Description
The theme of Nomad is the desert and its people: the dry, cracked earth, traversed by nomads and their animals, by fugitives and seekers. In images that are both sad and surreal, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui depicts the thirst for water and community, the comfort of mutual aid, without which no one can survive in the vast emptiness – and the boundless freedom of this desolate landscape. To music combining African and Oriental sounds, we see the proud, patient nomads struggle against the elements, raindrops falling on the desert and people who themselves become sand.
After many forays into other genres, from ballet to opera, Cherkaoui returns to his own company, Eastman, for which he has created all his independent works, with this homage to his Moroccan roots. Once again, he fearlessly reaches beyond dance and, like a magician, draws images, music and foreign traditions into his soft, flowing style. A solitary song echoes through the desert light, and alongside the endless wandering, the dance is characterized by the beauty of Arabic ornamentation. But when the evening glow of the sand dunes becomes too deep a red, too menacing, the desert is all that remains of humanity. It expands to encompass the whole planet, all the way to the apocalypse.
With live music
Duration: approx. 65 minutes no intermission
Age guidance: from 6 years
For Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, dancing means telling the story of the desert through the body. The performers are simultaneously sand, wind, movement and emotion. — Arts-chipels.fr
Subtly, he unfolds the beauty of the desert as a phenomenon of change leading into a new, uncertain era. — Kölnische Rundschau
This performance transports us to a powerful and poetic world that leaves us deeply shaken. Beautiful! — Arts-chipels.fr
A unique experience, which will truly move you. — L’Etincelle
A piece between fantasy and nightmare. The dance is organic, yet inventive: the choreographer forges a vocabulary of his own, borrowing elements from hiphop, martial arts, contemporary dance, with arms and torsions like sensual calligraphies flowing through the dancers' bodies. — Le Figaro Culture
Duration: approx. 65 minutes no intermission
Age recommendation: From 12 years