The dance company Hush Hush Hush, directed by Moroccan Abdelaziz Sarrokh, was founded in 1995 in Antwerp. The Carte Blanche project was realized with the support of Les Ballets C. de la B. by Alain Platel, a company that Sarrokh is a part of and with which he has performed fundamental works such as Bonjour Madame and La Tristeza Complice. Discovered by Platel at the “Best Solo in Belgian Dance” competition, Sarrokh, a 26-year-old with training as an electrician, is making his debut as a choreographer. Carte Blanche – the title refers to the complete freedom of approach that this project benefited from, co-produced by the Centre Culturel in Berchem, the Vooruit in Ghent, and the Culturele Interventies in Antwerp – is a show born out of the confrontation between dancers of different cultures and training, ranging from classical to hip-hop, contemporary to African dance and capoeira. For a year, the eight performers worked together to experiment with the impact of the contrast between their movement techniques, aiming for an exchange between contemporary dance writing methods and the youth culture of hip-hop and MTV. Sarrokh chose to work with young non-professional dancers, learning from Platel to seek talent in people who do not belong to the traditional art world. Four boys who practice break dancing on the streets are working in Carte Blanche, not by chance. Three of them come from Namur and with their group, Break Sensation, are a reference point for Belgian youth in street dance. “Starting from nothing,” declare Break Sensation, “some B. Boys (guys who practice B. Boying) have managed to integrate their self-taught knowledge into a production subsidized by the Belgian state.” Before directing Hush Hush Hush, Sarrokh founded a multicultural company in Ghent, Al Fath, with which he began experimenting with a form of cultural blending, well present in the Carte Blanche project, which includes young people of Dutch, Belgian, Moroccan, Polish, and Zairian origin. Sarrokh states: “I am not content with including hip-hop in my piece, I want to go further. To work on contrasts, to mix them. Hip-hop is beautiful to see, but it goes through moments of crisis. That’s why I am interested in the confrontation with contemporary theatre.”
