PHENIX/VERTIKAL

La Compagnie Käfig led by Mourad Merzouki, excited the festival audience last year by combining hip-hop dance with baroque music. The French artists will once again surprise us at the XXXI BOF with two original performances! “Phénix” will hypnotize you with its harmony of contradictions, while “Vertikal” will captivate you with suspended dance!

The performance Phénix was born from the unexpected encounter of hip-hop dance, baroque music and electronic sounds. On stage, four dancers engage in a dialogue with a soloist playing viola da gamba — a string instrument that was the baroque precursor to the cello. The uniqueness of this combination is further accentuated by electro sounds inspired by the music of J. S. Bach. Merging seemingly contradictory worlds, such as the baroque and hip-hop, has been Mourad Merzouki’s creative aspiration since his collaboration with Le Concert de l’Hostel Dieu on the Dolce Folia/Folia project, which was enthusiastically welcomed by the XXX BOF audience. This year, Mourad Merzouki and his group La Compagnie Käfig return to our Festival to (once again!) introduce our audience to the unexpected dimensions of dance and music.

Vertikal is a performance of suspended dance — magical, dazzling, and effortlessly light. It is a dance that reveals the sky - critics have described the performance as a breathtaking fusion of dance, aerial acrobatics, and gravity-defying movement.

Mourad Merzouki plays with weightlessness by boldly challenging his dancers, exploring the aerial space by fusing hip-hop with vertical dance. The traditional connection with the floor, fundamental to hip-hop dance, undergoes a radical transformation. Everything seems possible: ascents and descents, the quest for lightness, and a playful interaction with gravity. In a poetic gesture, the choreographer cements his approach to breaking down barriers between different forms of art.

About Mourad Merzouki

Mourad Merzouki is a key figure in hip-hop dance, having made a significant contribution to bringing street dance to the most prestigious stages. A visionary and self-taught artist, his works — combining various forms of dance with acrobatics and other disciplines — allow him to share his vision and open-mindedness. In 1996, he founded La Compagnie Käfig. From 2009 to 2022, he served as the director of the Centre chorégraphique National de Créteil et du Val-de-Marne.