Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui was twenty years old when he joined Les Ballets C. de la B., dancing in and directing some parts of Iets op Bach by Alain Platel. The young man was inspired by the songs of Jacques Brel and created Anonymous Society, directed Rien de Rien adapted from contemporary compositions, then co-directed the performance D'Avant about traditional music of the 12th Century. This child of Antwerp today is delving into religious mythology and coming up with Foi. “The performance,” he says, “investigates those places where our fears and our superstitions lie. Faith can produce sublime monuments. But it can become a terrible force of destruction.” Like a victim of drowning, a dancer falls, gets up, breathes, falls, and starts again. Another armed with a loudspeaker, tries to articulate a stifled word or two. A blind man reads in brail the witness account of someone who escaped from Hiroshima, who watched a woman burning alive beside him, still trying desperately to breast-feed her charred child. Foi combines horrific images of the victims of blind belief with traditional music created by religious hope and preserved over the centuries. Rediscovered among partitions which were written down or restored through oral tradition, the music of the villages of China like the Italian compositions of the 16th Century, sung or played by the singers and musicians in Foi, are an accompaniment to the dancers' movements, inspired by ancestral religious or mythological archetypes.
Distribution
direction and choreography :Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui
created and performed by :Joanna Dudley, Lisbeth Gruwez, Damien Jalet, Nam Jin Kim, Ulrika Kinn Svensson, Christine Leboutte, Laura Neyskens, Erna Ómarsdóttir, Nicolas Vladyslav, Marc Wagemans, Darryl E. Woods
musicians “Capilla Flamenca” :Marnix De Cat, Jan Caals, Lieven Termont, Dirk Snellings, Liam Fennelly, Jan Van Outryve, Jowan Merckx
music direction :Dirk Snellings
music direction for the dancers :Christine Leboutte, Joanna Dudley
set :Rufus Didwiszus
costumes:Isabelle Lhaos
lighting :Jeroen Wuyts
training :Christine De Smedt, Isnel da Silveira
Production
Production :Les Ballets C. de la B. (Gand)
Coproduction :Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz (Berlin), Théâtre de la Ville-Paris, Monaco Dance Forum, Holland Festival Oude Muziek & Springdance / works (Utrecht), Vooruit Arts Centre (Gand), Stedelijke Concertzaal De Bijloke (Gand), South Bank Centre (Londres), Tanzquartier Wien, PACT Zollverein (Essen) / Choreographisches Zentrum NRW
Avec la participation :du ministère de la Communauté flamande