A double dance set between futuristic trance and Creole culture, carried by Sharon Eyal and Léo Lérus, two great figures of contemporary dance who mirror their singularities with the same unifying power.
Sharon Eyal and Léo Lérus have been cultivating an artistic and professional complicity for twenty years. At the invitation of the Ballet de l'Opéra national du Rhin, they imagined this diptych together, bringing their two worlds into resonance.
Mixing technical rigor and raw expressivity, the piece The Look (2019) refers for Sharon Eyal to Mahatma Gandhi's mantra, "Nobody can hurt me without my permission", evoking the resilience of the body, mind and human communities in the face of violence and oppression. Here, the dark silhouettes of the male and female dancers merge and appear as one, an organism, an ecosystem, a microcosm. A whole that looks the audience straight in the eye and breathes, unfurls, undulates and lives to the hypnotic, organic rhythm of a musical flow with tribal and post-industrial influences.
Echoing this futuristic, collective trance, the solos and intimate ensembles of Ici, a creation by Léo Lérus, infuse contemporary sensitivity and energy into Guadeloupean choreographic and musical traditions dating back to the period of slavery, the better to celebrate the singularity and encounters of solar individuals.
Other information
About Sharon Eyal and Léo Lérus
Sharon Eyal
Sharon Eyal is co-founder, co-director and choreographer of the S-E-D company. Since 2005, she has collaborated with Gai Behar on his creations, and in 2013 they created their dance company: the Sharon Eyal Dance Company, whose repertoire is co-produced with some of the leading international dance centers. They have also choreographed for Nederlands Dans Theater (Bedroom Folk, Salt Womb, Feelings and Sara), Opéra national de Paris (Faunes), Göteborgs Operans Danskompani (Untitled Black and Autodance), among others. In 2017 she was awarded the FEDORA Van Cleef & Arpels prize for ballet, and in 2018 she received the Faust prize in Germany. She was named Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres de la République française in 2023.
Léo Lérus
Léo Lérus began his career with traditional Guadeloupean dance, Gwoka. He joined the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et Danse de Paris, where he studied contemporary dance. He then joined the Random Dance Company (Wayne McGregor), the Batsheva Dance Company (Ohad Naharin) and the L-E-V Dance Company (Sharon Eyal/Gai Behar). His first creations date from 2010, including for : Festival Sur les Frontières at Chaillot - Théâtre national de la Danse in Paris, Israel Dance Festival in Tel Aviv, Holland Dance Festival in The Hague and the Israel Museum - Machol Shalem in Jerusalem. Affirming his attachment to Guadeloupean culture, he seeks to explore and deepen his link with Gwoka and dig deeper into its cultural heritage. His Entropieau creation was awarded the Prix du Public at the PODIUM 2021 competition.
Distribution and credit
The Look
Piece for 18 dancers. OnR Ballet
Choreography: Sharon Eyal
Music: Ori Lichtik
Costumes : Rebecca Hytting
Lights: Alon Cohen
Ici
Piece for 12 dancers. OnR Ballet
Chorography : Léo Lérus
Sound composition: Denis Guivarc'h
Costumes : Bénédicte Blaison
Lighting : Chloé Bouju
