Firmly entrenching the Paris Opera Ballet in today's multifaceted world, Aurélie Dupont, Director of Dance, has invited during season 20/21 four contemporary choreographers to the Palais Garnier. Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet, the two Belgian choreographers who created Boléro in 2013, return to the House, each presenting a new work, the former to music by Woodkid, the latter to a score by Koki Nakano. Twenty-three-year-old American choreographer Tess Voelker who has been working at the Nederlands Dans Theater since 2017, is proposing a first piece for our Company to the rhythms of a song by Nick Drake. Finally, French choreographer and stage director Mehdi Kerkouche, accompanied by musician Guillaume Alric, transports the audience into his hip-hop world. A coproduction Opéra national de Paris - Act4 Productions - Le Grizzly - 2020 Direction: Louise Narboni

Brise-lames de Damien Jalet (saison 20/21)

Chorégraphes contemporains - 1

Contemporary choreographers: creating today

Exposure de Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui en répétition (saison 20/21)

Chorégraphes contemporains - 3

Contemporary choreographers: Creating today

Firmly entrenching the Paris Opera Ballet in today's multifaceted world, Aurélie Dupont, Director of Dance, has invited during season 20/21 four contemporary choreographers to the Palais Garnier.Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet, the two Belgian 

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Tess Voelker, Damien Jalet, Mehdi Kerkouche

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui made his debut as a choreographer in 1999 with Anonymous Society, a stage musical by Andrew Wale. He created his first pieces for the collective Les Ballets C. de la B. and at the same time choreographed D’Avant (2002) with Damien Jalet and the Sasha Waltz & Guests Company as well as Zero Degrees (2005) with Akram Khan. From 2004 to 2009, he was artist in residence at the Toneelhuis in Antwerp where he created the ballets Myth (2007) and Origine (2008). Also in 2008, he choreographed Sutra for nineteen Buddhist monks at Sadler’s Wells in London. After Orbo Novo for the Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet and Faun for Sadler’s Wells, he created the duo Dunas in 2009 with the flamenco dancer María Pagés and launched Eastman, his own company, in residence at the Toneelhuis in Antwerp. In 2010, he brought together the choreographer Damien Jalet and the sculptor Antony Gormley for Babel (words), then created TeZuKa, a work named after, and inspired by the eponymous author of Japanese mangas, and also choreographed Labyrinth for the Dutch National Ballet. In 2012, he created Puz/zle. That same year, he choreographed the Joe Wright film Anna Karenina. Again, with Joe Wright, he presented A Season in the Congo at the Young Vic Theatre—a hybrid project midway between dance and theatre inspired by the Aimé Césaire stage drama. In 2014, after Noetic for the GöteborgsOperans Danskompani and Mercy for the London Coliseum, he directed the opera Shell Shock at La Monnaie in Brussels to a composition by Nicholas Lens. In 2015, he directed the stage play Pluto in Tokyo, a work based on the manga by Naoki Urasawa and Takashi Nagasaki. That same year, he oversaw the premiere of Hamlet at the Barbican Centre in London, created Harbor Me for Benjamin Millepied’s L.A. Dance Project and choreographed a new Firebird for the Stuttgart Ballet. He choreographed and performed in his own ballet Fractus V and he created his first works for the Royal Ballet of Flanders where he has held the post of artistic director since September 2015: Fall (2015), Exhibition (2016) and Requiem (2017). His other choreographies include Qutb (2016, a trio commissioned by Natalia Osipova), Icon (2016, for the GöteborgsOperans Danskompani) and Mosaic (2017, for the Martha Graham Dance Company.) Larbi Cherkaoui also directs operas including Les Indes galantes (2016, for the Bayerische Staatsoper), Satyagraha (2017, for the Theater Basel) and Pelléas et Mélisande (2018, with Damien Jalet and Marina Abramović for the Opera Vlaanderen). He has also been the associate artist at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London in 2008. He has earned numerous distinctions over the years including the Benois de la Danse in 2011, two Olivier Awards, two Tanz Ballet Awards (Best choreographer in 2008 and 2011), as well as the Kairos Prize (2009). He also has an impressive track record at the Paris Opera having worked on numerous productions including Boléro (with Damien Jalet, 2013); The Nutcracker with Edouard Lock and Arthur Pita in a production of Iolanta/Nutcracker (Dmitri Tcherniakov, 2016), and Faun, which entered the Paris Opera Ballet’s repertoire in 2017

Exposure

Growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, Tess Voelker began with jazz and commercial dance. After moving to Philadelphia in 2009, she decided to start formal training in classical ballet at The Rock School for Dance Education and with Barbara Sandonato. She continued her training in Boston at Walnut Hill School for the Arts where she grew a passion for the contemporary style. After graduating in 2015, Tess studied as a trainee at Joffrey Ballet Chicago and on weekends spent her time training with a small contemporary company, Cocodaco, where she studied improv methods from the artistic director Ronn Stewart. She has gone on to win awards from both the YoungArts Foundation and Youth American Grand Prix. In 2016, she moved to Germany to start her professional career with Ballett Dortmund. Her career then took her to the Netherlands to join Netherlands Dans Theater 2 in 2017 and the main company in 2020. At NDT she has had the good fortune to work closely with Johan Inger, Marco Goecke, Ohad Naharin, Hans Van Manen, Paul Lightfoot, Marina Mascarell, Yoann Bourgeois, Sharon Eyal, Edward Clug and many other leading contemporary choreographers. Tess has also spent the last few years independently exploring her own artistry and movement. This exploration is what has led her into the world of choreography. She graciously thanks Aurélie Dupont and the Paris Opera for supporting her work and beginning her choreographic journey.

