Compagnie Hervé KOUBI
in Boys don’t cry

by Chantal Thomas e Hervé Koubi

Choreography Hervé Koubi e Fayçal Hamlat

Dancers Houssni Mijem, El Houssaini Zahid, Nadjib Meherhera, Mohammed Elhilali, Bendehiba Maamar, Badr Benrguibi, Oualid Guennoun

Music by Diana Ross, Oum, canti tradizionali russi

Musical creation Stéphane Fromentin

Arrangements Guillaume Gabriel

Lighting designer Lionel Buzonie

Costumes Guillaume Gabriel  

Based on a work by French writer Chantal Thomas around an unlikely football match – “playing” and “dancing” field – Boys don’t cry, a 2018 creation by Hervé Koubi for seven dancers, is a reflection on the construction of identity in a ‘closed’ society, through moments of spoken text combined with the company’s characteristic style, between hip-hop and contemporary fluidity. What it means to choose to become a dancer when you are a boy, especially when you come from countries where gender difference still weighs heavily on individual destinies. The work plays on the cliché of the young man who prefers dance to typically ‘masculine’ sports and the tension this choice can cause with family and society. Only by embracing the transcendent joy of dance will this group of young men be able to break free from the toxic masculinity to which the dominant culture of their society would have them destined.