Biography
Founded in 2012 by choreographers Souhail Marchiche and Mehdi Meghari, Compagnie Dyptik is based in its own creative space in Saint-Étienne, France. Marchiche and Meghari discovered hip hop separately, breaking and battling in different collectives before they teamed up. Starting in 2014, Les Studios Dyptik became a full-fledged host of artistic residencies, and the TRAX festival further affirmed the duo’s desire to foster the development of dance.
The hip hop they champion is a plural language always geared to interacting and sharing by a team or collective; and to challenging the status quo, here and elsewhere. They dance in the street and on stage; and they set up the TRAX festival to reveal young dance-makers and further enhance the cultural diversity of their own dance. They travel the world, encountering Madagascan, Malian and Palestinian dancers; and discover other hip hop concepts, again with the aim of enriching their dance. The company draws inspiration from the people it meets daily, by the exchanges it organises, and by the news stories that touch it, in order to devise moments of reflection – creative sessions where the body, the core of this introspective process, is the medium. The thread running through the company’s creative process is an interrogation of the position of the individual and the collective in the light of current events and the emotions they stir. Compagnie Dyptik produces and stages its own shows in France and beyond. In 2019, Souhail Marchiche and Mehdi Meghari were awarded the Prix SACD for New Choreographic Talent.