Mourad Merzouki likes strong images.
As soon as the curtain of
Zéphyr,
his new creation made for the Vendée Globe, rises, he seizes the public.
A very small fan on stage, a few lights on dancers waving under his breath.
And the magic happens.
All that was needed was nothing, and finding this nothing is a sign of the choreographer's talent.
Read alsoHip-hop dance: from tarmac to institutions
Merzouki explores with this ballet a new element: the wind.
Over time, the blown air intensifies.
Powerful machines arranged on either side of the stage relay the small fan placed in the foreground.
The dancers are alternately propelled in the direction of the wind, or confronted with contrary gusts.
As in life where you are tossed between the ebb and flow of your own personality.
Hip-hop odyssey
The very cinematographic music by Armand Amar perfectly accompanies this odyssey which takes us on all the shores of the earth. We almost forget that we are watching hip-hop: Mourad Merzouki turns this street dance into a stage dance. The dancers do not wear sneakers or caps, and nothing further emphasizes the social origin of this dance. The subject is elsewhere, even if it is ambivalent: towards what destination is this wind pushing us? Is he announcing a storm? No doubt one never adapts better to tumult than by marrying it rather than seeking to tame it.
This is the great strength of Mourad Merzouki: each spectator can recognize himself and ask his own questions in front of the images offered by his ballets.
Isn't it characteristic of dance, which does not use the verb, to leave everyone the freedom to develop their own questions?
Merzouki does not impose anything;
he suggests, he accompanies.
Some perhaps reproach him for a certain ease;
What does it weigh in relation to the emotion aroused by its shows?
Maison de la danse de Lyon, from January 11 to 22 (04.72.78.18.00).
