Compagnie Black Blanc Beur

Today, the contemporary hip hop mix surprises no-one and even barely deserves special mention in programmes. We’re no longer surprised to see break dance at the Avignon Festival, at the Maison de la Danse de Lyon or at most national venues. What we don’t know, is that probably none of this would have happened without the Black Blanc Beur company. An historic company in France, ever since their first production (dantesque, with forty dancers!) on the car park of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines in 1984, Black Blanc Beur, directed by Christine Coudun and Jean Djemad, has always been a trendsetter. The company was thus the first to invite choreographers of other disciplines to create for it, the first to order original musical creations without rap being obligatory, the first to try out multi-cultural mixes and to open hip hop out to other influences and, above all, the first to demand an art scene for this new form of dance.