Compagnie Hervé KOUBI What the Day Owes to the Night photos: Nelson Romero Valarezo Saut Guayaquil
Tue, Apr 18 / 8 PM / Granada Theatre
Dance Series Sponsors: Annette & Dr. Richard Caleel Margo Cohen-Feinberg & Robert Feinberg and the Cohen Family Fund Irma & Morrie Jurkowitz Barbara Stupay
Choreography: Hervé Koubi Dancers: Lazhar Berraoug, Riad Mendjel, Issa Sanou, Giovanni Martinat, Nadjib Meherhera, Abdelghani Ferradji, Zakaria Ghezal, Mourad Messaoud, Mohamed Medelsi, Houssni Mijem, El Houssaini Zahid, Adil Bousbara
What the Day Owes to the Night by Yasmina Khadra, set in the period before, and the aftermath of, the FrenchAlgerian war, spoke to Koubi’s imagination. Like the hero of the novel, an ordinary young boy who finds himself sent from one family to another, Koubi embarked on an exploration of his own family history that led him to identify with the novel’s protagonist.
“I met these dancers at an open audition in October of 2009 in Algeria. Ever since, my enthusiasm never ceases to grow because of their pleasure in dance, always remaining open to the requirements of a role. I try to stay away from creating the spectacular just for the spectacle and prefer to create something where the musicality of each dancer, of each body, serves the purpose of the performance.” – Hervé Koubi
“It is like an orientalist of the 19th century came to Algeria to give life to his dreams,” describes Koubi. “I would like to give life to my dreams as a child born in France who discovered belatedly his true origins, and those of his parents, Algerian in their roots.”
Music: Maxime Bodson, Hamza El Din with Kronos Quartet, Johann Sebastian Bach, Sufi music Lights: Lionel Buzonie Costumes: Guillaume Gabriel
About the Program In 2009, Hervé Koubi organized an audition in Algeria for the debut of a work which would become What the Day Owes to the Night (Ce que le jour doit à la nuit). Born and raised in France, Koubi learned as an adult that his parents had come to France from Algeria, sending him on a quest for self-discovery. The coming-of-age novel
Inspired by Oriental paintings and the lace of Islamic architecture, Koubi traces his own path, entangled like a complex weave. Koubi has always been fascinated by lace’s design. “Lace,” Koubi maintains, “is before all else a way of creating ‘le jour’ (the day), the day in a cloth, rendered from material. The day in my story What the Day Owes to the Night is, as its title implies, a mixing up of time and a story of interweaving threads.” Twelve dancers from Algeria and Burkina Faso were chosen from the open audition. The dancers, primarily with backgrounds in street dance and hip-hop, have displayed the strength and skill necessary for this long-term project, honed over time through their work together and with Koubi.
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