When French choreographer Hervé Koubi first learned of his Algerian heritage, he embarked on a voyage — both literally and figuratively — that took him to a completely different place as an artist.
The choreographer’s discovery stirred one of his most iconic pieces, “What the Day Owes to the Night,” or “Ce Que Le Jour Doit a la Nuit” in its respective French.
The piece — which originally combined contemporary with hip-hop and street dance and featured a 13-member troupe of all male dancers from Algeria — has been performed on stages across the globe, including in Aspen in 2019.
Now returning to Aspen for a one-night performance this weekend, Koubi has reworked his “What the Day Owes to the Night” into an entirely new creation. He’s extended its message beyond his own personal venture and into a universal sphere.
Presented by Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, the France-based Compagnie Hervé Koubi is performing on Sunday night at 7:30 p.m. at the Aspen District Theater.
Having only been performed once before — at the Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre in Boston last week — the Aspen show will mark the second time that Koubi’s renewed version of “What the Day Owes to the Night” is being performed before a live audience, said Guillaume Gabriel, co-founder of Compagnie Hervé Koubi.
“We kept on touring this show for years and years, but Hervé likes to have a special relationship with his creations — he doesn’t like to be always the same,” Gabriel said. “He likes to start a conversation, we could say, with his pieces.”
Gabriel has been a core collaborator with Koubi since the two brought the dance company to fruition in 2000. Both he and Koubi had trained together at the Rosella Hightower Cannes School of Dance, and Gabriel credited Hightower, an American prima ballerina, for training them in the spirit of being open to different forms of dance and different types of people, he said.
“We always have this in our minds … you know, the aspects of the way we dance change, but I think the message is always the same: Dance is to gather people to extend more than you can extend with your voice, with your nationality,” Gabriel said. “And for Hervé, really, dance is the way to link people — to bring people together — and it’s very important for him because if we can dance together, maybe, it’s the first step to live [among one another].”
Gabriel explained how in its first 10 years, Compagnie Hervé Koubi focused on contemporary technique. Then around 2009, Koubi discovered his family roots in Algeria and journeyed to the North African country to embrace them.
“He decided to go to Algeria to look at the landscapes, to go in the streets, to go to the centers,” Gabriel said. “But he also wanted to meet dancers.”
Koubi and Gabriel had reached out to the French Institute in Algeria to inquire about connecting with dance schools or dancers in the country. Gabriel recalled them only acquiring five email addresses, to which they sent a message inviting the prospective Algerian dancers to attend a meet-up at the French Institute one day.
An unexpected 250 dancers showed up to meet Koubi and Gabriel in Algeria, and among the attendees, there was only one woman, Gabriel said. He expressed how these dancers were all coming from the streets, describing the dance style as urban, capoeira and hip-hop.
It was right after this meeting that Koubi’s original “What the Day Owes to the Night” was created, Gabriel said, and it signaled the starting point of a new way of choreographing for Koubi, a new way of writing dance.
“So we used to work with contemporary dancers, but now, it was a new challenge in a way, to keep our contemporary point of view, but with hip-hop dancers,” Gabriel said. “And what was really amazing with this first team of dancers is that they were really open to new things, new opportunities, they really wanted to learn.”
What spurred out of Koubi searching for his own roots over a decade ago has now been rebirthed into a global message. The reworked version features dancers coming from not only Algeria, but from all around the Mediterranean basin — spanning cultures, religions, languages and nationalities, Gabriel said.
“Those dancers arrived with their own backgrounds, with their own techniques; we added another vocabulary,” Gabriel said. “We changed the choreography to let them use their own skills, and the show is very well organized, very well written — but really, we want to leave a space of freedom, of liberty, in what the dancers can do.”
Gabriel went on to explain how there are no set counts in relation to the music; rather, the dancers must pay attention and follow one another to remain synchronized throughout all the acrobatic lifts, tricks and movements required by Koubi’s choreography.
“It’s really a story of group,” Gabriel said. “Hervé said when he went to Algeria, he found his lost brothers. … So there’s a kind of spirit of group — there is no first dancer, there is no hierarchy in the show, it’s just a team.”
Combining capoeira, martial arts, gymnastics and urban-street and contemporary dance genres, the highly physical work — performed by 13 male dancers from North Africa and the Mediterranean basin — comes to Aspen on Sunday.
The performance starts at 7:30 p.m. at the Aspen District Theater. Limited tickets are still available at aspenshowtix.com.