LARBI
An ode to resilience
LARBI
Each spring, Introdans presents the work of a single choreographer in a special focus programme. In 2026, the spotlight is on leading choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. LARBI is an exploration of Cherkaoui’s signature as a creator — but also an ode to resilience. His virtuosic dance language, musicality, and boldness to embrace stillness are a natural fit with Introdans. His versatile and often poetic way of working resonates from Arnhem to Los Angeles. International icons like Beyoncé and Madonna have also collaborated with this Flemish-Moroccan top choreographer. The programme features the ballets In Memoriam and Fall, alongside the world premiere of the inclusive duet Residence, created especially for this programme by Cherkaoui with and for Marc Brew and Nelson Parrish Earl.
“We speak the same (dance) language. That’s the essence of our collaboration with Larbi. With ten of his choreographies in our repertoire, it’s high time to put him in the spotlight,” – says Artistic Director Roel Voorintholt.
About the choreographer
Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui is unmatched in his ability to translate powerful themes such as otherness, collectivity, the search for identity, faith, and longing into compelling stories — all expressed through a poetic and often hypnotic dance style. He weaves together a wide range of dance forms and has created works for numerous renowned dance companies and theatres around the world.
Press on LARBI
The work of Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui in the programme LARBI revolves around connection and bridging differences. – Trouw
In Larbi by Introdans, three distinct works show that a true master cannot be confined to a single box. – Theaterkrant
That Introdans can bring a deeply felt sense of calm to Larbi’s group work is proven in the intensely performed In Memoriam. Comfort and sorrow wrapped in a warmly embracing whole. – de Volkskrant
Performance period: 20 March – 4 June 2026
Tour locations: Utrecht, Enschede, Veenendaal, Rotterdam, Oss, Arnhem, Cuijk, Haarlem, Almere, Amersfoort, Amstelveen, Doetinchem, Maastricht, Leverkusen, Apeldoorn, Zwolle, Den Bosch, Tilburg, Kerkrade, Groningen, Wageningen, Winterswijk, Amsterdam.
*Live music: The singing in In Memoriam will be performed live by the renowned Corsican vocal group A Filetta (only in Utrecht).
Download here the Programme booklet LARBI
Agenda
LARBI
Scene pictures
Programme
Fall
Fall refers both to the falling and changing autumn leaves and to the ongoing struggle of the (dancer’s) body with gravity. In this piece, Cherkaoui creates featherlight duets alongside large-scale group sections. Set to meditative music by Arvo Pärt, he sculpts with the dancers as if they were clay. This choreography from the Introdans repertoire is a celebration of pure dance.
In Memoriam
This contemporary masterpiece about loss and remembrance is intense. It serves as a tribute to the choreographer’s ancestors. Rustling skirts and fast-paced video projections drive the dancers forward in this meditative performance.
Residence (world premiere)
For dancer and choreographer Marc Brew, a car accident changed his life radically in a split second. How do you continue to dance when your body is out of balance? Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui previously created the solo an Accident / a Life, in which Brew powerfully showcased his resilience in his own unique way. For the LARBI programme, Cherkaoui is creating a brand-new duet especially for Marc Brew and Nelson Parrish Earl. Residence is a co-production with Eastman and Perpodium and is made possible with the support of the Belgian Federal Government’s Tax Shelter measure.
Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui
“Every challenge of existence calls for creative thinking. That idea emerged as a common thread throughout the three very different works that Roel Voorintholt brought together for this programme. Choreographing performances has always been my way of giving shape to the world I experience and the feelings I carry. Dance gives me the opportunity to make the invisible visible, to hold up a mirror to the world and to draw everything within a fluid framework.
In Memoriam is about dealing with the people you have lost in your life; movement becomes a language for mourning, as if dance were an incantation capable of bringing a loved one back to life. Fall, created ten years later, explores how we relate to the natural elements around us: how the body bends to water, air, fire and earth, and how we constantly try to evade gravity through movement. Classical dance lines are transformed into hybrid, animalistic contemporary dance steps. Residence, which will be performed as a duet between the two existing group works, places the relationship with another person at its centre: how are you there for someone who has lost everything, how do you create new insights and perspective in a hopeless situation, how do you share space, how do you build a safe place together, a home?
