Compagnie Hervé Koubi

Dance Series

COMPAGNIE HERVÉ KOUBI

The Barbarian Nights 

May 9–11 | 8 p.m.

Artistic Director/Choreographer: Hervé Koubi
Assistant Choreographers: Fayçal Hamlat, Guillaume Gabriel

Choreographic Artists: Badr Benr Guibi, Giacomo Buffoni, Mohammed El Hilali, Youssef El Kanfoudi, Abdelghani Ferradji, Vladimir Gruev, Oualid Guennoun, Denys Kuznetsov, Bendehiba Maamar, Nadjib Meherhera, Houssni Mijem, Ismail Oubbajaddi, Matteo Ruiz, El Houssaini Zahid

 Music: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Gabriel Fauré, Richard Wagner, traditional Algerian music 

 Musical Creation: Maxime Bodson 

 Sound Arrangements: Guillaume Gabriel 

 Lighting Creation: Lionel Buzonie 

 Cutlery: Esteban Cedres 

 Costumes, Jewel-hoods and Accessories Creation: Guillaume Gabriel, assisted by Claudine G-Delattre 

Masks and Jewel-hoods created with the support and best crystals of Swarovski-Swarovski Elements. 

There will be no intermission

Out of respect for the artists and the audience, no photography or video is allowed during the performance.

About the Program

Les Nuits Barbares ou Les Premiers Matin du Monde
The Barbarian Nights, or the First Dawns of the World
(2015–16)

This is a story about a path, it’s always about a path...

I have lived five years between France and Algeria, on opposite shores of the Mediterranean, the famous sea that is at the origin of these unrooted people with similar pedigree and fundamental backgrounds entrenched in those whom we call Mediterraneans.

As I was vainly attempting to search for reconciliation with the land of my ancestors in Algeria, new ties have instead emerged. Ties that have allowed me to reap a deeper understanding of my own background and roots. I’ve met fellow artists, witnesses of a lost story. I’ve met those who I love to call my lost brothers. I’ve rediscovered the desire to surround myself with others and I’ve returned with a thirst to create this new adventure.

Les Nuits Barbares ou Les Premiers Matin du Monde takes root from this awe-inspiring and unavoidable story of our Mediterranean basin. I’ve chosen to share this road which testifies my will to reach out to others, reach out towards the unknown against the mainstream ideas that amalgamate and often dictates how we see “us and them.” We, the civilized and them, our neighbors, the Barbarians, where the etymology often takes a pejorative connotation, with images of a civilization amiss with any sense of humanity and filled with gratuitous violence.

Naturally, it is important to know where we come from to better understand where we are heading. It is also important to know where we’re talking about and it seems necessary to me in the current context. I think it is necessary for everyone to believe in a universal culture which is at once shared, mixed and linked in order to wish for an inevitable common future. Les Nuits Barbares ou Les Premiers Matin du Monde will create a new current at the bottom of the ocean to distance us from obscurantism to better find the light of our common history.

Who were these Barbarians storming in from the North, the mysterious people of the sea that were often mentioned in the Bible, chronicles and ancient monuments without really describing who they were or where they came from? Who were these Barbarians of the East, geniuses of the Dark Ages, these Persians, Lonias and Babylonians, the Arabo-Muslims? From what unknown, forgotten, reworked, assimilated or erased history we have originated?

The estranged ones have always been feared. A fear that is fueled by the confrontation of ignorance and frustration itself. I would then choose to showcase this ancestral fear of the unknown and of strangers to better seek and unmask the beauty, rich knowledge and fine traits behind these so-called Barbarians and challenge the stereotypes from our Western societies.

What I seek is not a rehabilitation of history towards these peoples but to bring a more sensitive light, filled with humanity to try to make these Barbarians loved, these Barbarians who are also our ancestors in some ways. A form of orientalism definitely nourished my reflections, as well as some thoughts from Ce que le jour doit a la nuit. La Noce Barbare by Jean Cocteau, the weaving of Eastern and Western music, the brilliant traces left by cultures like the Persians, Goths, Arabo-Muslim have all nourished and helped inspire this work.

I’ve chosen to bring my attention to what I feel is the most beautiful: the mixture of cultures and religions throughout the times to allow and help me draw the foundations of a common geography on which we today stand, all too often without knowing. I also want to seize history, open my eyes and slide towards freedom while remembering that the word Barbarian is also said as “amazigh” which signifies, the “free man.”

To beauty! The one who, above wars, speaks of unity, the one who gathers all, the one who turns their back to identity claims, the one who takes the best of everyone and whom, throughout history, honors man as its anthem.

To the Mediterranean that contains so much luminosity that it blinds like a lost secret. The secret of our common lost desire and destiny.

To our common origins that has been weaved throughout times throughout the Mediterranean whether Spanish, Italian, Provencale, Oriental, Occidental, Italian, Maghrebi, Romain, Greek...

