Sol Invictus
choreography: Hervé Koubi
choreographer’s assistant: Fayçal Hamlat
music: Mikael Karlsson, Maxime Bodson, Ludwig Van Beethoven, Steve Reich
lighting design: Lionel Buzonie
costumes: Guillaume Gabriel
artistic adviser: Bérengère Alfort
duration: 60’
premiere: Pavillon Noir/Ballet Preljocaj, Aix en Provence, 2023
production: Compagnie Hervé Koubi
co-production: Les Ballets de Monté-Carlo, Le GRRRANIT-Scène Nationale de Belfort, La Barcarolle-Scène conventionnée de Saint-Omer, L’Empreinte-Scène Nationale Brive–Tulle, Centre Chorégraphique National de Biarritz, BCMO Pole chorégraphique de Calais, Théâtre de Grasse - Scène conventionnée d’intéreêt National, Ville de Cannes / supported by: L’Esplanade du Lac de Divonne-les bains, Conservatoire de Calais, Le Channel Scène Nationale de Calais, supported by Spedidam
dancers: Ilnur Bashirov, Francesca Bazzucchi, Badr Benr Guibi, Joy Isabella Brown, Denis Chernykh, Samuel Da Silveira Lima, Youssef El Kanfoudi, Mauricio Farias Da Silva, Abdelghani Ferradji, Elder Matheus Freitas Fernandes Oliviera, Hsuan-Hung Hsu, Pavel Krupa, Ismail Oubbajaddi, Ediomar Pinheiro de Queiroz, Allan Sobral Dos Santos, Karn Steiner, Anderson Vitor Santos
For a life filled with the knowledge of happiness… to dance… together. “Sol Invictus” would be like a rebirth for me. To rediscover a vital impetus. To rediscover the childhood of oneself and of everything. For me dancing and loving are the same… I want to talk about light, mutual help, solidarity, binds, those binds that unites us to life. I call to the stage a whole world, a liberated spelling in the service of a choreographic writing that goes beyond borders, aesthetics, languages... I want a dance that laughs, a dance that comes from the heart, from the mouth, from the hips, from the feet on a burning floor. I want to make the stage a playground of all possibilities. There is an emergency to unite and inspire hope. So there will be circle dances and spirals. Those spirals that raise every one of us thanks to each other, thanks to the Other. All this for a rite, a rite that will be reinvented at each performance to celebrate that we are alive. A rite to marvel at the living. A rite to live together, to silence the bombs and open the door to a humanity aware that it is urgent to take care of the living.
Hervé Koubi
Roots in Algeria, pharmaceutical doctor, Hervé Koubi decided to concentrate on a career as dancer and choreographer and his studies in Aix-Marseilles University. He continued his studies at the International Dance Center with Rosella Hightower in Cannes and later at the Opera of Marseilles. In 1999, he joined the National Choreographic Centre of Nantes. After, he started collaboration with the National Choreographic Centre of Cannes and Thierry Smits Company Thor in Brussels. In 2000, Koubi created his first project “Le Golem”. Since then, he has created numerous successful projects and works. From 2010, together with dancers from Algeria and Burkina Faso, he created some unforgettable performances. Today, Koubi is regularly invited by many professional training schools throughout France as well as abroad. Since 2014, he has been Associate Choreographer at the Superior School of Dance in Cannes and the Superior School of Dance in Marseilles. From 2015 onwards, he has also been Associate Choreographer at the Conservatoire de Danse de Brive-la-Gaillarde. In July of 2015, Brigitte Lefevre presented Herve Koubi the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres.
If Mr. Koubi can make worlds as largely absorbing as the one he conjures here, he is an important addition to dance.
© The New York Times