Clouds Inside

Damien Jalet studied at the Institut national supérieur des arts du spectacle in Brussels. He also studied ethnomusicology and dance in New York. He danced in Wim Vandekeybus' company before joining the Les Ballets C. de la B. collective where he met Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. He danced for the latter (Rien de Rien, Foi, Tempus Fugit, Myth and TeZukA), before co-signing with him d'avant (2002) and Babel (words) (2010). In May 2013, Damien Jalet choreographed Le Boléro for the Paris Opera Ballet with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui in a scenography by visual artist Marina Abramović. In 2017, Le Boléro was back on the Palais Garnier stage. He works again with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui in 2018, staging Pelléas et Mélisande. He works regularly with Icelandic choreographer Erna Ómarsdóttir and visual artist Gabriela Fridriksdóttir (Transaquania-outof the blue, Transaquania-into thin air and Ofaett (unborn)). With Ómarsdóttir he also produced Black Marrow (Chunky Move Company, Melbourne, 2009). He collaborated with dancer Alexandra Gilbert and composer Christian Fennesz on Three Spells (2008, Tokyo International Art Festival), with Akram Khan (solo in Desh), and with stage director Arthur Nauzyciel (Samuel Beckett's L'image, Dublin, 2006; Julius Caesar, The American Repertory Theater in Boston, 2008; Ordet by Kaj Munk, 2008; Le Musée de la mer by Marie Darrieussecq, 2009; Jan Karski, 2011; the opera Red Waters by Lady and Bird, 2011 ; La Mouette, in the Cour d’honneur of the Palais des papes, Festival d’Avignon, 2012 ; Splendid's by Jean Genet, 2014 : La Dame aux camélias, 2018). He has also made music videos with Olöf Arnalds and Björk (Surrender), with Florence + The Machine (No Light, No Light) and the English group Editors (You don't know love). He also works with photographer Nick Knight and stylist Bernhard Willhelm (Men in tights), as well as with philosopher Giorgio Agemben and musician Stefano Scodanibio (Il cielo sulla terra at the Stuttgart Opera). In February 2013, Damien Jalet conceived the choreographic journey Les Médusés at the Louvre with the participation of more than 20 performers. In 2014, he created Yama for the Scottish Dance Theatre with visual artist Jim Hodges and the group Winter Family, as well as the solo inked for kathak dancer Aakash Odedra. Later on, he choreographed Gravity Fatigue (2015), Thr(o)ugh (2016), Skid (2017). In 2018, Damien Jalet choreographed the remake of Suspiria, by Luca Guadagnino, Since 2017, Damien Jalet has presented YAMA and Vessel at the TNB and reprised for the European dates only his piece Omphalos at the 2019 TNB Festival. Damien Jalet is an associate artist at the TNB and works regularly with the school's students. Associate artist at Chaillot - Théâtre national de la Danse since 2019, Damien Jalet has also worked for companies such as Les Ballets C de la B, Sasha Waltz, Chunky Move, Eastman, NYDC, Hessiches Staatballet, Scottish Dance Theatre, Icelandic Dance Company, GöteborgsOperans Danskompani. In 2019, Damien Jalet fully choreographed Anima, a 15-minute danced film directed by Paul Thomas Anderson with Radiohead singer Thom Yorke, for which he received the UKMVA award for the best choreography. The same year, he directed and choreographed several sequences of Madonna's first theatre tour, Madame X, which was unanimously acclaimed by the press. Finally, Damien Jalet regularly teaches his contemporary dance technique at the Pina Bausch Tanztheater (Wuppertal), at the Impulstanz Festival (Vienna), at the Panetta movement center (New York), at the Centros de las artes (Mexico), as well as in Paris (Atelier de Paris and Ménagerie de verre).

Brise-lames

Multi-disciplinary artist Mehdi Kerkouche works as a choreographer and director on numerous television programmes in France and Europe. From cinema to fashion shows and advertising, he coaches artists from all horizons and directs the staging of major cultural events. In 2017, he set up the EMKA company in order to bring together artists encountered on his previous projects in creations that marry energy and poetry. The jury's favourite at the choreographic parade of the Karavel Festival in 2018 with his solo Mute, he then presented Dabkeh at numerous festivals in France and Europe. The work rediscovers the powerful and festive dance of the Middle East through a contemporary lens. In 2020, his "confined videos" went viral and enabled him to launch the festival “On danse chez vous”. This event gathered 70 dancers and choreographers on social networks to help healthcare workers during the COVID-19 crisis. Strongly committed to passing on knowledge and skills, he teaches at the International Academy of Dance where he trained, as well as at the Studio Harmonic and the Lax Studio in Paris. He is also the patron of many dance festivals in France and abroad. As a performer, he has played and sung in numerous musicals, accompanied artists such as Christine And The Queens and performed the role of Karim in Ladislas Chollat's first feature film, Let’s dance. At the start of the 2020 season, he was invited by Aurélie Dupont to create a piece for the dancers of the Paris Opera Ballet to be presented in November at the Palais Garnier.

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