La Provence

The widely renowned choreographer presented his show Prélude in the street, and with this opened the season at the Scène Nationale in Cavaillon.

End of the afternoon in Isle-sur-la-Sorgue.  The thermometer reads 33 degrees. Place de l’Eglise, hundreds of spectators are in place, waiting for something they already feel will be intense. Sitting at the stage control desk, a discrete man, wearing Bermudas, tries to quench his thirst under the sweltering sun. This man is simply one of the greatest choreographers in France today: Kader Attou, aged 49, born in Lyon, who, in his creations, interweaves contemporary dance movements with markers from hip-hop, as in his anthology works that have toured France and far beyond, from Allegria to The Roots. On that day, Kader Attou is present with the nine dancers, men and women, of his company Accrorap, for the first of the highpoints of the season at La Garance, the Scène Nationale in Cavaillon.

Prélude is a breathtaking work that lasts 35 minutes, a dance of suffering and lightness, a glimpse of confrontation and isolation, a shock of bodies that find themselves in communion, in duos or together…

…with Kader, we Attou: poetry, physical explosions, jumps and jolts. An end to a day we dream of, in the heart of Isle-sur-la-Sorgue.

F.B.

Zébuline

Prélude, brings together music by Romain Dubois, full of crescendos ad libitum, in an endless ascending spiral, where the bodies of the dancers are swept up into a swell of energy. A true homage to hip-hop, Prélude, for nine dancers, is articulated by the steps of this dance, invites the artists to surpass themselves in solos of dazzling virtuosity; the movements as an ensemble, facing the public, in a repeated affirmation of gestures free from all forms of constraints, inhabited by the blood of life. Breathing draws movements, folds into the rhythms, bringing mind-blowing intensity to the substance of this work.

Maryvonne Colombani

Clicanoo

The public at Champ-Fleuri, lacking true choreography and pending Total Danse, had with Prélude, a burst of thankfulness and acknowledgement for the new direction of Teats which was the opulent idea to add to the current programme the Accrorap Company of Kader Attou, which, in his time, Jacques Dambreville had also invited to the same stage, without being remembered…

It must be said that since the beginning of this millennium, the hip-hop dancer and circus performer who was one of the first to offer his notoriety to street dance, recognised at the Biennale de Danse de Lyon with his first creation, Athina, has climbed the ladder of success to earn his stripes in contemporary dance with the same passion expressed at his beginnings and with additional experience which propelled him, with his Company, to the leadership of the National Centre of Choreography in La Rochelle to better impose himself in the South of France alongside the Friche de la Belle de Mai where he never stops creating (aptly, in beauty), with, at the key, total harmony erupting from an ocean of energy. His nine dancers (Antuf « Jikay » Hassani, Azdine Bouncer, Alexis de Saint Jean, Damien Bourletsis, Simon Hernandez, Jade Janisset, Yann Miettaux, Nabjibe Said, Margaux Senechault) invited with him by the Théâtre Luc Donat and by Teat Champ Fleuri to perform their latest creation, Prélude, have here given a breathtaking demonstration in unison, which we appreciated on Saturday as a benediction, us and the dance-lovers that Pascal Montrouge trained for 16 years in the aisles of Teat with the best national and international choreographer. This having been said, to pay homage where homage is due, and to specify the nostalgy for shared enthusiasm in the aisles that has weighed upon us all, these past months…

So, to find a theatre transfixed, in awe and one which knows to applaud to burst the allegresse was a true gift among the abundance of performances which, today, sometimes, mislead the gazes towards the supposed “exploits” which just are not such.

Here, “Bravo!” as Mister Vabois would say to Kader Attou and the genies of his company equally, who, to the melodious music of Romain Dubois, particularly well-adapted to the frensy of their paces so precisely placed, to orchestrate in crescendo this unbridled virtuosity and almost breathless performances which they reward us with, magnifying as no one else can, the rhythm and movement, we thank them for this. The proof in any event that the addiction to choreography is still present here to impose itself through thick and thin, at Champ Fleuri. Let us hope that Prélude bodes well for the upturn…

Marine Dusigne