Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui (born 10 March 1976) is a Belgian dancer and choreographer and director. He has made over 50 choreographic pieces and received two Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production, three Ballet Tanz awards for best choreographer (2008, 2011, 2017), the KAIROS Prize and the Europe Prize Theatrical Realities (2018).

Early life He was born on 10 March 1976 in Antwerp, Belgium, to a Flemish mother and a Moroccan father.

After being talent-spotted, he participated as a dancer in variety of shows and television programs. At the age of 19 he won his first prize for his solo performance that included a mixture of vogueing, African dance and hip-hop motifs, at the national dance competition initiated by Alain Platel.

Later on he started studies at P.A.R.T.S., the dance school run by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker. Here he got to know techniques of such choreographers as William Forsythe, Pina Bausch and Trisha Brown. During these studies, Cherkaoui also worked together with hip-hop and modern jazz dance companies.

Career Cherkaoui debuted as a choreographer in 1999 with Andrew Wale in the contemporary musical Anonymous Society. But he gained a broader acknowledgment with his work at les ballets C de la B with such pieces as Rien de Rien (2000), Foi (2003) and Tempus Fugit (2004). Whilst working there he undertook several other projects, including D’avant (2002) with artistic partner Damien Jalet and zero degrees (2005) with Akram Khan. He has also collaborated with abundance of theatres, opera houses and ballet companies, like Geneva Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet in New York.

In February 2017, he appeared in a dancing presentation in Woodkid's release "I Will Fall for You".

Original works Cherkaoui's work can be divided chronologically in five periods: Debut (1), Les Ballets C. de la B. (2), Toneelhuis (3), Eastman (4) and Royal Ballet Flanders/Eastman (5).

Debut Iets op Bach (1995) Anonymous Society (1999)

Les ballets C. de la B. Rien de Rien (2000) OOK (2000) It (2002) d’avant (2002) Foi (2003) Tempus Fugit (2004) In Memoriam (2004) Loin (2005) zero degrees (2005) Corpus Bach (2006) Mea Culpa (2006) End (2006)

Toneelhuis Myth (2007) L'Homme de Bois (2007) La Zon-Mai (2007) Origine (2008) Sutra (2008) Orbo Novo (2009) Faun (2009) for Sadler's Wells Theatre Dunas (2009)

Eastman Babel(words) (2010) Rein (2010) Play (2010) Shoes (2010) Bound (2010) Das Rheingold (2010) Labyrinth (2011) TeZukA (2011) Pure (2011) Constellation (2011) Puz/zle (2012) Automaton (2012) Anna Karenina (2012) Siegfried (2012) 生长genesis (2013) 4D (2013) Boléro (2013) for Paris Opera Ballet m¡longa (2013) for Sadler's Wells Theatre Noetic (2014) for the Göteborg Opera Dance company Mercy (2014) Shell Shock (2014) for La Monnaie Pluto (2015) for Bunkamura L'Oiseau de Feu (2015) for Stuttgart Ballet Harbor Me (2015) for L.A. Dance Project Fractus V (2015) Qutb (2016)

Royal Ballet Flanders / Eastman

Fall (2015) Exhibition (2016) Requiem (2017) Qutb (2016) Les Indes Galantes (2016) for the Bavarian State Opera Icon (2016) for The Göteborg Opera Dance company Mosaic (2017) for Martha Graham Dance Company Requiem (2017) for Royal Ballet of Flanders Satyagraha (2017) for Theater Basel Memento Mori (2017) for Les Ballets de Monte Carlo Mermaid (2017) Pelléas et Mélisande (2018) for Opera Vlaanderen Medusa (2019) for Royal Ballet

UnitedHumans Award In 2014 Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet were the first to win the UnitedHumans Award for Mutual Respect. This award is granted to individuals, associations or organizations that applies mutual respect, sincere friendship and equality in dignity to life in a sustainable or a leading and remarkable way or having en effective impact on society.

Europe Theatre Prize In 2018, Cherkaoui was awarded the XV Europe Prize Theatrical Realities, in Saint Petersburg, with the following motivation:Creator of a dance theatre with no artistic, geographical or style boundaries, finding in it all kinds of connections, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui knows how to build performances of ‘soul’, of great formal beauty and a strong emotional impact. His works put into dance terms West and East, the worlds of dance and contemporary art, Chinese martial arts or Japanese manga, strangely incandescent worlds from beyond the grave where one can seek harmony through song, or beautifully disturbing visions of a future genesis, to call up but a few of them. The use of the body, movement, space and objects, his conceptual approach to dance, make every production by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui a scenic event whose language achieves a particular stylistic form, perfect and truly captivating.