Image by Mats Backer
Three and a half tonnes of clay covered the main stage at London’s Sadler’s Wells last weekend as Belgian dancer and choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui premiered his work, Icon, in the UK for the first time. Starting off as earthy, flat and still on the stage, the dancers of the Göteborgs Operan Danskompani morphed and transformed the clay — through choreography — into masks, headpieces and even consumerist products such as iPhones, cameras and Coca Cola bottles, only to be to be destroyed and remoulded into something new.
While it was the dancers themselves that physically manipulated the clay, the brains behind the piece was the Turner Prize winning sculptor, Antony Gormley, whom Cherkaoui told SLEEK he has formed a strong artistic relationship with since they first met in 2005. Having first been introduced when working on Zero Degrees, a dance performance created in partnership with British-Bangladeshi choreographer Akram Khan, the iconic duo has created numerous multidisciplinary works. From Sutra, a performance featuring Shaolin monks who manoeuvre large wooden plinths created by Gormley to form intricate patterns, to Babel, a co-choreographed work with Damien Jalet (the dance master behind the 2018 Suspira movie), in which Gormley created a new sculptural take on the tower of Babel, their creative alliance has long engineered performances that imaginatively synthesise their two mediums. Still, Cherkaoui insists that neither practice takes precedence, as the artists always find “a meeting point” between their two disciplines.
Image by Mats Backer
That being said, the choreographer acknowledges that Gormley’s expansive artistic oeuvre often provides a source of inspiration. Gormley’s previous creation, Clay and the Collective Body, in which audiences were invited to interact with and sculpt a giant clay cube placed in the middle of Helsinki for 10-days, was an inspiration for the set design of Icon.
Despite his high-art status, Cherkaoui is known in pop culture circles as the choreographer behind The Carter’s Apes**t music video set in Paris’ Louvre museum. But this wasn’t his first foray into the mainstream — the music videos of pop icons like Janet Jackson and Prince were what inspired him to start dancing in the first place. “It’s all art. It’s really not that different,” explains Cherkaoui. “[But] you [do] get to reach a very different audience. Some people go to watch dance shows, some go to watch opera, and some watch videos on YouTube,” he continues, explaining how he admires Jay-Z and Beyoncé for the way they make great pop music that also contain serious messages. Cherkaoui has also taken on the big screen, choreographing for feature films such as Anna Karenina back in 2012, and most recently GIRL by Belgian director Lukas Dhont, which explores the struggles of a transgender ballerina.
Image by Mats Backer
Cherkaoui even confesses that there are some benefits to working on film projects rather than the live theatre performances for which he is renowned. “Live art is exciting because it’s right there. People experience it. But it relies heavily on memory and openness,” he admits. “People have to be extremely open when they are watching live art, they have to receive it all, right there. But with video you can go back, and suddenly realise that there’s more to be seen.”
But we needn’t worry, Cherkaoui’s not going to abandon the stage in favour of the silver screen anytime soon, as his company Eastman already has a full calendar of performances booked through to July next year, including works from his oeuvre as well as a new commission from the Royal Ballet in May. Will this new piece feature fashion? Or perhaps will it be another chance to combine dance with the work of Antony Gormley? Nothing can be said for certain, except that this uncategorisable choreographer’s work is sure to continue to surprise us well into 2019.