The dance and choreographic creations of Kader Attou are particularly characterised by a poetry in which the expression of feelings is central. A committed choreographer, one of his signature traits is the imaging dimension of the music that conveys emotion. Since the age of twenty, Kader Attou has been inspired by the Symphony no. 3 called “the Symphony of Sorrowful Songs”, Symfonia Piesni Zalosnych by Henryk Mikolaj Górecki. The version recorded by the soprano Dawn Upshaw and the London Sinfonietta, conducted by David Zinman, is the base of this new work. For the first time, he focuses here on the totality of a musical work. This new creation explores all of its compositional and sensitive aspects, lets itself be carried away by the voice and penetrated by the melodic strength, before uniting in the message of hope. Kader Attou lives his identity as a dancer and choreographer like the imaginary and creative island between two shores. His intimate questioning of origins, racial mixing and otherness establishes a vision and a choreographic universe open onto the world, other cultures and other dances. In the friction of the asperities of each dancer, the attention paid to the other builds a community of bodies where emotion and meaning erupt, a humanist offering of dance. Over and beyond styles, the danced gesture is preserved like a precious gift, a reflection of the richness of humanity, without seeking the uniformisation of the bodies in movement. The danced search is based on the uniqueness of each dancer and the recognition of the similarities, kinships of the gestures and energies of the dancing community. And the sincerity of this dialectic of differences resounds in each of us.

Director of the CCN of La Rochelle and the Poitou-Charentes region, artistic director, dancer and choreographer of the Accrorap dance company.

 Today’s hip hop creative works, independent and new dance scene creations, convey an image of French culture throughout the world.  Kader Attou can claim to be an integral part of this new dance scene.  He is one of the major representatives of French hip hop, and Accrorap is an iconic company.

 Contemporariness, blending of cultures, humanistic commitment, Kader Attou signs a dance of his times, where encounters, dialogue and sharing are the driving forces and creative sources.

 With the excitement of the discovery of break-dance in 1989, and the first shows of Accrorap, a desire was born to examine in depth the question of meaning and develop an artistic approach. In 1994 Athina marks the debuts of Accrorap on stage at the Dance biennale in Lyon. Created in 1996 Kelkemo, a hommage to Bosnian and Croatian child refugees is the fruit of a powerful experience in the Zagreb camps in 1994 and 1995. Prière pour un fou (1999), a pivotal piece in the choreographic universe of Kader Attou, attempts to re-establish the dialogue that the Algerian drama was making increasingly and painfully less probable.  

Then Accrorap broadened their scope inventing a dance that is rich and full of humanity with Anokha (2000), at the cross-roads between hip hop and Indian dance; East and West. Composed of sketches where performance, emotion and musicality intermingle, Pourquoi pas (2002), enters a universe of poetry and lightness. Douar (2004), created within the scope of the year of Algeria in France queries the issues of exile and boredom, echoing the concerns of young people in neighborhoods and housing estates in France and Algeria. Les corps étrangers (2006), an international project - France, India, Brazil, Algeria and the Côte d’Ivoire – evokes the human condition and searches for possible meeting points between cultures and aesthetic styles to construct, via dance, a space for communication to query the future. Petites histoires.com (2008), acclaimed by the critics and public alike, tells of Everyman’s France through burlesque sketches while maintaining a sensitive and committed approach. In 2008, Kader Attou was named Director of the CCN (National Centre for Choreography) in La Rochelle and the du Poitou-Charentes region, thus becoming the first hip hop choreographer to lead such an institution.

Trio (2010) takes us back to the world of the circus. Symfonia pieṡni źałosnych (2010) is a performance of the entire Symphony No.3 also known as the Symphony of Sorrowful Songs by the Polish composer Henryk Mikołaj Górecki. This creation explores all compositional aspects, is carried away by soaring vocals, penetrated by melodic forces to join the message of hope.

 In 2013, Kader Attou returns to the source of hip hop, to his very first sensations: The Roots is a human adventure, a journey, a dive into his poetical universe. Eleven of the most skillful hip hop dancers perform the piece; they form a group that is in complete symbiosis.

 Created in August 2014 for the 10th edition of the Nuits Romanes in Poitou-Charentes, Un break à Mozart, born of the encounter between the CCN of La Rochelle and the Champs-Elysées orchestra, presents a genuine dialogue between dance of today and music of the Enlightenment with the major musical work: Mozart’s Requiem.

In September 2014 for the Dance biennale of Lyon, Kader Attou created OPUS 14 for sixteen dancers, men and women, combining power, otherness, commitment and corporeal poetry in a fundamentally hip hop piece.

With Un break à Mozart as a base,  the premiere of Un break à Mozart 1.1 – a new creation by Kader Attou for 11 dancers and 10 musiciens from the Champs Elysées Orchestra  was performed in November 2016 at La Coursive in La Rochelle as part of the event “Shake La Rochelle !” the first edition of CCN’s Hip Hop festival. In January 2013 Kader Attou was made Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) and in the New Year’s honors list of 2015 was appointed Chevalier de l’Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur (Knight of the French Legion of Honour).

Source : Web site of the CCN de la Rochelle

More information : http://www.ccnlarochelle.com/kader-attou-cie-accrorap/