Hip hop, a street dance that originated in American ghettos, has captivated Europe and the world for four decades. As a global and commercial phenomenon, it still represents a ‘counterculture’ for many, a dance of revolt that gives voice to minorities, even though it is filtered through the aesthetics of staging and representation in theaters. The Dyptik company, founded in 2012 by choreographers Souhail Marchiche and Mehdi Meghari in Saint-Étienne, in southern France, is among them. The group’s slogan leaves no doubts: “Carefree. Detached from approval, Dyptik dances.” And what does it dance? Identity, revolt, the authenticity of life and relationships to the rhythm and movements of hip hop.
In their emblematic debut works En quête (2012) and Dyptik (2014), the company explored the human being and its history, focusing on the power of inner strength. In the subsequent works, D-Costruction (2016), a guest at Oriente Occidente, Dans l’engranage (2017), and Le Cri (2018), the spirit of revolt takes center stage. With D-Costruction, the company, accustomed to working in theaters, chooses to return to the roots of hip hop culture and invade public spaces not only with the bodies of six performers but also with the help of an imposing bi-front metal structure that allows the audience to be positioned on two sides. A front and a back, interchangeable, to demonstrate that no matter from which angle they are viewed, the walls erected are not insurmountable, especially if one is in solidarity.
Sensitive to the events that have shaken the world in recent years—popular uprisings and migration flows—the creators conceived D-Costruction as an anthem for freedom, a call for popular mobilization against injustice. Mehdi Meghari’s choreography transcends the subject and the individual virtuoso hip hopper, thriving in the group, in a sensitive dance with complex and pulsating interconnections, both at the feet of the large metal net and on it. Against every barrier, the power of dance, of the group, and the desire for redemption.
dyptik.com/espace-pro/d-construction
