City), Kunsthaus
Bregenz (Austria), State Hermitage Museum (St Petersburg), Deichtorhallen
(Hamburg) and Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, São Paulo. Gormley has also
participated in group shows at the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Los
Angeles County Museum of Art, the Venice Biennale and Documenta 8 (Kassel,
Germany). Major public works include Angel of the North (Gateshead, England),
Another Place (Crosby Beach, England) Exposure (Lelystad, The Netherlands).
Gormley was awarded the Turner Prize in 1994, the South Bank Prize for Visual Art
in 1999 and the Bernhard Heiliger Award for Sculpture in 2007. In 1997 he was
made an Officer of the British Empire (OBE). He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal
Institute of British Architects, an honorary doctor of the University of Cambridge and
a fellow of Trinity and Jesus Colleges, Cambridge. Gormley has been a Royal
Academician since 2003 and a British Museum Trustee since 2007.
SZYMON BRZÓSKA
Composer and Piano
Born in Poznań (Poland) in 1981, Szymon Brzóska already started playing piano at
age seven. From 2000 until 2005 he studied at the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Music
Academy in Poznań where he was taught composition by Mirosław Bukowski and
from wich he graduated as a Master in Arts. In 2007 Szymon completed his
postgraduate degree in composition at the Royal Flemish Conservatory in Antwerp
(Belgium) under the guidance of composer Luc Van Hove. During his studies in
Antwerp he was selected among the contestants in the competition for composition
of the music @venture 2007 festival in Antwerp, which commissioned him to create a
piece for the prestigious Belgian ensemble I Solisti del Vento.
September 2009 saw the premiere of his concerto for piano, strings and percussion
Hommage à Schnittke, played by pianist Barbara Drążkowska, during the 42nd
edition of the Festival of Polish Piano Music in Słupsk. In may 2010 Drążkowska also
performed the World Premiere of Septem – seven miniatures written especially for
her at the Sounds New Contemporary Music Festival in Canterbury.
Composer’s particular interest in the synergy between music and other arts, such as
contemporary dance, theatre and cinema also caused him to participate in film
soundtracks and theatre projects. Szymon composed the score for Sutra, a Sadler’s
Wells’ production in London. This dance performance was made in collaboration with
choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, sculptor Antony Gormley and monks from the
Shaolin temple in China. Sutra premiered in London in May 2008 before touring
across the globe through 2008-2012.
Brzóska also wrote the soundtrack for the French film Le bruit des gens autour,
directed by Diastème, which was premiered at the Festival D’Avignon in 2008.
After the success of Sutra, Szymon collaborated again with choreographer Sidi Larbi
Cherkaoui by writing the score for Orbo Novo, a modern dance piece performed by
the New York-based Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet. Orbo Novo premiered at the
Jacob’s Pillow dance festival in July 2009 before touring through the United States
and Europe. His connection with modern dance continues when he composes a
cello piece for I will, the solo by Małgorzata Dzierżon of Rambert Dance Company
(premiere June 2009 in London) and by composing the score for Dunas, a duet
between Cherkaoui and flamenco danseuse Maria Pagès. (Dunas premiered
October 2009 in Singapore) A new collaboration with choreographer Joost
Vrouenraets led to the premiere of (S)NOW in October 2010 in Tilburg, Netherlands.
Szymon's orchestral score for Labyrinth, a full-length ballet commissioned by Het
Nationale Ballet in Amsterdam and premiered in June 2011 in Het Muziektheater in
Amsterdam, was another collaboration with Belgian choreographer Sidi Larbi
Cherkaoui.
November 2011 saw Szymon back in his home town, Poznań, for the premiere of his
new score for Desert – a dance performance choreographed by Paulina
Wycichowska (Polish Dance Theatre in Poznań).
Casting Traces, a collaboration with New Movement Collective premiered in London
in July 2012. Performance Oh, Noh, choreographed by Kaya Kołodziejczyk had its
premiere in Warsaw in November 2012. Szymon’s music was performed live by
Kinematic Ensemble.
ALI THABET
Assistant Choreographer and Performer
Ali Thabet’s initiation into movement arts came through kung-fu. Despite a
longstanding affinity with dance, he joined the National Centre for Circus Arts in
Châlons (France) in 1997. He performed in Francis Viet's Furie (2001) but got his
first major breakthrough in 2002 with Cyrk 13, a piece choreographed by Philippe
Découflé with whom he has since collaborated on several other projects. He was
part of Josef Nadj's Il n'y a plus de firmament (2003) where he got the opportunity to
work with artistes like Jean Babilé and Ioshi Oïda. He met Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui in
2004 and joined the cast of Tempus Fugit as a performer, in 2008 he joined Sidi
Larbi's Sutra as a assistant choreographer and performer.
DAMIEN FOURNIER
Assistant Choreographer and Performer
Damien Fournier was born in 1977 in France where he is currently based.
At the age of 13, he fell in love with the circus and immediately signed up at the
regional circus school in Toulouse, where he trained for five years before moving on
to the National Centre for Circus Arts in Châlons (France). There he crossed the
ways of Mario Gonzales, Francis Viet, Pal Frenak and Pierre Doussaint who
influenced his career. While at the CNAC he got drawn to the creative universe of
artists like Guy Alloucherie and Josef Nadj.
After an injury during the exit show of the Cnac, Slowly, he decided to dedicate
himself to contemporary dance entirely and left the circus world behind him. This
meant a mental change as well. He turned to something more introspective, intimate.
After school, he worked with Alloucherie (Les sublimes), Giorgio Barberrio Corsetti
(Paradiso, Argonauti), Kitsou Dubois (Traversées). With the latter he discovered the
parabolic flight (zero gravity) which was an extremely inspiring experience. He
worked with Josef Nadj (Il n’y a plus de firmament, Asobu) where he collabored with
Mariko Aoyama, Yoshi Oîda and Jean Babilé.
He discovered Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui in Iets op Bach by Alain Platel, which impacted
him deeply.
In 2006 he joined Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui on Myth. Damien Fournier is impassioned
about widening the vocabulary of dance through sources as diverse as sign
language and personal narratives. After Myth, he stayed involved with Sidi Larbi
Cherkaoui and Eastman. He acted as assistant-choreographer and rehearsal
director in Sutra, dances in Babel (words) and Puz/zle, participated in Anna
Karenina, the movie of Joe Wright for which Cherkaoui helmed the choreography.