The personality, energy, and experience of your performers provides you with raw material. What led you to work with Walid Hammani?

Walid and I have known each other since we were teenagers. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone who loves dancing as much as him! When I go to events or clubs, Walid is always there, dancing for hours without stopping—even if he said he wasn’t going to dance that night! He’s a very active person and I think dance allows him to channel everything in his life.

When he was starting out, his dancing was a bit all over the place. But as he matured, he learned to listen more, to be calmer, and you could say the same has happened to his dancing. With Millepertuis, I wanted to move between those two extremes: from manic energy to calm, from the constant need to connect with others to the feeling of being left by oneself. I try to show the beauty of both ends of the spectrum. In terms of energy and emotion, the piece follows a rising and falling trajectory. There's no specific theme—instead, there's a fluctuating energy.

Walid comes from the popping scene and is recognized around the world as a master of this street dance. How did you combine his style and your influences?

Walid first did electro dance (which used to be wrongly called Tecktonik), then he did street dancing of all kinds. Popping is a dance that demands both precision and letting go. It allowed him to focus his dancing, and he became really good. He's now one of the best at this style. My work is based on structured improvisations and I'm curious about all types of street dance, so I'm eager to interact with artists who represent different vocabularies. And I've seen Walid perform a lot, so I'm very familiar with his dancing.

In a battle, it's everyone for themselves, but in general, the existence and value of dance depend on the presence of others. It's a social, communal activity. Why did you decide on a solo piece?

For several reasons. First of all, Walid is by nature a great solo performer. In my last two works, I tried to conceal the artificial elements of theatre to share an experience with the audience, but with Millepertuis, I wanted to embrace all the possibilities offered by this black box. There's a more narrative approach this time, with a character and lighting that divides up the space, creating a sense of distance. I thought that a solo piece was a good way to embrace theatricality. And I knew that Walid could stay on stage for an hour. He's a force of nature!

I have the impression that you enjoy deconstructing rhythm. You establish a tempo that directs our gaze and leads us to view things differently.

There are many people who tell me that I shouldn't work like this, but I often imagine myself in the audience and I want to keep their attention. Having danced in various contexts, I know that a performer needs a certain amount of time to reach specific states. When creating, I think about the balance between the audience's perspective and the performer's needs. I envision a vacillation between tension and resolution, ambiguity and clarity. I want to bring the audience to the edge of their seats, then let them sit back again.

Your previous works are notable for their empathy, generosity, and kindness. Does Millepertuis continue in the same vein?

When I create, the performer's experience is of vital importance for me. Because that's what affects me when I watch someone dancing. Rather than creating an image, I try to share an emotion. If that emotion is experienced for real, the audience will feel it. I like to talk about "empathetic reception." The rhythm, length of the sections, lighting, and dramaturgy are all ways of directing the audience and making the performer's experience accessible to them. My work is not provocative and I'm not trying to make people uneasy. On the contrary, I try to make them as comfortable as possible so that those watching will feel welcome. In my previous works, I tried to create warm environments with welcoming set design or by offering people tea and cookies. This time, I've tried to streamline the artificial elements in order to convey a feeling of welcome and openness through the performer alone.

You've taken part in the popular TV dance competition Révolution. For you, is there a difference between that experience, creating a show for FTA, and a breaking battle?

For me, a battle is different. It's more social than creative. I experience it with many other dancers. But surprisingly, the creative process for the 90-second dance numbers on Révolution was very similar to my process for creating a one-hour show. The context and format are different, of course, but in both cases, I try to figure out how to share my love of dance and express myself in a genuine way with a certain playfulness… I always start from the context and try to understand what it involves.

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