{"id":115094,"date":"2025-06-11T14:39:20","date_gmt":"2025-06-11T18:39:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=115094"},"modified":"2025-06-11T14:39:20","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T18:39:20","slug":"interview-luminato-2025-compagnie-herve-koubi-co-founder-guillaume-gabriel-talks-day-owes-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2025\/06\/11\/interview-luminato-2025-compagnie-herve-koubi-co-founder-guillaume-gabriel-talks-day-owes-night\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW |  Luminato 2025: Compagnie Herv\u00e9 KOUBI Co-Founder Guillaume Gabriel Talks About What The Day Owes To The Night"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_115096\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-115096\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-115096\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/Copy-of-INTERVIEW-13.jpg\" alt=\"Compagnie Herv\u00e9 KOUBI perform What the Day Owes to the Night (Photo: Didier Philispart)\" width=\"1200\" height=\"628\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/Copy-of-INTERVIEW-13.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/Copy-of-INTERVIEW-13-300x157.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/Copy-of-INTERVIEW-13-1024x536.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/Copy-of-INTERVIEW-13-768x402.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-115096\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Compagnie Herv\u00e9 KOUBI perform What the Day Owes to the Night\/Ce que le jour doit \u00e0 la nuit (Photo: Didier Philispart)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Capoeira, martial arts, street dance, and contemporary movement come together in Herv\u00e9 Koubi\u2019s dance work, What the Day Owes to the Night, part of Luminato Toronto festival. Presented in partnership with TO Live and Fall For Dance North, performances take the stage at the Bluma Appel Theatre from June 19 to 21.<\/p>\n<p>In What the Day Owes to the Night, 12 male dancers create a moving dynamic that swings from raw athleticism to delicacy and grace, using music that ranges from Bach to Sufi and traditional Algerian works. The dance itself blends Eastern and Western cultures and idioms, drawn from the diverse peoples who populate the Mediterranean region.<\/p>\n<p>Choreographer Herv\u00e9 Koubi grew up in France unaware of his Algerian heritage. The journey of that revelation led to the creation of his dance company, and of this piece.<\/p>\n<p>LvT spoke to Guillaume Gabriel, who is the co-founder of Compagnie Herv\u00e9 KOUBI, about Herv\u00e9 Koubi, and What the Day Owes to the Night.<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xb5Lk_hgM-c?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<h2>Guillaume Gabriel, Co-founder of Compagnie Herv\u00e9 KOUBI: The Interview<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cWe were friends, and I was finishing my PhD in business,\u201d recalls Guillaume Gabriel.<\/p>\n<p>Herv\u00e9 Koubi was also a student at the time, but he wasn\u2019t studying dance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe is also a PhD in pharmacy,\u201d Gabriel says.<\/p>\n<p>Still, both were interested in dance, and began to perform without any plans to make it a profession.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the beginning, it was a small project with seven dancers, but grew quickly,\u201d Guillaume says. By the time they staged their first project, the company had already grown. \u201cWe were 11 dancers and four musicians.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gabriel also danced at the time. \u201cI was inside and outside,\u201d he says. \u201cI worked in the pieces for ten years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After a decade of dancing, Gabriel switched from an onstage to a backstage role, working to help produce the works that Koubi was creating.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI could say we created everything with our little hands,\u201d he says, noting that they weren\u2019t governed by any rules related to funders or the French state, for example. It also meant working without those funds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was maybe crazy,\u201d he laughs. \u201cWe created the company.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The leap from amateur to professional is always at least a little painful. \u201cThe only possibility we had at the time with him was entering some competitions,\u201d Guillaume says. Koubi\u2019s wins gained some momentum. \u201cThen we decided to jump [from amateur to professional],\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_115097\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-115097\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-115097\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/Cequelejourdoita-lanuit-Cre-ditphotoNathalieSTERNALSKI9-1920w.jpg\" alt=\"Compagnie Herv\u00e9 KOUBI perform What the Day Owes to the Night\/Ce que le jour doit \u00e0 la nuit (Photo: Nathalie Sternalski)\" width=\"1200\" height=\"798\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/Cequelejourdoita-lanuit-Cre-ditphotoNathalieSTERNALSKI9-1920w.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/Cequelejourdoita-lanuit-Cre-ditphotoNathalieSTERNALSKI9-1920w-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/Cequelejourdoita-lanuit-Cre-ditphotoNathalieSTERNALSKI9-1920w-1024x681.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/Cequelejourdoita-lanuit-Cre-ditphotoNathalieSTERNALSKI9-1920w-768x511.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-115097\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Compagnie Herv\u00e9 KOUBI perform What the Day Owes to the Night\/Ce que le jour doit \u00e0 la nuit (Photo: Nathalie Sternalski)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3>The Dance: Appreciation<\/h3>\n<p>Gabriel notes that people love Koubi\u2019s work in What The Day Owes To The Night, but often find it difficult to describe. But \u2014 that\u2019s not really the point.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople think you need keys, you need a code to understand,\u201d Gabriel says. It\u2019s more about what feeling, however. \u201cI remember one performance touched me deeply, and I said, okay, this is what I want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A dance performance gives the audience the opportunity to feel, rather than to think.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDon&#8217;t really try to understand or know what the choreograph wants, because nobody knows. Only he knows what he wants,\u201d he laughs.<\/p>\n<p>Whatever connection the audience makes with the movement and dancers is a valid one. \u201cIt depends on you also.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>What the Day Owes to the Night<\/h3>\n<p>What the Day Owes to the Night is characterized by its energy. \u201cHerv\u00e9 had this will to create this physicality since he created this company.