France’s Compagnie Kafig exports theatrical street sizzle in the North American premiere of Corps est Graphique at the National Arts Centre
February 05, 2004 -
OTTAWA -- Internationally acclaimed hip-hop sensation Compagnie Kafig rocks the Theatre of the National Arts Centre when they perform the dizzyingly high-energy Corps est Graphique in its North American premiere on Tuesday, February 17 and Wednesday February 18 at 20:30. As a result of audience demand for tickets, the second performance for Compagnie Kafig was added in November.
Eight French dancers of mostly Algerian descent take the dynamic language of hip-hop and give it a spectacular multicultural twist. Compagnie Kafig (under Artistic Director Mourad Merzouki) integrates athletic street movement with stylized French, North African, and Andalusian choreography -- as well as capoeira, mime, and gymnastics. Celebrated for their humour, energy, and virtuosity as well as stunning stage spectacles incorporating music and elaborate lighting, sets and props, the company’s new creation, Corps est Graphique, questions social roles and the place of women in the hip-hop universe. Conscious of their relative absence, Merzouki imagines a much greater role for women and examines some exciting alternatives. But are the dancers of different genders ready to talk, exchange, and share the stage?
“ Magnificent…Kafig offers something fresh…it’s music made visual.”
Anna Kisselgoff, The New York Times
“Compagnie Kafig is the evolution of street dance and has the endurance to prove it. A standing ovation for this group was not enough.”
Jessica Swoyer, The Dance Insider, Chicago
“To say Compagnie Kafig is a crowd pleaser is an understatement. This Lyon-based company’s mix of hip-hop, break dance, acrobatics, and visual effects roused the mid-week audiences to exuberant applause.”
Vanessa Manko, The Dance Insider, New York
Compagnie Kafig’s style is derived directly from street-dancing, and, without losing the form’s crucial spontaneity, the company has managed to bring this unconventional dance genre to the concert stage in what makes for a truly entertaining evening filled with virtuosity, humor, and dynamic stage energy. Compagnie Kafig is made up of French dancers of Algerian descent from Saint-Priest, a working-class area of Lyon. The founders, Mourad Merzouki and Chaouki Said, had previously received their training at the renowned Ecole de Cirque de Saint- Priest, and they founded Compagnie Kafig in 1995. The company is heavily influenced by the B-boy style from America that became popular in the 1980s and spread to Europe, where the economically marginalized Arabs and Africans in France embraced it readily. The B-boy culture is what made such forms of expression as breakdancing, graffiti, and rap the popular phenomena that they are today. Unlike American hip-hop, however, French groups are usually made up of multiracial members who bring their own culture’s influence to bear, making each group unique.
Compagnie Kafig’s style of dance combines a special mix of influences: they draw from American hip-hop’s pop-and-lock, breaking, and head and back spins while smoothly integrating it with stylized French, North African, and Andalusian Spanish choreography as well as capoeira, mime, and gymnastics. The music that accompanies it includes recorded rap music as well as classical violin and Andalusian guitar. Compagnie Kafig has a mission; these dancers ask us to re-evaluate the role of hip-hop in our current environment. When some may see dance purely as a triviality in everyday life, there is no doubt the dancers of Compagnie Kafig know their role in this world and their job in this “sacred universe”.
Corps est Graphique
CHOREOGRAPHY/ARTISTIC DIRECTION Mourad Merzouki
CALLIGRAPHY Hashemi Mokrane
LIGHTING Yoann Tivoli
MUSIC AS’N
COSTUMES Carima Amarouche
SETS Martin Lecomte
VIDEO Les Machineurs : Emmanuel Pampuri & Fred Aujas
Compagnie Kafig performs Corps est Graphique in the Theatre of the National Arts Centre on Tuesday, February 17, 2004 as well as on the originally scheduled date of Wednesday February 18; both shows take place at 20:30. Tickets are $40, $37 and $29, and $21, $19.50 and $15.50 for students (upon presentation of a valid student ID card). Tickets for Compagnie Kafig, or any other NAC Dance performance, are available at the NAC Box Office (in person) and through Ticketmaster (with surcharges) at (613) 755-1111; Ticket-master may also be accessed through the NAC’s web-site at www.nac-cna.ca. Last-minute tickets (subject to availability) for full-time students are $9.50 at the Live Rush Centre in the NAC Foyer after 18:00 on the day of performance only, upon presentation of a valid `Live Rush’ card.
Photos for all dance events can be viewed and downloaded at: www.nac-cna.ca/media/
Information:
Gerald Morris
Marketing and Media Relations, NAC Dance Department
(613) 947-7000, ext. 249
gmorris@nac-cna.ca
