— Saïdo Lehlouh

Saido Lehlouh

— Member of the FAIR-E collective / CCN de Rennes et de Bretagne

Otherness as a Starting Point

The floor as a starting point, the danced encounter as a manifesto: a body of work entirely oriented towards presence to others.

“The necessity of reminding the other of their need for presence” lies at the heart of Saïdo Lehlouh’s work as a dancer and choreographer. Drawn to the idea of the group from the very beginning, he left his mark on the history of French b-boying in the 2000s with the Bad Trip Crew. His signature “touch” within the French breaking scene—often described as feline-like—was further explored and brought beyond the battle floor under the name “Darwin,” culminating in Wild Cat (2014). From this first choreographic solo, he developed a technical and aesthetic manifesto rooted in a singular relationship to the ground, laying the foundation for a practice oriented towards sincerity and sensitive encounters through movement.

Apaches, conceived as a spin-off of this first work, has since 2019 traced the contours of a collective performance of shifting geometry, mapping encounters between amateur and professional performers. From this guiding idea, the choreographer developed a protocol for danced encounters, which found a new, more focused form on stage in 2024 with Témoin.

With otherness at the centre of his practice, Saïdo Lehlouh co-founded the company Black Sheep with Johanna Faye and co-created Iskio (2015), Fact (2017), and Earthbound (2021). There, live music creation meets a diverse cast of performers, exploring the relationships between sound, individual rhythms, and their capacity to resonate within an ensemble. By foregrounding self-taught artists and questioning the boundaries between stage and audience, the choreographer opens up spaces that invite dialogue.

Member of the FAIR-E collective, co-director of CCN de Rennes et de Bretagne, and associate artist at Théâtre de la Ville-Paris.