Mohamed Toukabri
Mohamed Toukabri was born in Tunis and began dancing at the age of 12, starting with breakdance. He joined the Sybel Ballet Theatre (TN), directed by Syheme Belkhodja (2002–2008). At the age of 16, Mohamed trained in Paris at the International Dance Academy. In 2007, he returned to Tunis to study at the Mediterranean Centre of Contemporary Dance. Between 2006 and 2008, he worked with choreographer Imed Jemaa on five productions.
In 2008, he began his studies at P.A.R.T.S. in Brussels, the dance school directed by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker. During his studies, he took part in Babel by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet for the Eastman Company (BE) (2010). Mohamed was a member of Needcompany, the international Brussels-based company founded by Jan Lauwers and Grace Ellen Barkey (2013–2018). He also participated in the revival of Zeitung by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker (2012) and in Sacré Printemps! by Aicha M’Barak and Hafiz Dhaou (Chatha Company (TN)) (2014).
Mohamed recently worked on the revival of the opera Shell Shock, A Requiem of War with choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, composer Nicholas Lens, and writer Nick Cave for the centenary of the First World War at the Philharmonie de Paris (2018). He also takes part in Larbi’s new creations: Nomad (2018) and the opera Alceste (choreographed for the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, 2019).
His first original work, The Upside Down Man (le fils de la route), premiered at the festival Me, Myself & I in Hellerau, Dresden, in May 2018. The piece is currently touring in Belgium, the United Kingdom, France (Lille), Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, and Austria. It was selected for Het Theaterfestival in the #NewYoung category (September 2019). Mohamed is currently working on a new production, The Power (of) The Fragile, a duet with his mother.