To our history which has, for over 3000 years, witnessed countless cultures whose differences have brought us together. Indeed, it has brought us together instead of keeping us apart! Whether we’re Algerian, Spanish, French, we’re first and foremost Mediterranean and this feeling of belonging is much more ancient than the concept of nations.
— Hervé Koubi

Originally from Algeria, Hervé Koubi began his career as a dancer and choreographer during his years as a Pharmaceutical Biology student at the Aix-Marseille University. Koubi has since had the chance to work with names such as Jean-Charles Gil, Jean-Christophe Pare, Emilio Calcagno, as well as Barbara Sarreau (as part of “les affluents du Ballet Preljocaj”) following his extensive training at the Centre International de Danse Rosella Hightower in Cannes and the Opera de Marseille. In 1999, he joined in with the Centre Choregraphique de Nantes, directed by Claude Brumachon and Benhamin Lamarche for the creation of Hotel Central (2000). Koubi then teamed up with Karine Saporta at the Centre Choregraphique National de Caen for the creation of Le Garage, essai sur la mystique Rock (2001), followed by the creation of Reliefs d’un banquet (2003) and D’Orient (2008) with Thierry Smith’s Compagnie Thor in Brussels.

In 2000, Koubi created his first project Le Golem. He has since collaborated with Guillaume Gabriel to create Ménagerie (2002) and Les Abattoirs, fantaisie... (2004). In 2006, Koubi worked with musician Laetitia Sheriff on the creation of 4’30. In 2007, he reworked a moving show Les Heures Florissantes along the famous La Croisette in Cannes created in 1997. During the same year, he created Moon Dogs, combining contemporary and hip hop moves for his first time. 

In 2008, Koubi spearheaded the creation of choreographic pieces based around three writings: Coppelia, une fiancee aux yeux d’email...; Les Supremes; and Bref sejour chez les vivants. For these pieces, he collaborated with the writer Chantal Thomas (Les Supremes) and Benesh Movement notator Romain Panassie (Bref sejour chez les vivants). In 2009, he kickstarted a collaboration with Ivory Coast dancers from Beliga Kope Company for Un rendez-vous en Afrique. 

In addition, Koubi has collaborated with with videographers for several dance video projects including Chic Chef (2009) with Max Vadukul for Yoji Yamamoto, Bodyconcrete (2010) and Ovoid edges (2012) with Pierre Magnol, and Bodyconcrete 2 (2011) with Michel Giumbard and Pierre Magnol.

Since 2010, Koubi has engaged a team of a dozen Algerian and Burkinian dancers in several creations such as El Din (2010–11), Ce que le jour doit à la nuit (2013), Le rêve de Lea (2014), Des hommes qui dansent (2014), Les nuits barbares ou les premiers matins du monde (2015–16). 

Hervé Koubi is regularly invited by many professional training schools throughout France as well as abroad. Since 2014, he has been Associate Choreographer at the Pole National Superieur de Danse (The Superior School of Dance of Cannes and the Superior School of Dance of Marseilles). Since 2015, he has been Associate Choreographer at the Conservatoire de Danse de Brive-la-Gaillarde. He was awarded the National Medal of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 2015 by the French Ministry of Culture, which was recently presented to him by Brigitte Lefevre, the Artistic Director of the Cannes International Dance Festival and the former director of the Paris Opera Ballet company.

Web Site: www.cie-koubi.fr

Contact
Guillaume Gabriel
+33 (0)6 51 20 37 10 |
Hervé.koubi@orange.fr

North American Representative
 Bernard Schmidt Productions, Inc.
 16 Penn Plaza, Suite 545,
 New York, NY 10001, USA

212-564 4443 | bschmidtpd@aol.com | www.bernardschmidtproductions.com 

Partners Coproduction: Cannes – Festival de Danse / Centre Chorégraphique National de La Rochelle – Poitou Charente – CieAccrorap / Centre Chorégraphique National de Créteil et du Val de Marne – Compagnie Käfig / Ballet de l’Opéra National du Rhin – Centre Chorégraphique National de Mulhouse / Théâtre de Vitré / Sémaphore – Scène conventionnée de Cébazat / La Papeterie d’Uzerche – Centre de Développement Chorégraphique en préfiguration / Centre Culturel Yves Furet – La Souterraine / Le Forum de Fréjus. 

With the assistance of: Channel – Scène Nationale de Calais / Conservatoire de Calais / Domaine Départemental de l’étang des Aulnes – Département des Bouches du Rhône / Conservatoire de Musique et de Danse de Brive-la-Gaillarde / École Supérieure de Danse de Cannes – Rosella Hightower / CDEC – Studios actuels de la danse de Vallauris / Ville de Vallauris / MAC de Sallaumines / Hivernales d’Avignon – Centre de Développement Chorégraphique / Théâtre de Fossur-Mer / Théâtre la Colonne de Miramas / Pianock’tail de Bouguenais / Safran – Scène conventionnée d’Amiens / La Fabrique Mimont – Cannes.

April/May 2024

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