Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui is not only an exceptional choreographer, he is also exemplary in the extent of his affection, empathy and willingness to cooperate with dancers and other choreographers.
From the 21 ensemble members of the "Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève" he took over fifteen when he took over as director this autumn.
And he shares the evening on which his first choreography for his new ensemble is celebrating its premiere with his artistic companion Damien Jalet.
"Ukiyo-e" is the name of Cherkaoui's premiere, Jalet's "Skid" was created in 2017.
In April, another of Jalet's older works will be shown in Geneva, the magnificent and moving post-Paris bombing 'Through' featuring the spinning, playable tube by American artist Jim Hodges.
The forty-six-year-old Flemish-Moroccan autodidact and the Franco-Belgian of the same age renew their long-standing collaboration on another level.
One of their most spectacular joint works was “Babel (words)”, created in 2010.
The unbelievably clever, funny piece, almost bursting with dance ideas and allusions, about what is actually undanceable - biblical confusion of language, nationality, identity, religion, the resulting separations and borders as well as their overcoming - celebrated huge success.
"Babel", British artist Antony Gormley's stunning moving architecture installation, won two Laurence Olivier Awards and a Benois de la danse in 2011, has toured for almost seven years and has been shown more than 150 times worldwide.
The repertoire?
In danger of disappearing!
In 2016, the Festival d'Avignon invited the two choreographers to create a director's cut of Babel for the cour d'honneur.
As the two revealed in an interview with the FAZ, it will return to the stage in Geneva, because not only are its resources still gorgeous, but the topic of migration has lost none of its topicality.
It is also the desire to be able to take up his own older works again that prompted a choreographer like Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui to go to a house again after Antwerp.
Apart from the Paris Festival d'automne, there are hardly any retrospectives in dance.
It is therefore very difficult for contemporary free dance to keep its repertoire visible.
Whenever it succeeds, the successes with the audience speak for themselves.
However, the difficulties of readmissions are manifold.
Is the original cast available?
Can the missing ones be adequately replaced?
What happened to the set design and costumes in the meantime?
It is true that the existing, almost self-evident preference for the new over even those works that are just a dozen years old,
understandable – after all, the choreographers want to work.
But if you consider its problematic consequences, namely the lack of history and production for the theater garbage dump, then everyone should distance themselves a little from it - the co-producing theaters and festivals, artistic directors, ballet directors and the choreographers themselves.