Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui . Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève . Eastman

“Sometimes it’s dangerous to acknowledge your heritage (…), and yet, when you trace back your family tree, you see that we all have many different origins, connections with other, faraway places,” is how Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui describes the idea that led him to the piece Vlaemsch (chez moi), which he presented at Festspielhaus St. Pölten in 2022. Now one of the most exciting choreographers of our time returns with the second chapter of this journey back into his family history: Ihsane. While Cherkaoui looked at his mother’s Flemish heritage in Vlaemsch, in Ihsane he immerses himself in the Moroccan legacy of his father: the father who left his homeland yet remained connected to it for the rest of his life, the father who introduced Cherkaoui to Islam and died when the choreographer was still a youth. This father, whose early loss turned him into a kind of phantom, is someone Cherkaoui has been searching for ever since, for example in a cemetery in Tangiers, but also with Ihsane. “Ihsane” is the Arabic word for goodness or benevolence, and in Islam it denotes a form of connection with everything in existence. In Belgium, however, the name “Ihsane” is also a reminder of a tragic events: in 2012 a homosexual man of Moroccan heritage with this name was brutally murdered for racist and homophobic motives. Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui – who identifies as a queer, Arab artist – declares his solidarity with him: “Ihsane, c’est moi” (meaning: “Ihsane is me”). In a spirit of hospitality, Ihsane, a co-production between the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève and Cherkaoui’s company Eastman, is an intense and visually arresting exploration of the issues arising out of the links between his Flemish and Moroccan identity and the memory of Ihsane: how can multiple identities co-exist in one and the same body? What happens to identity when it is threatened? Accompanied by live music from the Tunisian musician and composer Jasser Haj Youssef and the powerful voice of Mohammed el Arabi Serghini, trained in the vocal arts of Islam, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui conjures up a world that connects people rather than dividing them and that consistently grows and changes through the new communities that are continually being created.

A co-production of Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève with Eastman, Théâtre du Châtelet, Tanz Köln, Festspielhaus St. Pölten, Internationaal Theater Amsterdam and Centre National des Arts Ottawa.

CAST

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui Choreography, Amine Amharech Stage design, Amine Bendriouich Costumes, Fabiana Piccioli Lights, Jasser Haj Youssef Composition, Jasser Haj Youssef Viola d’amour, Mohammed el Arabi Serghini Musicians, vocals, Manuel Renard, Pascal Marty, Assistance with choreography and rehearsal direction, Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève and Eastman Dance