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After Herv\u00e9, who was born and grew up in Cannes, France, finally found out about his Algerian heritage, he undertook a journey of discovery to Algeria to trace his roots. There, he met a group of street dancers who inspired him with moves that ranged from martial arts to hip-hop.<\/p>\n<p>The inspiration comes equally from sources like yoga dances and Capoeira, the Afro-Brazilian martial art and game, as from the contemporary dance principles that Koubi also studied. Finding the street dancers in Algeria was like finding the missing pieces to his vision.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe finally met the dancers he wanted [to work with],\u201d Gabriel says. \u201cIt was what the youth in Algeria wanted to say. What they wanted to give. To be a dancer in Algeria was something very difficult,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can only train at night, when the police leave you alone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Those were the conditions that Koubi found during his first trip there in 2010.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor them, the possibility that they had to work with a French choreographer was also a possibility for them to change their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s that joy and sense of possibility that fuels their movements. \u201cThe body had to go beyond their limits,\u201d Gabriel says. \u201cThe work that Herv\u00e9 did with them, is to give them some contemporary qualities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He worked with them to shape raw athleticism into interpretation, taking the full on assault of street dance to fashion works with an ebb and flow of energy and passion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo put aside, for a while, all the things they used to develop in hip hop battles, for example,\u201d he explains. It\u2019s virtuosity for its own sake vs. virtuosity with expression.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe challenge was to unroll a kind of thread for one hour.\u201d It also meant creating connections between the dancers, as well as the audience.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_115098\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-115098\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-115098\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/Cequelejourdoita-lanuit-Cre-ditPhotoNathalieSTERNALSKI10-1920w.jpg\" alt=\"Compagnie Herv\u00e9 KOUBI perform What the Day Owes to the Night\/Ce que le jour doit \u00e0 la nuit (Photo: Nathalie Sternalski)\" width=\"1200\" height=\"798\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/Cequelejourdoita-lanuit-Cre-ditPhotoNathalieSTERNALSKI10-1920w.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/Cequelejourdoita-lanuit-Cre-ditPhotoNathalieSTERNALSKI10-1920w-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/Cequelejourdoita-lanuit-Cre-ditPhotoNathalieSTERNALSKI10-1920w-1024x681.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/Cequelejourdoita-lanuit-Cre-ditPhotoNathalieSTERNALSKI10-1920w-768x511.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-115098\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Compagnie Herv\u00e9 KOUBI perform What the Day Owes to the Night\/Ce que le jour doit \u00e0 la nuit (Photo: Nathalie Sternalski)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3>Dance: Fusion<\/h3>\n<p>Gabriel points out that the dance is a kind of fusion of cultures from both sides of the Mediterranean. The first part of the dance refers to North African traditions, leading into a more complex mix that includes different styles of music.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe actuality wants to divide us,\u201d he says, \u201cbut when you realize the geography, the Mediterranean is just like a lake.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The history of the region, in fact, is a history of people crossing that body of water, mixing and mingling.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe all have the same roots. We are standing on these global roots.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s where the title of the work takes its inspiration.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s, in a way, what the North owes the South,\u201d he says. \u201cWhat love owes to war, what the Occident owes to the Orient. Nothing is white, nothing is black. It&#8217;s a mix. It&#8217;s a kind of travel.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s also where Koubi\u2019s story intersects with the dance. His parents were born in Algeria, a former French colony. But, Herv\u00e9 does not look Algerian, and his name is French rather than North African. It\u2019s a search for identity through dance.<\/p>\n<p>When Herv\u00e9 was in his mid-20s, he grew curious about his background, and relatives he\u2019d never heard of. After asking his father several times, he was finally shown a photo of his great-great-grandfather, who spoke only Arabic, in a traditional Arabic dress.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat was his history,\u201d Gabriel says. \u201cIt was a shock.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That was the catalyst for both the trip and, eventually, the dance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat the Day Owes to the Night is in a way to put to life all the dreams he had of North Africa,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n<p>Koubi was struck by the strong sense of brotherhood he found, and how drastically differently the sense of touch is treated in North Africa as opposed to Western Europe. \u201cIt&#8217;s all these things that he wanted to put into the show.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He was also inspired by the experiences of painters in the so-called Oriental style, such as Eug\u00e8ne Delacroix (1798 to 1863), who painted scenes from Algeria both before and after he\u2019d actually travelled there. His paintings were fuelled by his dreams of the region first. \u201cThe style changed a lot,\u201d he points out, \u201cbefore you know, and after you see.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s another aspect of the dance, which blends realism with idealism.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou could also call it, what imagination owes to reality.\u201d<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Find performance details and tickets to What the Day Owes to the Night [<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.luminatofestival.com\/what-the-day-owes-to-the-night\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">HERE<\/a><\/strong>].<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><em>Are you looking to promote an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/advertising\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #0e101a;\"><u>event<\/u><\/span><\/a>? Have a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/masthead\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><u>news tip<\/u><\/a>? 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