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Introduction—Kaleidoscopic Identity and Aesthetics

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Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui

Part of the book series: New World Choreographies ((NWC))

Abstract

This introductory chapter mobilises the multimedia art installation La Zon-Mai to foreground key biographical issues permeating Cherkaoui’s choreographic oeuvre: a postcolonial decentring of subjectivity, for example through using Verlan slang and through interrogating the notion of ‘home’. The discussion illuminates the Belgian political context of federal instability, impasse and the rise of the populist radical right around the turn of the millennium, when Cherkaoui began to create work as a young ‘allochthonous’ choreographer of Moroccan heritage in Flanders. Both Cherkaoui’s approach to identity and his choreographic aesthetic are introduced as kaleidoscopic, in the sense that these are multi-layered, never static or fixed and ever-shifting. The chapter provides an overview of Cherkaoui’s prolific career as a dancer, choreographer and director to date.

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Interview

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. London Studio Centre, London, UK

    Lise Uytterhoeven

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  1. Lise Uytterhoeven
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Correspondence to Lise Uytterhoeven .

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Uytterhoeven, L. (2019). Introduction—Kaleidoscopic Identity and Aesthetics. In: Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. New World Choreographies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27816-8_1

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