Sidi Larbi dazzled audiences at TANEC PRAHA with the performance of Sutra featuring Shaolin monks (2011). That was when he first met Václav Kuneš. Six years later, the unbelievable has happened and the dancers of 420PEOPLE will stand on stage alongside the dancers of Eastman in an entirely new work that Larbi has created for the occasion.

The creative range of one of the most outstanding talents on the contemporary dance scene is truly extraordinary. Besides Buddhism his works are inspired by flamenco, Indian dance or Michael Jackson to whom he paid tribute in collaboration with Cirque du Soleil. He has also worked in film (Anna Karenina), theatre and the visual arts. Now he is collaborating for the first time with a top Czech company.



The project is co-produced by 420PEOPLE, Eastman, TANEC PRAHA festival and Jatka78, with support of the Foundation BNP Paribas, the City of Prague, the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, the State Fund for Culture, the Flemish Representation in the Czech Republic and the National Theatre in Prague.



Eastman/Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui: FAUN

Afternoon of a Faun (1912) is probably the most famous work of Vaslav Nijinsky, along with the historic premiere of The Rite of Spring (1913). This year the TANEC PRAHA Festival presents both titles in a completely original concept. Sidi Larbi chose Faun to mark the 100th anniversary of the Ballets Russes, and the phenomenal male dancer is also joined by an ethereal Nymph.

Larbi's Faun is contemporary, lively, carefree, half animal and half human. Debussy's music remains an inspiration for contemporary composers, who give it another dimension. A complex work, whose protagonists become as much eternal archetypes as creatures of the present.