“But who sets the spectator’s dreams alight? The dancers of the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève […]”
Alexandre Demidoff, “À Genève, le Boléro de rêve du Ballet du Grand Théâtre”, Le Temps, 21 November 2023
THE WORD MOVES, THE DANCERS MOVE AND THE SHOW MOVES. Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui completes a diptych that he begun in 2022 with Vlaemsch. Now, Ihsane is both a word and a name. It is also and above all an ideal, difficult if not impossible to translate into French or English, at the junction of benevolence and perfection. With Ihsane, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui is at the crossroads between Europe and Africa. This time, the father-son relationship, Moroccan culture and the city of Tangiers are at the heart of his approach. Using mathematics, calligraphy and music, the performers work their way through an abstract labyrinth in search of an answer: how can we be there for each other in a human way?
Alternating with this creation, program 2 comprises three works in which the dancers’ bodies are called upon, sometimes to the point of exhaustion. Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet break with the principle of the circle in Boléro and introduce the eleven dancers to a form of danse macabre. With Busk and Strong, Aszure Barton and Sharon Eyal explore the limits of bodily energy. Performing together in Forces, these two pieces bring words to life (fragility, tenderness, resilience, trepidation, solitude) and awaken our consciousness.
