Iffra Dia

In 1984, hip hop culture took its first steps in Europe. France was discovering hip hop on television thanks to Sidney, and breakdancing was appearing in railway stations and on wastelands in the Paris region. It was during this pivotal year that Iffra Dia, inspired by the message of hope and unity conveyed in the early days of the hip hop movement, joined Black Blanc Beur, the first professional hip hop dance company in France. Fourteen years before the France-Brazil final, he played a part in the emergence of b-boying and the building of its legitimacy on stage, while affirming a vision of dance without constraint, driven by the singularity of an evolving style and the freedom it implies.

Over the course of his encounters and performances, his approach to movement has evolved empirically, confronting jazz, standing dance and then contemporary language, to build a vocabulary and a personal vision of movement. The body’s expression becomes the medium for a quest to free itself from the uprooting imposed on it and reconnect with its immaterial heritage. The choreographer and dancer, who sees himself as a ‘ferryman of culture(s)’, takes a singular, humanist approach to dance, focusing on introspection, the moment and transmission.