TedxFlanders - 2 duets from Babel(words) September 26, 2011

Favorite:

TedxFlanders - 2 duets from Babel(words) - a choreography by Sidi Larbi Cherakoui and Damien Jalet, in a production by Eastman and Théâtre de la Monnaie.
Founded in January 2010, Eastman was set up to produce and spread the works of Artistic Director/Choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. Cherkaoui's work provides the audience with a vast array of projects and collaborations; ranging from contemporary dance, theatre, ballet, opera, musicals and other forms of performance. His non-hierarchical thinking on movement, body language, and culture, is the basis of his artistic approach.
Set in his native harbor city Antwerp, Eastman forms the central point for all of Cherkaoui's work. Eastman is an associated partner with deSingel International Arts Campus, Antwerp and partner with Toneelhuis, Antwerp. Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui is also the Associate Artist at Sadler's Wells and the Artistic Director of Dance at the Fondazione Musica per Roma.
In his work, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui treats themes that have been with him for a long time, such as the intrinsic equality of different cultures and religious viewpoints. In April this year he was awarded the title of 'young artist for intercultural dialogue between Arab and Western worlds' by UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova.
Why see them?
Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's first dalliance with art was not dance, but drawing. As a child, he wanted to draw reality and all the images he associated with it. For example, the clouds and what he could see in them, and people and the shadows they cast. They were 'surrealist-type' drawings: realistic but never just the bare facts. It was his way of interpreting the reality around him. But eventually he started to get impatient. The two dimensions were no longer enough.
Then he started dancing. To Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, the nice thing about dancing is that you have to dance constantly to see the drawing. "Moreover, you are both the pencil and the draughtsman. Dance is always a contemporary drawing, it disappears when the movement ends. So the drawing can be written over, or rewritten at any time. Each performance has to be drawn again the next evening." Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui will not talk himself, but his company Eastman will show us all about his non-hierarchical thinking on movement, body language and culture. Two duets from Babel(words) will be performed, a show he created together with choreographer Damien Jalet.
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)