The three pieces are each ten years apart, an eternity in the dance world. What the audience will see is a journey across two decades: from my first choreography for a classical ballet company to an intimate new duet for dancers Marc Brew and Nelson Parrish Earl. It is a wonderful gift, through Roel’s curation, to bring certain layers of my oeuvre to the foreground and let them speak: in this case, resilience, adaptation and reciprocity.”
LARBI teaser
Behind the scenes with LARBI
Rehearsal pictures Residence
Pictures premiere LARBI March 20th in Stadsschouwburg Utrecht
Choreographer
Credits
Fall
choreography Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui
assistant choreography Jason Kittelberger, Acacia Schachte
music Arvo Pärt Fratres (1980 Version for Violin and Piano), Orient & Occident, Fratres, Spiegel im Spiegel for Violin and Piano
set & lighting design Fabiana Piccioli, Sander Loonen
costume design Kimie Nakano
set made by original production by Grand Théâtre de Genève
costumes made by original production by Grand Théâtre de Genève, Atelier Introdans, Babette van den Berg, Merlijn Koopman
repetiteur Vérine Bouwman
duration ± 35 minutes
world premiere 22 October 2015, Ballet Vlaanderen, Gent (BE)
Introdans premiere 22 September 2023, Doetinchem
Extensive music credits: Arvo Pärt, Fratres (1980 Version for Violin and Piano)
performed by Tasmin Little
from the CD Brahms, Sibelius & Pärt, EMI Records, 2011
Arvo Pärt, Orient & Occident
performed by
Sveriges Radiokor, Sveriges Radiokorkester, Tonu Kaljuste (conductor)
from the CD Pärt: Orient & Occident, ECM Records GmbH, 2002
Arvo Pärt, Fratres
performed by Chilingirian Quartet, Winchester Cathedral Choir, David Hill (conductor)
from the CD Tavener: The Last Sleep of the Virgin & Thunder entered her, Erato/Warner Classics, Warner Music UK Ltd., 2009 Arvo Pärt, Spiegel im Spiegel for Violin and Piano
performed by Tasmin Little
from the CD Brahms, Sibelius & Pärt, EMI Records, 2011
Film Roel Voorintholt in conversation with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui
camera, editing and direction Inge Theunissen (IT Moves)
sound Egbert Holz
Residence
choreography and direction Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui
choreography and dance Marc Brew, Nelson Parrish Earl
assistant choreographer Stephan Laks
music Alexandre Dai Castaing
set design Pepijn Van Looy
costume design Veerle Van den Wouwer
lighting design Pascal Schutijser (Artfex)
video projection Maxime Guislain
technical coordinator Eastman Geoffrey Oelbrandt (Artfex)
personal assistant to Marc Brew & accessibility coordinator Mel Wilson
repetiteur Giuseppe Calabrese, Marlena Wolfe
duration ± 25 minutes
co-production Introdans, Eastman, Perpodium
made possible with the support of the Belgian Federal Government’s Tax Shelter measure and Cultuurhuis de Warande, Turnhout (BE).
in collaboration with Marc Brew Company, with the support of Creative Scotland (UK)
world premiere 20 March 2026, Utrecht
In Memoriam
choreography Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui
assistent choreography Nicolas Vladyslav, Damien Jalet
music A Filetta; performed by Jean-Claude Acquaviva, François Aragni, Jean-Dominique Bianco, Pierre-Antoine Casta, Paul Giansily, Jean-Vincent Servetto, Maxime Vuillamier; U Sipolcru, Paghjella, Sirinatu, L’Attesa, E Lode di u Sipolcru, Makharia, A Sintenza, U Lamentu di Ghesù
film Gilles Delmas
costume design Hedi Slimane
lighting design Dominique Drillot
costumes made by Atelier Introdans, Martine Douma, Merlijn Koopman
guest repetiteur Aymeric Aude, Gioia Masala
repetiteur Giuseppe Calabrese, Marlena Wolfe
duration ± 40 minutes
world premiere 26 December 2004, Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, Monaco (MC)
Introdans premiere 27 February 2010 (fragment), 26 December 2010 (duet), 30 September 2016 (full version), Arnhem